[visionlist] Postdoctoral position in the neuroscience of social and affective perception using direct neural recordings in humans

[Ghuman, Avniel]

If anyone is interested in the postdoctoral position described below, I would be happy to talk at VSS if anyone wants to chat.



Postdoctoral Position, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Applications are invited for an NIH funded postdoctoral position using intracranial recordings in humans to study the neural basis of natural social and affective perception, at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. This ambitious involves using direct recordings from the human brain to understand the neural basis of social perception during natural interactions.

The research will focus on understanding the dynamic neural code that underlies the recognition of facial expressions and other social and affective stimuli. Of particular interest is how this information is coded in interactive neural circuits at the level of large-scale brain networks during natural social interactions. The neural data will primarily be local field potentials/ event related potential from intracranial surface electrodes (electrocorticography, ECoG), cortical depth electrodes, and subcortical depth electrodes in humans. Multivariate techniques and advanced signal processing will be applied to the millisecond-scale activity recorded simultaneously from multiple electrodes in areas related to social processing during natural social and affective perception. There is also the potential for studies involving direct cortical stimulation to assess how neural modulation alters perception.

The ideal applicant would hold a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, Psychology, or a related field.  Extensive knowledge of the neuroscience of social and affective perception and strong technical, computational, and statistical skills are required. Experience with electrophysiological data is desirable (human or non-human; invasive or non-invasive) as is skills and knowledge with multivariate machine learning analyses and eye tracking, but not a requirement if the intellectual fit is otherwise good. Applicants should have a strong track record of publication.

Pittsburgh is consistently ranked the most livable city in America. The neuroscientific community here is both very strong and collaborative. This project involves collaborations with Carnegie Mellon University and particularly the statistics department and experts in the computer vision analysis of social interactions and social perception.

Interested applicants should send a letter of interest, a CV, and the names and contact information for 3 researchers who can provide a recommendation. For further information or to submit an application, please contact Avniel Ghuman, Ph.D. at ghumana at upmc.edu . More information about our research can be found at http://www.lcnd.pitt.edu/index.html .