The PhD in Medical Sciences: The University of Nicosia Medical School offers the degree PhD in Medical Sciences. The degree is awarded to students who successfully complete an independent research programme that breaks new ground in the chosen field of study. The PhD programme aspires to empower students to become independent researchers, thus advancing innovation and development. The Research Project: We are currently inviting application through a competitive process for high calibre candidates to apply for the below PhD Project in the field of Neuroscience. The successful candidate will enrol on the PhD programme in Medical Sciences and will work under the Supervision of Dr Avgis Hadjipapas, Professor of Neuroscience and Research Methods at the University of Nicosia Medical School. The project is based on an international collaboration between the University of Nicosia Medical School, and Maastricht University (MU). Project Description: Title of research project: Laminar interactions and information flow in primary visual cortex. Background, rationale and objectives: Understanding how neuronal networks in the brain communicate in order to perform various computations is a major goal of systems neuroscience today. Networks in the cortex are exquisitely organized in layers and form well defined and repeating microcircuits (Gilbert and Wiesel, 1983). The anatomical connectivity between layers and the single cell behaviour in these layers have been studied in the past leading to important insights into the workings of the cortical circuit (reviewed in (Bastos et al., 2012)). At the same time, it has become clear that neurons engage in synchronous oscillations in the gamma band (20-90Hz). These have been observed in all laminar compartments of the cortex (Maier et al., 2010; Roberts et al., 2013; Xing et al., 2012). How are these oscillations to be reconciled with the laminar structure of the cortical microcircuits? Does the presence of oscillations constrain the way that layers communicate with each other? What is the means of communication between layers in the presence of these oscillations? These are important open questions that this project will help address. The main aim of the project will be to characterize interactions between different laminar compartments, and the observed frequencies of the oscillations expressed in these compartments. This search for interactions is theoretically- motivated; the main argument is that laminar compartments can be viewed as weakly coupled oscillators and therefore powerful concepts of synchronization theory apply. Depending on the relationship between the expressed oscillation frequencies in each compartment and their anatomical coupling, synchronization can be employed to derive theoretical predictions(Hadjipapas et al., 2009; Lowet et al., 2017, 2015). Among other possibilities, it is possible that directed interactions between laminar compartments may ensue, resulting in a directed flow of information across the cortical circuit (Ferro et al., 2021; van Kerkoerle et al., 2014). In directed interactions, frequency differences between laminar compartments are important because these, shape the ensuing synchronization process (Hadjipapas et al., 2009; Lowet et al., 2017, 2015). Directed interactions may be important to prioritize feedforward (bottom-up) influences from feedback influences (top down) when these are required by the stimulus or task at hand. In this project interactions across laminar compartments will be characterized and the information flow between compartments will be examined as a function of stimulus luminance contrast (bottom up input) and attention (top down input). This will be pursued in already existing data acquired by laminar probes in the awake behaving monkey, provided by the Maastricht collaboration. This data allows for the characterization of oscillations across laminar compartments. A computational neuronal model for communication between the layers will also be produced , which will be constrained by the data similar to the approach taken in (Zachariou et al., 2021). This model will aid data interpretations and produce further testable predictions. In sum, this project aims to help reconcile oscillatory activity with appropriate/adaptive information flow in the cortical circuit by producing a framework for studying the interactions within the fundamental cortical circuit including a computational model. Successful candidates will further benefit from interacting with an international consortium of neuroscientists throughout the duration of the project. References Bastos, A.M., Usrey, W.M., Adams, R.A., Mangun, G.R., Fries, P., Friston, K.J., 2012. Canonical Microcircuits for Predictive Coding. Neuron 76, 695–711. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2012.10.038 Ferro, D., Kempen, J. van, Boyd, M., Panzeri, S., Thiele, A., 2021. Directed information exchange between cortical layers in macaque V1 and V4 and its modulation by selective attention. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 118. https://doi.org/10.1073/PNAS.2022097118 Gilbert, C.D., Wiesel, T.N., 1983. Functional Organization of the Visual Cortex. Prog. Brain Res. 58, 209–218. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123(08)60022-9 Hadjipapas, A, Casagrande, E., Nevado, A., Barnes, G.R., Green, G., Holliday, I.E., 2009. Can we observe collective neuronal activity from macroscopic aggregate signals? Neuroimage 44, 1290–1303. Lowet, E., Roberts, M., Hadjipapas, A., Peter, A., van der Eerden, J., De Weerd, P., 2015. Input-Dependent Frequency Modulation of Cortical Gamma Oscillations Shapes Spatial Synchronization and Enables Phase Coding. PLOS Comput. Biol. 11, e1004072. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004072 Lowet, E., Roberts, M.J., Peter, A., Gips, B., Weerd, P. De, 2017. A quantitative theory of gamma synchronization in macaque V1 1–44. Maier, A., Adams, G.K., Aura, C., Leopold, D. a, 2010. Distinct superficial and deep laminar domains of activity in the visual cortex during rest and stimulation. Front. Syst. Neurosci. 4, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2010.00031 Roberts, M.J., Lowet, E., Brunet, N.M., Ter Wal, M., Tiesinga, P., Fries, P., De Weerd, P., 2013. Robust gamma coherence between macaque V1 and V2 by dynamic frequency matching. Neuron 78, 523–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2013.03.003 van Kerkoerle, T., Self, M.W., Dagnino, B., Gariel-Mathis, M.A., Poort, J., van der Togt, C., Roelfsema, P.R., 2014. Alpha and gamma oscillations characterize feedback and feedforward processing in monkey visual cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111, 14332–14341. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1402773111 Xing, D., Yeh, C.-I., Burns, S., Shapley, R.M., 2012. Laminar analysis of visually evoked activity in the primary visual cortex. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 109, 13871–6. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1201478109 Zachariou, M., Roberts, M., Lowet, E., De Weerd, P., Hadjipapas, A., 2021. Empirically constrained network models for contrast-dependent modulation of gamma rhythm in V1. Neuroimage 229, 117748. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117748 Tuition Fees: The tuition fees are €13,500 in total for the first 3 years. For each additional academic year, tuition is €1,500 per year. Application for the PhD Research Project: Candidates should submit an online application through this link (https://bit.ly/2Zet5QZ) and upload the following supporting documents: • A cover letter clearly stating that they apply for the PhD Research Project in the field of Neuroscience ‘Laminar interactions and information flow in primary visual cortex.’ • Copies of the applicant’s qualifications/degree(s) – the application can be assessed with scanned copies, but certified true copies must be provided if the candidate is successful and prior to enrolment on the PhD programme. • Copies of the applicant’s transcript(s) - the application can be assessed with scanned copies, but certified true copies must be provided if the candidate is successful and prior to enrolment on the PhD programme. • Proof of English language proficiency: the candidate should either complete previous degree(s) in an English-speaking country or should have passed IELTS (score of 7 overall, with a minimum score of 7 in writing) or should have achieved an equivalent score in an internationally recognized English language qualification. • Two reference letters, of which at least one should be from an academic. • A full Curriculum Vitae (CV).

