<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><b style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">PhD Project: Brain Complexity and Consciousness</b><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><font color="#000000"><b>Application Deadline: Feb 23, 2018</b><br><br></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><font color="#000000">Applications are invited for a PhD studentship to work with<span> </span><a href="https://www.braincomplexity.com/" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">Dr. Chen Song</a><span> </span>and<span> </span><a href="http://psych.cf.ac.uk/contactsandpeople/jonesd27.php" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">Prof. Derek Jones</a><span> </span>at Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), one of Europe’s largest brain research centres, in collaboration with<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraint_Rees" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">Prof. Geraint Rees</a><span> </span>at University College London and<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giulio_Tononi" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">Prof. Giulio Tononi</a><span> </span>at University of Wisconsin-Madison. This PhD studentship offers an excellent opportunity for candidates interested in the broad area of brain imaging, neuroscience, and/or consciousness research, to conduct research on the following topics:<br></font></p><ul style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><li><font color="#000000"><b>Brain complexity</b><span> </span>- how different brain regions differ structurally, how their structural differences underpin their functional differences, whether the empirically-observed function of a brain region is what the structure of this brain region is theoretically optimal for;<br></font></li><li><font color="#000000"><b>Mapping between brain complexity and consciousness</b><span> </span>- how different individuals differ in their brain structure, how the inter-individual differences in brain structure affect brain function, and lead to inter-individual differences in perception and cognition;<br></font></li><li><font color="#000000"><b>Brain plasticity</b><span> </span>- how learning and sleep interact to change brain structure and function, whether different mechanisms of brain plasticity may be at play during wake versus sleep, and whether the contrast between the two may hold key to our intelligence and consciousness.<br></font></li></ul><p style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px">See some of our recent work on these topics at:</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px"> </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.2706" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204);font-size:12.8px">Schwarzkopf et al. Nature Neuroscience 2010</a><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px">;</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px"> </span><a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/content/31/26/9472.long" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204);font-size:12.8px">Song et al. Journal of Neuroscience 2011</a><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px">;</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px"> </span><a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/48/18781.long" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204);font-size:12.8px">Song et al. Journal of Neuroscience 2013</a><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px">;</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px"> </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3201" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204);font-size:12.8px">Song et al. Nature Communications 2013</a><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px">;</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px"> </span><a href="http://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(13)01186-0" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204);font-size:12.8px">Tononi et al. Neuron 2014</a><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px">;</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px"> </span><a href="http://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(14)01150-7" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204);font-size:12.8px">Song et al. Neuron 2015</a><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px">;</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px"> </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn.2016.44" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204);font-size:12.8px">Tononi et al. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2016</a><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px">;</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px"> </span><a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/content/37/37/8929.long" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204);font-size:12.8px">Song et al. Journal of Neuroscience 2017</a><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px">; or a summary at:</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px"> </span><a href="http://www.braincomplexity.com/research" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204);font-size:12.8px">http://www.braincomplexity<wbr>.com/research</a><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12.8px">.</span><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><font color="#000000" style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12.8px"><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><span style="font-weight:400"><font color="#000000" style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12.8px">The successful applicant </span></font>will be able to use the<span> </span></span><b>£44M cutting-edge brain imaging facilities at CUBRIC</b><span> </span>to acquire multi-modal brain measures (structural, metabolic, electrical, chemical), and link the empirical data to theories on brain complexity and consciousness (integrated information theory), sleep and cognition (synaptic homeostasis hypothesis). As <span style="font-weight:400;color:rgb(0,0,0)">one of Europe’s largest brain research centres, </span>CUBRIC hosts:<br></p><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><div style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><ul><span class="gmail-m_-3950635862638213258gmail-m_5027707283107368265gmail-im"><font color="#000000"><li style="margin-left:15px">one of the only three Connectom MRI scanners in the world, specially designed for measuring brain microstructure and connectomics;<br></li><li style="margin-left:15px">one 7T MRI scanner, two 3T MRI scanners, one MEG scanner, three EEG labs, five TMS labs;<br></li></font></span><li style="margin-left:15px"><font color="#000000">six sleep study bedrooms built to clinical standard.</font></li></ul></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><div><div><font color="#000000">The studentship is open to UK/EU/international students; it covers the full tuition fee (at UK/EU level) and an annual stipend of £14,553. Please contact Dr. Chen Song at<span> </span><a href="mailto:SongC5@cardiff.ac.uk" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">SongC5@cardiff.ac.uk</a><span> </span>for any enquiries, or see application details at<span> </span><a href="http://psych.cf.ac.uk/degreeprogrammes/postgraduate/research/docs/school_song.pdf" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">http://psych.cf.ac.uk/degre<wbr>eprogrammes/postgraduate/resea<wbr>rch/docs/school_song.pdf</a>.</font></div></div></div></div></div></div>