Postdoc in Cognitive Computational Neuroscience of Theory of Mind

Ins$tute for Systems Neuroscience

Postdoc posi*on in Cogni*ve Computa*onal Neuroscience for a project on
“Recursive Theory of Mind during coopera*ve and compe**ve interac*ons”

This project is part of the recently DFG-funded Collabora:ve Research Center (SFB) 1528 “Cogni:on of Interac:on” primarily located at the University of GöLngen and will be conducted in the lab of Dr. Jan Gläscher (research group “Valua:on and Social Decision-Making”) at the Ins:tute for Systems Neuroscience of the UKE (headed by Prof. Chris:an Büchel) in Hamburg, Germany.

Research Project
Theory of Mind describes a set of abili:es that enables humans to think about the others and their ac:ons, goals, and beliefs. In essence, it describes the ability to construct a mental model of others that can be used to make predic:ons about their next ac:ons. However, these models can include models that the others build of ourselves at which point they become recursive (“I think that you think that I will do X.”). We are inves:ga:ng the construc:on of such recursive mental models in the context of a coopera:ve and compe::ve social foraging task. We will employ computa*onal modeling of behavior and model-informed analyses of EEG data to iden:fy the neural representa:on of mental models and RSA and other hyperscanning analyses to detect and characterize within- and between brain connec:vity during coopera:ve and compe::ve play.

Available posi*on
A postdoc posi*on for 2 years (un:l the end of 2025) is available to carry out this ambi:ous research project under the supervision of myself together with a PhD student working already on the project and in collabora:on with other projects of the CRC 1528 in GöLngen. Salary depends on experience and is based on German regula:ons TVöD-VKA-13 with a factor of 100%.

Start date: March 2024 or a 1-3 months later

Research environment
The CRC 1528 “Cogni:on of Interac:on” chaired by Prof. Alexander Gail and consists of PIs Behavioral Biology, Cogni:ve Psychology, Computa:onal Neuroscience, and Systems Neuroscience. The unit integrates world-class experts in computa:onal modeling and cuLng-edge neuroscience research in humans and primates. All projects work on related ques:ons with a lot of opportuni:es to work and interact with other groups in  GöLngen.

The “Valuation and Social Decision-Making” group is one of currently 11 research groups at the Institute for Systems Neuroscience at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Germany. The institute provides a vibrant, multidisciplinary, and highly international research environment with many interactions between its members and several regular common events (e.g. methods meetings, lecture series). Our graduate school is a member of the Hamburg Brain School and the Network of European Neuroscience Schools (NENS). The lab language is English. The institute hosts a 3T PRISMA MRI scanner, an EEG hyperscanning and eye-tracking lab, TMS, virtual reality and behavioral labs that allow us to easily and quickly acquire data from a variety of complementing modalities.

Requirements for the position

• Strong motivation and diligence to carry out a challenging and complex, but also exciting research project.

• Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience or a related field.

• Strong experience in programming (MATLAB, R, Python)

• Some prior experience in computational cognitive modeling and neuroimaging analyses

Application
Applications are accepted until the position is filled. If you are interested, please send a single PDF document including your CV, a brief statement of research interest and research experience (including your modeling experience), and the contact details of two academic references to Jan Gläscher (glaescher@uke.de). Informal inquiries are welcome.