The PhD in Medical Sciences: The University of Nicosia Medical School offers the degree PhD in Medical Sciences. The degree is awarded to students who successfully complete an independent research programme that breaks new ground in the chosen field of study. The PhD programme aspires to empower students to become independent researchers, thus advancing innovation and development. The Research Project: We are currently inviting application through a competitive process for high calibre candidates to apply for the below PhD Project in the field of Neuroscience. The successful candidate will enrol on the PhD programme in Medical Sciences and will work under the Supervision of Dr Avgis Hadjipapas, Professor of Neuroscience and Research Methods at the University of Nicosia Medical School. The project is based on a collaboration between the University of Nicosia Medical School, Maastricht University (MU) and the Cyprus Institute for Neurology and Genetics (CING). Project Description: Title of research project: Empirically-validated model of a cortical column expressing gamma oscillations. Background, rationale and objectives: Gamma oscillations from the awake, behaving animal which have been observed widely during sensory and cognitive processing (Bosman et al., 2014) can now be measured at multiple spatial scales (Hadjipapas et al., 2015) and across cortical depth (Roberts et al., 2013; van Kerkoerle et al., 2014). A key aim is to identify the true laminar network circuitry that produces these oscillations. In our previous work, a computational biophysical model was created and its unknown parameters were appropriately constrained such that it yielded realistic behaviour at the scale of single neurons and local field potential (LFP) (Zachariou et al., 2021). The model provided insight into the role of the excitatory and inhibitory neurons and external (thalamic) input in shaping the gamma oscillation as observed experimentally in primary visual cortex. However, the model was relatively simple, as it did not take into account the laminar structure of the cortex or important neuronal morphology, factors, which in turn affect the generation of population signals such as the LFP and the Electro-/Magneto-encephalogram (EEG/MEG). In this project we aim to construct an empirically-validated model of a cortical column, compartmentalised in cortical layers, which produces realistic gamma oscillations in the modelled LFP. To this end, we propose to implement a hybrid modelling scheme(Hagen et al., 2016), in which multicompartmental neuronal models will be used to derive accurate LFP forward models, while the multicompartment neurons themselves will be driven by our previously-derived empirically-validated models of networks consisting of point neurons. These in turn, will accurately encode the neuronal dynamics related to specific experimental observations. The model will be constrained at the laminar level by empirical data provided by the Maastricht partner, which are laminarly- resolved. The main outcome will be a computational model of a cortical column, which is empirically validated by laminarly-resolved data. This validated model can then be used for identifying mechanisms of gamma oscillations at the level of layers within a cortical column. The proposed project is part of a longer-term research program, the future outlook of which is to laterally expand this model. Such expanded models can then be used to simulate electrophysiological signals at multiple scales (spikes, LFP, ECoG, MEG), which in turn, can facilitate the interpretation of the experimentally-measured signals and their interrelations. Successful candidates will benefit from interacting with an international consortium of neuroscientists throughout the duration of the project References Bosman, C.A., Lansink, C.S., Pennartz, C.M.A., 2014. Functions of gamma-band synchronization in cognition: from single circuits to functional diversity across cortical and subcortical systems. Eur. J. Neurosci. 39, 1982–1999. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.12606 Hadjipapas, A., Lowet, E., Roberts, M.J., Peter, A., De Weerd, P., 2015. Parametric variation of gamma frequency and power with luminance contrast: A comparative study of human MEG and monkey LFP and spike responses. Neuroimage 112, 327–340. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.02.062 Hagen, E., Dahmen, D., Stavrinou, M.L., Lindén, H., Tetzlaff, T., Albada, S.J. Van, Grün, S., Diesmann, M., Einevoll, G.T., 2016. Hybrid Scheme for Modeling Local Field Potentials from Point-Neuron Networks 4461–4496. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhw237 Roberts, M.J., Lowet, E., Brunet, N.M., Ter Wal, M., Tiesinga, P., Fries, P., De Weerd, P., 2013. Robust gamma coherence between macaque V1 and V2 by dynamic frequency matching. Neuron 78, 523–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2013.03.003 van Kerkoerle, T., Self, M.W., Dagnino, B., Gariel-Mathis, M.A., Poort, J., van der Togt, C., Roelfsema, P.R., 2014. Alpha and gamma oscillations characterize feedback and feedforward processing in monkey visual cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111, 14332–14341. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1402773111 Zachariou, M., Roberts, M., Lowet, E., De Weerd, P., Hadjipapas, A., 2021. Empirically constrained network models for contrast-dependent modulation of gamma rhythm in V1. Neuroimage 229, 117748. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117748 Tuition Fees: The tuition fees are €13,500 in total for the first 3 years. For each additional academic year, tuition is €1,500 per year. Application for the PhD Research Project: Candidates should submit an online application through this link (https://bit.ly/2Zet5QZ) and upload the following supporting documents: • A cover letter clearly stating that they apply for the PhD Research Project in the field of Neuroscience ‘Empirically-validated model of a cortical column expressing gamma oscillations’ • Copies of the applicant’s qualifications/degree(s) – the application can be assessed with scanned copies, but certified true copies must be provided if the candidate is successful and prior to enrolment on the PhD programme. • Copies of the applicant’s transcript(s) - the application can be assessed with scanned copies, but certified true copies must be provided if the candidate is successful and prior to enrolment on the PhD programme. • Proof of English language proficiency: the candidate should either complete previous degree(s) in an English-speaking country or should have passed IELTS (score of 7 overall, with a minimum score of 7 in writing) or should have achieved an equivalent score in an internationally recognized English language qualification. • Two reference letters, of which at least one should be from an academic. • A full Curriculum Vitae (CV).

