<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="" style="font-size: 15px;"><b class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">PhD position in Cognitive Neuroscience </span></b><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Department:</span></i><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Department of Psychology at the University of Zurich (Switzerland), Methods of Plasticity Research (</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><a href="http://www.psychology.uzh.ch/en/chairs/plafor.html" class=""><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">http://www.psychology.uzh.ch/en/chairs/plafor.html</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">)</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Position:</span></i><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">PhD student (salary 54’000 USD/year)</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Description of UZH unit:</span></i><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Our lab develops novel methodological approaches to study variations in cognitive performance across the lifespan and along the continuum from healthy to pathological functioning. Specifically, we investigate the potential for plasticity, mechanisms for stabilization and compensation across the lifespan. For this, we acquire and analyze multimodal data sets, such as structural MRI, diffusion weighted data (DWI), simultaneous EEG and eye-tracking as well as behavioral data. From these rich data sets, we extract multivariate parameters and apply state-of-the-art methods, such as machine learning, functional network modelling, and longitudinal analyses. </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Responsibilities:</span></i><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-top: 0.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The successful candidate will work on the Synapsis-foundation funded research project “<b class=""><u class="">Real-life activity tracking as pre-screening tool for early stages of Alzheimer disease</u>”. </b>The aim of the project is to investigate whether real-life activity measures, derived from </span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;">wearable technology</span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> (e.g. GPS and accelerometer data), are sensitive to identify early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Further, we aim to provide evidence that these real-life activity measures are associated with current AD biomarkers (i.e. high Amyloid level and brain atrophy).</span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div class="" style="margin-top: 0.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The student will be expected to disseminate study results in peer reviewed journals, and to supervise Master’s students. The candidate will work in the team of Prof. Nicolas Langer, who is also part of the Neuroscience Center Zurich (ZNZ) (</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><a href="https://www.neuroscience.uzh.ch/en.html" class=""><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">https://www.neuroscience.uzh.ch/en.html</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">), which offers a renowned international PhD programme in Neuroscience. The candidate will work closely with the Institute for Regenerative Medicine (</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><a href="https://www.irem.uzh.ch/en.html" class=""><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">https://www.irem.uzh.ch/en.html</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">), Geographic Information Systems (</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><a href="https://www.geo.uzh.ch/en/units/gis.html" class=""><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">https://www.geo.uzh.ch/en/units/gis.html</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">), University Research Priority Programme from the University of Zurich “Dynamics of Healthy Aging” (</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><a href="https://www.dynage.uzh.ch/en.html" class=""><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">https://www.dynage.uzh.ch/en.html</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">), and the Department of Computer Science at the ETH Zurich (</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><a href="https://www.systems.ethz.ch/" class=""><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">https://www.systems.ethz.ch/</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">).</span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Workload %:</span></i><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">80 - 100%</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Qualifications:</span></i><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">MSc degree in a field related to cognitive neuroscience (e.g., cognitive neuroscience, (neuro-)psychology, computer science, biomedical or electrical engineering)</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Deep knowledge in data science (time-series data processing, feature engineering and analysis)</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Proficiency in programming (in Python, Matlab or R) is a must </span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Knowledge in mobile and wearable digital technologies is desirable</span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Experience with amyloid PET imaging and/or structural MRI analyses are a plus</span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Training in machine learning is a plus</span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Excellent verbal and written English skills</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Language requirements:</span></i><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">English</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We offer:</span></i><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 71.4pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">To work in a team of highly motivated young researchers who are passionate about neuroscience, psychology and computer science</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 71.4pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">A very competitive salary (54’000 USD/year) and generous social benefits</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 71.4pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Employment 3 years with the possibility of extension</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 71.4pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Generous support for professional travel and research needs (~3’000 USD/year)</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 71.4pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">An inspiring work environment within the Department of Psychology and the University of Zurich and part of the Neuroscience Center Zurich (ZNZ) with many high-caliber collaborations (Department of Computer Science (ETH Zurich; Ce Zhang), Institute for Regenerative Medicine (UZH; Prof. Christoph Hock), Geographic Information Systems (UZH; Prof. Robert Weibel) </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 71.4pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The opportunity to live in Zurich, one of the world’s most attractive cities</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Please visit</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><a href="https://www.pa.uzh.ch/en/Willkommen-an-der-UZH.html" class=""><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);"> https://www.pa.uzh.ch/en/Willkommen-an-der-UZH.html</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> for further information.