Postdoc Position: Affective Neuroscience and Computational Psychiatry Donders Centre

Postdoc Position:
Affective Neuroscience and Computational Psychiatry at the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging

Radboud University is a denominational university originally established in 1923 as the Catholic University of Nijmegen.

Organizational unit Faculty of Social Sciences

A driven postdoctoral researcher in neurocomputational models of adaptive learning is welcome to join our ERC-funded project. Together we investigate how people make approach–avoidance decisions under threat within a dynamic, interdisciplinary team.

We seek a motivated postdoctoral researcher with expertise in neurocomputational models of adaptive learning. You will be funded by an ERC Advanced Grant entitled ’HEART2

ADAPT:
Autonomic balance for adaptive decision making’. Together with a team of postdoctoral researchers and PhD candidates we will investigate how people make approach-avoidance decisions under states of threat.

Why do some people stay calm and make flexible decisions under pressure, while others freeze or flee? 'HEART2

ADAPT' is on a mission to find out. We are building a new model to understand how the body’s autonomic stress state shapes the way we respond to danger - and how this balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic activity guides adaptation in ever-changing environments.

Using cutting-edge tools to track brain and body activity in real time - think heart rate, posture and advanced neuroimaging - we will explore how stress affects decision-making. We will also test causal mechanisms through pharmacological interventions and transcranial ultrasound stimulation.

Funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant, HEART2

ADAPT offers the appointed candidate opportunities to contribute to task development and modelling of behavioural and neural data. Subsequent phases will investigate alterations in anxiety patients and apply interventions to probe underlying mechanisms.

You will collaborate closely with colleagues at the Donders Institute and the Behavioural Science Institute as well as international partners. Responsibilities may also include management, mentoring (PhD, MSc, and BSc students), and teaching-related tasks.

• You have a PhD in a relevant field (e.g. cognitive or affective neuroscience, computational psychiatry; human decision sciences).
• You have a demonstrable interest and experience in probabilistic and/or other modelling approaches to decision making.
• You have proven expertise in neuroimaging techniques (preferably MEG and/or fMRI).
• You have an interest in psycho-physiological threat states and autonomic changes in anxiety patients.
• You have good social, communication and organisational skills.
• You are a team player.

Experience in human psychophysiology would be useful, and experience supervising students at various levels would be advantageous.

• We will give you a temporary employment contract of four years.
• Your salary within salary scale 11 depends on your previous education and number of years of (relevant) work experience. If your dissertation has not yet been approved by the dissertation committee at the time of appointment, you will initially be placed in salary scale 10.4. Once your dissertation has been approved, you will be placed in salary scale 11. The amounts in the scale are based on a 38-hour working week.
• You will receive an 8% holiday allowance and an 8,3% end-of-year bonus.
• You will receive extra days off. With full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the statutory 20.

Work and science require good employment practices. Radboud University's primary and secondary employment conditions reflect this. You can make arrangements for the best possible work-life balance with flexible working hours, various leave arrangements and working from home. You are also able to compose part of your employment conditions yourself. For example, exchange income for extra leave days and receive a reimbursement for your sports membership.

In addition, you receive a 34% discount on the sports and cultural activities at Radboud University as an employee. And, of course, we…