The PhD in Medical Sciences: The University of Nicosia Medical School offers the degree PhD in Medical Sciences. The degree is awarded to students who successfully complete an independent research programme that breaks new ground in the chosen field of study. The PhD programme aspires to empower students to become independent researchers, thus advancing innovation and development. The Research Project: We are currently inviting application through a competitive process for high calibre candidates to apply for one PhD Scholarship in the field of Neuroscience. The successful candidate will enrol on the PhD programme in Medical Sciences and will work under the Supervision of Dr Avgis Hadjipapas, Professor of Neuroscience and Research Methods at the University of Nicosia Medical School. The project is based on an international collaboration between the University of Nicosia Medical School, (UN) the University Maastricht University Medical Center (MUMC), Maastricht University (MU) and McGill University (McGill U). Project Description: Title of research project: Characterization of circadian rhythm modulations in intracranial EEG and their relationship to seizure onsets in focal epilepsy Background, rationale and objectives: Epilepsy affects roughly 1% of the population, and about a third of patients have unpredictable seizures which cannot be adequately controlled with medication (Kuhlmann et al., 2018). Therefore, better understanding of seizure generation and improving seizure predictability are central goals in epilepsy research to prevent seizures from occurring. Recent investigations by our own (Mitsis et al., 2020) and other groups (Leguia et al., 2021) have shown that seizure onsets exhibit a tight correlation to certain phases of circadian rhythms, which leads to improved seizure predictability (Karoly et al., 2017). However, our previous work (Mitsis et al., 2020) also raised questions as to the spatial-scale of the EEG state, which best captures this correlation. Interestingly, using surface EEG we found that global measures of brain states are more correlated to seizure onset than local EEG measures. However, this work utilized an indirect estimate of the local brain state obtained by surface EEG, which may have not been sensitive and specific enough to capture relevant epileptogenic activity sufficiently. In this project, and based on a collaboration formed between the University of Nicosia Medical School (UN), Maastricht University Medical Center (MUMC), Maastricht University (MU), and McGill University (McGill U), we will address this question by examining intracranial recordings provided by the MUMC partner, obtained directly from the area of the suspected epileptogenic focus. We will then employ a battery of time series analysis methods to obtain a faithful characterization of the circadian modulations of the local brain state. This will include measures obtained by singular spectrum decomposition, measures of dynamic complexity of the time series, as well as measures derived by graph theory. We will then characterize the phase coupling (phase correlation) of the such characterized local brain state to seizure onsets using circular statistics. This correlation will then be compared to the one obtained from the global brain state as estimated from surface EEG recordings. This will inform both important pathophysiological questions in terms of the extent of the functional seizure generating network but also practical questions related to what EEG recording modality is likely to be most useful in terms of seizure predictability. Further, analysis of this correlation at the level of individual patient recordings will inform the feasibility of seizure forecasting informed by circadian rhythms. Successful candidates will benefit from interacting with an international and interdisciplinary consortium of neuroscientists, neurologists and engineers throughout the duration of the project. References Karoly, P.J., Ung, H., Grayden, D.B., Kuhlmann, L., Leyde, K., Cook, M.J., Freestone, D.R., 2017. The circadian profile of epilepsy improves seizure forecasting. Brain 140, 2169–2182. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awx173 Kuhlmann, L., Lehnertz, K., Richardson, M.P., Schelter, B., Zaveri, H.P., 2018. Seizure prediction — ready for a new era. Nat. Rev. Neurol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-018-0055-2 Leguia, M.G., Andrzejak, R.G., Rummel, C., Fan, J.M., Mirro, E.A., Tcheng, T.K., Rao, V.R., Baud, M.O., 2021. Seizure Cycles in Focal Epilepsy. JAMA Neurol. In press, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2020.5370 Mitsis, G.D., Anastasiadou, M.N., Christodoulakis, M., Papathanasiou, E.S., Papacostas, S.S., Hadjipapas, A., 2020. Functional brain networks of patients with epilepsy exhibit pronounced multiscale periodicities, which correlate with seizure onset. Hum. Brain Mapp. hbm.24930. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24930 The Scholarship: The Scholarship will have a duration of three to four years and will cover: • The tuition fees for the PhD programme which are €13,500 in total for the first 3 years and €1,500 for year 4. • A monthly stipend of €1,000 for the duration of three to four years. Application for the PhD Scholarship: Candidates should submit an online application through this link (https://bit.ly/2Zet5QZ) and upload the following supporting documents: • A cover letter clearly stating that they apply for the PhD Scholarship in the field of Neuroscience for the PhD Research Project ‘Characterization of circadian rhythm modulations in intracranial EEG and their relationship to seizure onsets in focal epilepsy.’ • Copies of the applicant’s qualifications/degree(s) – the application can be assessed with scanned copies, but certified true copies must be provided if the candidate is successful and prior to enrolment on the PhD programme. • Copies of the applicant’s transcript(s) - the application can be assessed with scanned copies, but certified true copies must be provided if the candidate is successful and prior to enrolment on the PhD programme. • Proof of English language proficiency: the candidate should either complete previous degree(s) in an English-speaking country or should have passed IELTS (score of 7 overall, with a minimum score of 7 in writing) or should have achieved an equivalent score in an internationally recognized English language qualification. • Two reference letters, of which at least one should be from an academic. • A full Curriculum Vitae (CV).