</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">This position opens on:</span></i><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">1.6.2022 (starting date)</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">More information:</span></i><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Prof. Nicolas Langer, </span><u class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);"><a href="mailto:n.langer@psychologie.uzh.ch" class="">n.langer@psychologie.uzh.ch</a></span></u><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><h3 class="" style="margin: 14pt 0cm 4pt; text-align: justify;"><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 13pt;">Application</span></i><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></h3><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">To be considered please stick to the following application format:</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 71.4pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">CV including publication list and contact details of two referees (max. 3 pages)</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 71.4pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Statement describing motivations, personal qualifications and research interests (max. 2 pages)</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 71.4pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Save application in one single pdf file with the file name “Methlab_[SURNAME]_[name].pdf”</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-left: 71.4pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Send application by email to</span><span lang="EN-US" class="">: <a href="file:///Users/nickilanger/Dropbox/AA_UZH_ADMIN/wichtige_dokumente%20&%20HR/Ausschreibung_PostDoc/n.langer@psychologie.uzh.ch" class=""><span class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">n.langer@psychologie.uzh.ch</span></a><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Applications will be considered until the position is filled (ideally submit your application before 31<sup class="">st</sup> of March 2022).</span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="text-align: justify;"><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Description of the Project:</span></i><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></p><p class=""><b class=""><u class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Real-life activity tracking as pre-screening tool for early stages of Alzheimer disease</span></u></b><b class=""><u class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""></o:p></span></u></b></p><p class="" style="margin-top: 0.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Alzheimer's disease (AD) accounts for the majority of all dementia cases and represents a major and rapidly growing burden to the healthcare and economical systems. The current state of research indicates that therapies need to be administered as early as possible. Therefore, there is an urgent need for accelerating biomarker discovery for early stages of AD. Importantly, evidences suggest that neurodegenerative changes precede clinical manifestations of AD by 20-30 years. However, prevailing potential biomarkers for early stages of AD diagnosis, including genetic testing, molecular examination of CSF, structural MRI and PET imaging, are highly limited as they can only be applied to relatively small sample sizes due to their excessive costs and invasive nature. This prevents their usage in large epidemiological studies; yet such study designs are imperative for identifying the intra-individual progression from healthy ageing to AD. Thus, novel non-invasive and inexpensive biomarkers are urgently required to be administered at large scale with the aim to identify individuals with indications for early stages of AD. These identified subjects could then be referred to undergo more cost-intensive examinations with the currently available biomarker techniques to achieve the desired diagnostic accuracy. Mobile and wearable digital technologies have an unprecedented potential and could close this current gap as they permit abundant, continuous longitudinal data acquisition at low costs to investigate intra-individual changes as early markers of AD. In this project, we will investigate whether activity measures, derived from GPS and accelerometer data, are sensitive to identify early stages of AD (i.e. mild neurocognitive disorder due to AD). Further, we aim to provide evidence that real-life activity measures are associated with current AD biomarkers (i.e. high Amyloid level and brain atrophy). Because our long-term vision is to develop a smartphone application that is able to identify intra-individual trajectories in healthy adults to establish the transition point to mild neurocognitive disorder due to AD as early as possible, we will examine the sensitivity of the real-life activity measures for intra-individual changes. Therefore, the present proposal serves as a proof-of-concept to address the prerequisites for real-life activity tracking as a pre-screening assessment tool to identify potential mild neurocognitive disorder patients. </span><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-top: 0.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" class="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br class=""></span></p><div class=""><div dir="auto" class="" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"></div></div><div class="">
<div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div>Nicolas Langer<br class="">Professor of Methods of Plasticity Research<br class="">University of Zurich<br class="">Andreasstrasse 15 (Office AND.4.56)<br class="">8050, Zurich, Switzerland<br class=""><a href="mailto:n.langer@psychologie.uzh.ch" class="">n.langer@psychologie.uzh.ch</a><br class="">phone: (+41) 44 635 34 14<br class="">http://www.psychology.uzh.ch/en/areas/nec/plafor.html</div></div>
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