Posted on : Monday 22 February 2016

Job title : 2016-02-22 Research fellow in theoretical/computational neuroscience

Organization : Grenoble Institute of Neuroscience, Inserm – UGA
Brain Stimulation & Systems Neuroscience, Dir: O. David

Host research group:
The main goal of the host research group (Brain Stimulation & Systems Neuroscience, PI: Olivier David) is to study large-scale brain networks in order to develop new applications of brain stimulation in the field of psychiatry, movement disorders and epilepsy using a translational approach based on clinical and preclinical research. Very close interactions between experimentalists, methodologists and
clinicians, offer an optimal environment to develop skills of young neuroscientists.

Mission : Open position: Research fellow in theoretical/computational neuroscience
Project title: Function brain tractography (F-TRACT)
Funding body: European Research Council (ERC)
Host institution: Inserm
Contract duration: 1 year, renewable
Starting date: As soon as possible. Applications will be considered until the position is filled.

Job description:
The successful candidate will have to develop the theoretical part of the F-TRACT project, which mainly aims at developing large-scale hierarchal brain model(s) using new information produced by the F-TRACT atlas. The model(s) developed will need to be directly connected to the F-TRACT data.

Project scientific summary:
In patients suffering from focal drug-resistant epilepsy who are explored using intracranial electrodes, single-pulse direct electrical stimulation of a cortical region induces electrophysiological responses in many of the implanted electrodes. The presence, latency and morphological characteristics of these cortico-cortical induced potentials can be used to infer functional and anatomical brain connectivity.
Intracerebral electrodes record from a small fraction of the volume of the brain in a single individual, allowing studying only a small fraction of the possible brain connections.
In F-TRACT, we develop methods to analyse those responses in order to create a new probabilistic atlas of electrophysiological functional tractography of the human brain, which will be made freely available to the clinical and neuroscience community. Several thousand stimulation runs performed in several hundred patients will be included in the atlas database to reach a nearly full coverage of the
human cortex. Neuroanatomical data (MRI, CT), electrophysiological data (intracranial EEG) and clinical data (e.g. epilepsy type, age at surgery, anatomical lesion, epileptogenic region) are confidentially gathered by the F-TRACT project from epilepsy surgery centres worldwide.
This new atlas of functional tractography will be very useful to understand how the brain works and to develop neurocomputational models at a large scale. It will also allow the development of new clinical tools for the presurgical evaluation of intractable epilepsy.

Locality : Grenoble, France

Remuneration : From 2051 €/month up to 3046 €/month, according to experience

Degrees required :

Skills required : Computer science / Signal processing / Neuroanatomy / Nonlinear dynamics / Mathematics / Theoretical neuroscience

Contact : Dr Olivier David, Research Director, Inserm, Olivier.David[at]inserm.fr. Please send application including CV, statement of research interests, and the names and full contact details of two referees.