The PhD in Medical Sciences: The University of Nicosia Medical School offers the degree PhD in Medical Sciences. The degree is awarded to students who successfully complete an independent research programme that breaks new ground in the chosen field of study. The PhD programme aspires to empower students to become independent researchers, thus advancing innovation and development. The Research Project: We are currently inviting application through a competitive process for high calibre candidates to apply for one PhD Scholarship in the fields of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering. The successful candidate will enrol on the PhD programme in Medical Sciences and will work under the Supervision of Dr Nicoletta Nicolaou with expertise in the fields of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Nicosia Medical School. Project Description: Title of research project: Development of a closed-loop controller for automatic administration of anaesthetic and analgesic agents during surgery using machine learning methods. Background and Rationale: Current practice of anaesthesia during surgery involves administration of a “cocktail” of drugs (anaesthetics, analgesics, myorelaxants) to achieve the desired state of surgical anaesthesia. During surgery the patient is connected to a number of sensors that monitor vital signs (e.g. cardiovascular parameters, breathing etc.). The anaesthesiologist monitors these vital signs (visually on the monitoring device) and makes manual adjustments to the dosages of the different agents (anaesthetics, analgesics, muscle relaxants). In this open-loop approach the anaesthesiologist is effectively the one who manually closes the loop. The disadvantages of this open-loop approach are related mainly to the fact that the anaesthesiologist monitors the vital signs and is required to make a judgement call based on these visual observations as to whether or not adjustments are required to the dosages of the agents administered. These vital signs provide clues as to the underlying patient state, but they are not considered to be reliable indicators of the underlying “level of consciousness” or “depth of anaesthesia”. In a closed-loop system, the loop is closed automatically: the patient state is estimated from the patient vital signs, and the dosages of agents are adjusted automatically by the device. The anaesthesiologist is not part of the automated closed loop, but still has the ability to bypass this automation and intervene manually. Closed-loop (CL) systems provide better stability of cardiovascular parameters (longer duration of heart rate and mean arterial pressure control), better performance and faster recovery compared to open-loop systems. The development of a CL anaesthetic administration system is a very complex process that must integrate information from a number of biological signals coming from the central and autonomic nervous systems. To date there are only a handful of CL systems that have been developed, but not yet routinely available for commercial use in routine surgery. Aims and Objectives: In this PhD Research Project, a CL system for automatic agent administration during surgery under general anaesthesia will be developed and simulated, using machine learning methods. The system will utilize features from the central and autonomic nervous systems (CNS and ANS respectively) for discrimination between awareness, anaesthesia and different levels of anaesthesia (light, surgical, deep anaesthesia). The system will offer improved anaesthetic experience that will be individualized, leading to a better experience (e.g. maintenance at surgical anaesthetic level, stability of cardiovascular activity, less time in recovery, minimal side effects from over-anaesthesia, faster release from hospital). The main aims and objectives of this PhD research project are: 1. Characterize the relationships of real brain and brain-cardiovascular data recorded during surgeries under general anaesthesia using machine learning methods, as well as the relationships between these physiological signals and concentration of anaesthetic and analgesic agents. 2. Develop a closed-loop controller that utilizes the developed machine learning models to automatically modify the volume of anaesthetics and analgesics to achieve and maintain a desired level of (un)consciousness. 3. Develop a simulation that maps an observed or desired anaesthetic state to specific anaesthetic and analgesic dosages. 4. Test the performance of the developed machine learning controller on automatically modifying the anaesthetic and analgesic dosages to maintain a desired level of (un)consciousness as defined in the simulated data. The Scholarship: The Scholarship will have a duration of three to four years and will cover: • The tuition fees for the PhD programme which are €13,500 in total for the first 3 years and €1,500 for year 4. Application for the PhD Scholarship: Candidates should submit an online application through this link (https://bit.ly/2Zet5QZ) and upload the following supporting documents: • A cover letter clearly stating that they apply for the PhD Scholarship in the fields of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering for the PhD Research Project ‘Development of a closed-loop controller for automatic administration of anaesthetic and analgesic agents during surgery using machine learning methods.’ • Copies of the applicant’s qualifications/degree(s) – the application can be assessed with scanned copies, but certified true copies must be provided if the candidate is successful and prior to enrolment on the PhD programme. • Copies of the applicant’s transcript(s) - the application can be assessed with scanned copies, but certified true copies must be provided if the candidate is successful and prior to enrolment on the PhD programme. • Proof of English language proficiency: the candidate should either complete previous degree(s) in an English-speaking country or should have passed IELTS (score of 7 overall, with a minimum score of 7 in writing) or should have achieved an equivalent score in an internationally recognized English language qualification. • Two reference letters, of which at least one should be from an academic. • A full Curriculum Vitae (CV).

