How do Cognitive maps fail? And what can that tell us about the symptoms of psychosis?

 

Applications are invited for a post-doctoral research associate to work on a Wellcome Trust-funded project investigating mechanisms of cognitive map failures in psychosis.   The post is funded for up to 4 years.

 

Currently located in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Experimental Psychology will be moving to the new, purpose-built  Life and Mind Building (LaMB) a multidisciplinary research and teaching facility due to open in the summer of 2025.

 

This role focuses on investigating how impairments in world and goal models disrupt planning and inference in schizophrenia-related genetic mouse lines. Experiments will involve recording and manipulating prefrontal cortex and hippocampus activity in mice performing a newly developed goal-sequence generalization task. The project will integrate high-density silicon probe recordings, optogenetics, pharmacology and advanced computational tools to analyse neural algorithms, their deficits and their rescue in genetic mouse models.

 

This project is part of a cross-species, cross-institute collaboration that combines animal research, human neuroimaging of schizophrenia patients, and computational modelling using artificial neural networks. It brings together teams led by Mohamady El-Gaby (Oxford Experimental Psychology), Matthew Nour (Oxford Psychiatry), Rick Adams (UCL), and Maria Eckstein (DeepMind/UC Berkeley), along with collaborators across four continents. The post offers the opportunity to collaborate with researchers from these groups, providing exposure to psychiatry, human neuroscience, and computational science while developing a broad skill set.

 

The successful candidate will have, or be close to completion of, a PhD in a discipline closely related to neuroscience. With experience in animal behaviour, neural recordings in behaving animals and neurosurgical techniques. They will have experience with analysis of behavioural and neural data, strong quantitative skills and proficiency in programming (e.g. Python) and an excellent academic track record commensurate with career stage. They will also have excellent communication skills, including the ability to write for publication, present research proposals and results, and represent the research group at meetings as well as excellent organisational and record keeping skills.

 

Informal enquiries about the post can be directed to Mohamady El-Gaby (mohamady.el-gaby@psy.ox.ac.uk).

 

Only applications received before 12 midday on 19 May 2025 will be accepted.

 

Applications for this vacancy are to be made online. You will be required to upload a supporting statement (please bullet point how you meet the selection criteria), CV and details of two referees as part of your online application.

 

We are committed to equality and valuing diversity.