Neuroscience Post-doctoral position 2013 at Italy

The Department of Neuroscience at the University of Parma ( dir Prof. Giuseppe Luppino) is one of the leading centers in the study of the cognitive functions of the motor system, including the discovery of the so-called “mirror neurons” for action understanding. Since a few years the Dept. Neuroscience houses the Brain Center for Social and Motor Cognition, a local center of the IIT (dir Prof. Giacomo Rizzolatti), focusing on the technological aspects of brain electrophysiology. Recently Prof. Guy Orban joined the department as invited professor, strengthening its visual interests.
Following recent awards from the several EU granting bodies (ERC and FET) to Prof Orban we are expanding our research activities into the function of the human parietal lobe, its role in action observation, and its relationship to visual and prefrontal regions. Our experiments investigate behavioral and brain processes for action observation, as well observation of a wide range of biological actions as actions using tools or other artificial implements. We use fMRI as well as intracerebral recordings. The candidates should have strong computational or modeling background to drive advanced analysis techniques such as decoding, multivariate statistical analyses, multi -frequency band coherence and correlation analysis. In addition they should have published experience and own original ideas. Excellent social, computer and writing skills are required.
Position 1:Psychophysics and neuroscience of action observation. The aim of this post doc is 1) to assemble a large library of action videos, as well biological actions as actions using tools and other artificial implements, 2) develop behavioral tasks ( discrimination, classification, task switching) with these stimuli and their modifications ( morphing); 3) perform psychophysics with these tasks, and 4) model the results in order to constrain fMRI or intracerebral recordings. Experience in psychophysics, quantitative analysis of behavior or computational neuroscience or modeling (eg drift diffusion modeling) would be particularly appreciated

Closing date: 2013-06-25

Contact Information
Prof Guy A Orban
University of Parma
Dept Neuroscience
via Volturno 39
43125 Parma
Italy
Phone:     +39 0521 033862
Fax:    
E-mail:     guy.orban@med.kuleuven.be