We are seeking to fill a fully funded PhD position (75% TV-L 13 state employees salary scheme) in cognitive neuroscience. The successful applicant will contribute to a project, investigating selective attention and working memory processes in a multisensory context. In particular, we are interested in how the auditory and the visual system interact during the deployment of attention in multisensory environments and how audio-visual information is integrated. To answer those research questions, we primarily use the EEG in combination with cutting edge analysis methods (e.g., multivariate pattern classification). Beyond that, the application of eye-tracking or (functional) MRI is possible within the project. Your responsibilities will include conducting (EEG-) experiments, data analysis, preparation of manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals, as well as presentation of scientific results at (inter-)national conferences. Official job ad: https://www.ifado.de/ifadoen/careers/current-job-offers/#job3

We are offering a fully funded PhD opportunity to examine the interplay between attention and decision-making in complex, naturalistic tasks using advanced electro-/magnetoencephalography (E/MEG) techniques. Strong quantitative skills will be advantageous for this project. The project will be co-supervised by Dr. Konstantinos Tsetsos (University of Bristol) and Professor Anina Rich (Macquarie University). The selected student will join a unique PhD cohort, as part of a cotutelle graduate program between the University of Bristol and Macquarie University.

The Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the University of Genoa are offering 4 PhD scholarships on Computational Vision, Automatic Recognition, and Learning. Research and training activities will be jointly conducted between the DITEN Department of the University of Genoa and IIT infrastructures in Genoa, at the PAVIS - Pattern Analysis and Computer Vision Research line. The PhD program will focus on various research topics, including 3D scene understanding, multi-modal learning, self-supervised and unsupervised deep learning, generative models for human and scene generation, novel graph operators for learning on large-scale and temporal data, and domain adaptation and generalization.

The position is a full-time PhD studentship for a period of 3 years, starting on Nov 1st, 2023. The research project is titled 'Early vision function in silico networks of LIF neurons'. The project aims to develop an 'artificial observer' composed of an active event-based camera feeding a neuromorphic multi-layer network of leaky integrate and fire (LIF) neurons. The system should provide the inference engines for relating visual representations to performance on perceptual judgement tasks. Multiple and varying parameters captured under complex, real-life conditions should be comparatively assessed in silicon and human observers. The research will be conducted at the Bioengineering/PSPC labs of DIBRIS.

The project is entitled “Machine Learning and Meta-Optimization: A Hybrid Approach to Operational Research in Logistics” and concerns the combination of heuristic and learning methods for logistics problem in operational research. The objective of this PhD thesis is to combine learning methods with current heuristics, in order to improve them in terms of both computation time and quality of results. This approach fits within a current and relevant line of research in combinatorial optimization.

The project is entitled “Machine Learning and Meta-Optimization: A Hybrid Approach to Operational Research in Logistics” and concerns the combination of heuristic and learning methods for logistics problem in operational research. The objective of this PhD thesis is to combine learning methods with current heuristics, in order to improve them in terms of both computation time and quality of results. This approach fits within a current and relevant line of research in combinatorial optimization.

The Research Training Group 2853 “Neuroexplicit Models of Language, Vision, and Action” is looking for 3 PhD students and 1 postdoc. Neuroexplicit models combine neural and human-interpretable (“explicit”) models in order to overcome the limitations that each model class has separately. They include neurosymbolic models, which combine neural and symbolic models, but also e.g. combinations of neural and physics-based models. In the RTG, we will improve the state of the art in natural language processing (“Language”), computer vision (“Vision”), and planning and reinforcement learning (“Action”) through the use of neuroexplicit models and investigate the cross-cutting design principles of effective neuroexplicit models (“Foundations”).

There is a fully funded PhD position available at the Institute of Neural Information Processing, Ulm University, Germany. At the institute we are interested in the mathematical foundations of intelligent behaviour in biological and artificial systems. The PhD topic will revolve around the fundamental question of how the abstraction capabilities of classic symbolic knowledge systems can be combined with the sub-symbolic pattern recognition capabilities of neural networks in order to allow neural networks to take existing knowledge into account when making predictions. The PhD position will be part of the newly established DFG graduate school KEMAI (Knowledge Infusion and Extraction for Explainable Medical AI). The structured PhD programme has a duration of 3 years with the possibility of extending for one more year. The candidate will have the opportunity both to make contributions to fundamental questions in AI and cognitive science and to apply their work directly in the context of medical imaging through collaboration with Ulm University Clinic. Within the same broad topic area there is a second PhD position available at the Institute of Medical Systems Biology that includes investigation of genetic markers.

We are looking for a highly motivated and skilled PhD candidate to work in the area of Reinforcement Learning (broadly speaking) in the Uncertainty in AI group of TU Eindhoven, The Netherlands. It is a full-time formal job and salaries are competitive. TU Eindhoven is an English-language university.

The PhD project aims to identify and describe the specific, latent temporal encoding structures that may constrain the temporal features of spoken language. The candidate will study structure patterns in spoken language and investigate how to build a model that can extract temporal characteristics of speech across different languages. The project is interdisciplinary, with active collaboration within the Pioneer Centre for AI, as well as with experts in computational neuroscience and developmental psychology in Germany and Japan.

The Women in Memory Research 2023 program is for women who are interested in pursuing a PhD in memory research in neuroscience or philosophy. The program is made possible through a grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and collaboration with the Ruhr University Bochum. Participants will learn about an academic career, participate in GEM 2023 where they will hear about the latest research in generative episodic memory, present their research, and meet with female scientists from the field. They will also be introduced to support structures, funding measures and the FOR 2812 labs.

3 PhD positions on « Physics Aware Deep Learning » are available at Sorbonne University, Paris, Fr. The positions are: 1) Machine Learning augmented model design of unsteady reactive flows – application to a scramjet combustor, 2) Domain generalization and transfer learning for deep learning data coherence of climate data sets, 3) Physics Based Deep Learning of Surrogate Models for Fluid Flow Simulation. Application to sustainable space missions.

The project aims at answering an almost 100 year old question in Neuroscience: “What are spikes good for?”. Indeed, since the discovery of action potentials by Lord Adrian in 1926, it has remained largely unknown what the benefits of spiking neurons are, when compared to analog neurons. Traditionally, it has been argued that spikes are good for long-distance communication or for temporally precise computation. However, there is no systematic study that quantitatively compares the communication as well as the computational benefits of spiking neuron w.r.t analog neurons. The aim of the project is to systematically quantify the benefits of spiking at various levels. The PhD students and post-doc will be supervised by Prof. Jean-Pascal Pfister (Theoretical Neuroscience Group, Department of Physiology, University of Bern).

The main objective of this project is to characterize the endogenous generators underlying the emergence of sensory capacities and to characterize their associated functional connectivity. This will be done retrospectively on our High Resolution EEG database in premature neonates from 24 weeks of gestational age, which is the largest database worldwide. We will also use the OPM pediatric MEG, which is being set up in Amiens. This study will allow us to characterize the establishment of sensory networks before the modulation of cortical activity by external sensory information. The PhD candidate will be concentrated on developing advance signal processing approached using the already available datasets on HR EEG and MEG, for characterization of spontaneous neural oscillations and analysis of functional connectivity.

The Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit welcomes applications for its PhD Programme in Theoretical Neuroscience and Machine Learning (September 2024 entry). Students complete a 4-year PhD in either machine learning or theoretical neuroscience, with minor emphasis in the complementary field. Courses in the first year provide a comprehensive introduction to both fields and systems neuroscience, with multidisciplinary training in other areas of neuroscience also available. Students are encouraged to work and interact closely with researchers at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour as well as the Centre for Computational Statistics and Machine Learning to take full advantage of the multidisciplinary research environment. PhD research topics can focus on (but not limited to): Graphical models, Kernel methods, Bayesian statistics, Reinforcement learning, Network and relational data, Neural data analysis, Neural representations, Computation and dynamics, Learning, Neural systems. Full funding is available regardless of nationality and current residence.

Three studies conducted in the context of PhD work (UNIL) aimed at proving evidence to address the question of potential gender differences in trait anxiety and executive control biases on behavioral efficacy. In scope were male and female non-clinical samples of adult young age that performed non-emotional tasks assessing basic attentional functioning (Attention Network Test – Interactions, ANT-I), sustained attention (Test of Variables of Attention, TOVA), and visual recognition abilities (Object in Location Recognition Task, OLRT). Results confirmed the intricate nature of the relationship between gender and health trait anxiety through the lens of their impact on processing efficacy in males and females. The possibility of a gendered theory in trait anxiety biases is discussed.

In March we will focus on TMS and host Ghazaleh Soleimani and Colleen Hanlon. The talks will talk place on Thursday, March 28th at noon ET – please be aware that this means 5PM CET since Boston already switched to summer time! Ghazaleh Soleimani, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr Hamed Ekhtiari’s lab at the University of Minnesota. She is also the executive director of the International Network of tES/TMS for Addiction Medicine (INTAM). She will discuss “Adapting to diversity: Integrating variability in brain structure and function into personalized / closed-loop non-invasive brain stimulation for substance use disorders”. Colleen Hanlon, PhD, currently serves as a Vice President of Medical Affairs for BrainsWay, a company specializing in medical devices for mental health, including TMS. Colleen previously worked at the Medical University of South Carolina and Wake Forest School of Medicine. She received the International Brain Stimulation Early Career Award in 2023. She will discuss “Currents of Hope: how noninvasive brain stimulation is reshaping modern psychiatric care”. As always, we will also get a glimpse at the “Person behind the science”. Please register va talks.stimulatingbrains.org to receive the (free) Zoom link, subscribe to our newsletter, or follow us on Twitter/X for further updates!

Lead author Mehdi Azabou will present on his work "POYO-1: A Unified, Scalable Framework for Neural Population Decoding" (https://poyo-brain.github.io/). Mehdi is an ML PhD student at Georgia Tech advised by Dr. Eva Dyer. Paper link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.16046 Trends in NeuroAI is a reading group hosted by the MedARC Neuroimaging & AI lab (https://medarc.ai/fmri | https://groups.google.com/g/medarc-fmri).

We are very much looking forward to host Francisca Ferreira and Birte Forstmann on December 14th, 2023, at noon ET / 6PM CET. Francisca Ferreira is a PhD student and Neurosurgery trainee at the University College of London Queen Square Institute of Neurology and a Royal College of Surgeons “Emerging Leaders” program laureate. Her presentation title will be: “Microstructural and connectivity correlates of outcome variability in functional neurosurgery for movement disorders”. Birte Forstmann, PhD, is the Director of the Amsterdam Brain and Cognition Center, a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Amsterdam, and a Professor by Special Appointment of Neuroscientific Testing of Psychological Models at the University of Leiden. Besides her scientific presentation (“Imaging the human subcortex”), she will give us a glimpse at the “Person behind the science”. You can register via talks.stimulatingbrains.org to receive the (free) Zoom link!

On Thursday, October 26th, we will host Anastasia Yendiki and Suzanne Haber. Anastasia Yendiki, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Radiology at the Harvard Medical School and an Associate Investigator at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Athinoula A. Martinos Center. Suzanne Haber, PhD, is a Professor at the University of Rochester and runs a lab at McLean hospital at Harvard Medical School in Boston. She has received numerous awards for her work on neuroanatomy. Beside her scientific presentation, she will give us a glimpse at the “Person behind the science”. The talks will be followed by a shared discussion. You can register via talks.stimulatingbrains.org to receive the (free) Zoom link!

It’s our pleasure to announce that we will host Haidar Dafsari and Günther Deuschl on September 28th at noon ET / 6PM CET. Haidar Dafsari, MD, is a researcher and lecturer at the University Hospital Cologne. Günther Deuschl, MD, PhD, is a professor at Kiel University. He was president of the International Movement Disorders Society (MDS) from 2011-2013, Editor in Chief of the journal Movement Disorders and has been awarded numerous high-class awards. Beside his scientific presentation, he will give us a glimpse at the “Person behind the science”.The talks will be followed by a shared discussion. You can register via talks.stimulatingbrains.org to receive the (free) Zoom link!

On Friday, August 31st we will host Stephanie Cernera & Doris Wang! Stephanie Cernera, PhD, is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Starr lab at University of California San Francisco. She will tell us about “Personalized chronic adaptive deep brain stimulation outperforms conventional stimulation in Parkinson’s Disease”. Doris Wang, MD, PhD, is a neurosurgeon and assistant professor at the University of California San Francisco. Apart from her scientific presentation about “Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation to Treat Gait Disorders in Parkinson’s Disease”, she will give us a glimpse at the “Person behind the science”. The talks will be followed by a shared discussion. You can register via talks.stimulatingbrains.org to receive the (free) Zoom link!

On Thursday, May 25th we will host Darcy Diesburg and Mark Richardson. Darcy Diesburg, PhD, is a post-doctoral research fellow at Brown University. She will tell us about “Deep brain stimulation and action-stopping: A cognitive neuroscience perspective on the contributions of fronto-basal ganglia circuits to inhibitory control”. Mark Richardson, MD, PhD, is the Director of Functional Neurosurgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Charles Pappas Associate Professor of Neurosciences at Harvard Medical School and Visiting Associate Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. Beside his scientific presentation on “Auditory input to the basal ganglia”, he will give us a glimpse at the “Person behind the science”. The talks will be followed by a shared discussion. You can register via talks.stimulatingbrains.org to receive the (free) Zoom link!

On Thursday, April 27th, we will host Hayriye Cagnan and Philip A. Starr. Hayriye Cagnan, PhD, is an associate professor at the MRC Brain Network Dynamics Unit and University of Oxford. She will tell us about “Therapies orchestrated by patients’ own rhythms”. Philip A. Starr, MD, PhD, is a neurosurgeon and professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of California San Francisco. Besides his scientific presentation on “My evolution in invasive human neurophysiology: from basal ganglia single units to chronic electrocorticography”, he will give us a glimpse at the person behind the science. The talks will be followed by a shared discussion. You can register via talks.stimulatingbrains.org to receive the (free) Zoom link!

It’s our pleasure to announce that we will host Shan Siddiqi and Michael D. Fox on Thursday, March 30th at noon ET / 6PM CET. Shan Siddiqi, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the director of Psychiatric Neuromodulation Research at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Michael D. Fox, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and the founding director of the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The talks will be followed by a shared discussion. You can register via talks.stimulatingbrains.org to receive the (free) Zoom link!

On Thursday, 23rd of February, we will host Veerle Visser-Vandewalle and Marie Krüger. Marie Krüger, MD, is is currently leading the stereotactic surgery unit in St. Gallen but is on her move to join the team at UCL / Queensquare London. She will discuss “Directional DBS targeting of different nuclei in the thalamus for the treatment of pain”. Veerle Visser-Vandewalle, MD, PhD, is the Head of the Department of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery at University Hospital of Cologne. Beside his scientific presentation on “25 years of DBS beyond movement disorders: what challenges are we facing?”, she will also give us a glimpse at the “Person behind the science”. The talks will be followed by a shared discussion. You can register via talks.stimulatingbrains.org to receive the (free) Zoom link!

Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) have shown great potential to help children in therapeutic and healthcare contexts. SARs have been used for companionship, learning enhancement, social and communication skills rehabilitation for children with special needs (e.g., autism), and mood improvement. Robots can be used as novel tools to assess and rehabilitate children’s communication skills and mental well-being by providing affordable and accessible therapeutic and mental health services. In this talk, I will present the various studies I have conducted during my PhD and at the Cambridge Affective Intelligence and Robotics Lab to explore how robots can help assess and rehabilitate children’s communication skills and mental well-being. More specifically, I will provide both quantitative and qualitative results and findings from (i) an exploratory study with children with autism and global developmental disorders to investigate the use of intelligent personal assistants in therapy; (ii) an empirical study involving children with and without language disorders interacting with a physical robot, a virtual agent, and a human counterpart to assess their linguistic skills; (iii) an 8-week longitudinal study involving children with autism and language disorders who interacted either with a physical or a virtual robot to rehabilitate their linguistic skills; and (iv) an empirical study to aid the assessment of mental well-being in children. These findings can inform and help the child-robot interaction community design and develop new adaptive robots to help assess and rehabilitate linguistic skills and mental well-being in children.

On Wednesday, January 25th, at noon ET / 6PM CET, we will host Roxanne Lofredi and Hagai Bergman. Roxanne Lofredi, MD, is a research fellow in the Movement Disorders and Neuromodulation Unit at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Hagai Bergman, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Physiology in the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Research and Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is Simone and Bernard Guttman Chair in Brain Research. Beside his scientific presentation on “Beta oscillations in the basal ganglia: Past, Present and Future”, he will also give us a glimpse at the “Person behind the science”. The talks will be followed by a shared discussion. You can register via talks.stimulatingbrains.org to receive the (free) Zoom link!

On Wednesday, November 30th, at noon ET / 6PM CET, we will host Alexandre Boutet and Erik H. Middlebrooks. Alexandre Boutet, MD, PhD, is a neuroradiology fellow at the University of Toronto, and will tell us about “How to become an integral part of the functional neurosurgery team as a radiologist”. Erik H. Middlebrooks, MD, is a Professor and Consultant of Neuroradiology and Neurosurgery and the Neuroradiology Program Director at Mayo Clinic. Beside his scientific presentation about “Bridging the Gap from Research to Clinical Decision Making in Epilepsy Neuromodulation”, he will also give us a glimpse at the “Person behind the science”. The talks will be followed by a shared discussion. You can register via talks.stimulatingbrains.org to receive the (free) Zoom link!

On Wednesday, October 26th, at noon ET / 6PM CET, we will host Kara Johnson, PhD, and Ludvic Zrinzo, MD PhD, for the inaugural session of our newly conceived talk series format entitled "Stimulating Brains". Kara A. Johnson, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Coralie de Hemptinne’s lab at the University of Florida, will present her work on “Combining imaging and neurophysiology in Parkinson’s disease”. Ludvic Zrinzo, Professor of functional neurosurgery and head of the University College London functional neurosurgery unit, will give us a glimpse at the “Person behind the science”, and give a talk on “Neurosurgery for mental disorders: challenging mindsets”. The talks will be followed by a shared discussion. You can register via talks.stimulatingbrains.org to receive the (free) Zoom link!

Neurodegenerative diseases are chronic and inexorable conditions characterised by the presence of insoluble aggregates of abnormally ubiquinated and phosphorylated proteins. Recent evidence also suggests that protein misfolding can propagate throughout the body in a prion-like fashion via the interstitial or cerebrospinal fluids (CSF). As protein aggregation occurs well before the onset of brain damage and symptoms, new biomarkers sensitive to early pathology, together with therapeutic strategies that include eliminating seed proteins and blocking cell-to-cell spread, are of vital importance. The glymphatic system, which facilitates the continuous exchange of CSF and interstitial fluid to clear the brain of waste, presents as a potential biomarker of disease severity, therapeutic target, and drug delivery system. In this webinar, Associate Professor David Wright from the Department of Neuroscience, Monash University, will outline recent advances in using MRI to investigate the glymphatic system. He will also present some of his lab’s recent work investigating glymphatic clearance in preclinical models of motor neurone disease. Associate Professor David Wright is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow and the Director of Preclinical Imaging in the Department of Neuroscience, Monash University and the Alfred Research Alliance, Alfred Health. His research encompasses the development, application and analysis of advanced magnetic resonance imaging techniques for the study of disease, with a particular emphasis on neurodegenerative disorders. Although less than three years post PhD, he has published over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles in leading neuroscience journals such as Nature Medicine, Brain, and Cerebral Cortex.

The David Smith Lectures in Anatomical Neuropharmacology, Part of the 'Pharmacology, Anatomical Neuropharmacology and Drug Discovery Seminars Series', Department of Pharmacology, University of Oxford. The 15th David Smith Award Lecture in Anatomical Neuropharmacology will be delivered by Professor Tim Bliss, Visiting Professor at UCL and the Frontier Institutes of Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, and is hosted by Professor Nigel Emptage. This award lecture was set up to celebrate the vision of Professor A David Smith, namely, that explanations of the action of drugs on the brain requires the definition of neuronal circuits, the location and interactions of molecules. Tim Bliss gained his PhD at McGill University in Canada. He joined the MRC National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill, London in 1967, where he remained throughout his career. His work with Terje Lømo in the late 1960’s established the phenomenon of long-term potentiation (LTP) as the dominant synaptic model of how the mammalian brain stores memories. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1994 and is a founding fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. He shared the Bristol Myers Squibb award for Neuroscience with Eric Kandel in 1991, the Ipsen Prize for Neural Plasticity with Richard Morris and Yadin Dudai in 2013. In May 2012 he gave the annual Croonian Lecture at the Royal Society on ‘The Mechanics of Memory’. In 2016 Tim, with Graham Collingridge and Richard Morris shared the Brain Prize, one of the world's most coveted science prizes. Abstract: In 1966 there appeared in Acta Physiologica Scandinavica an abstract of a talk given by Terje Lømo, a PhD student in Per Andersen’s laboratory at the University of Oslo. In it Lømo described the long-lasting potentiation of synaptic responses in the dentate gyrus of the anaesthetised rabbit that followed repeated episodes of 10-20Hz stimulation of the perforant path. Thus, heralded and almost entirely unnoticed, one of the most consequential discoveries of 20th century neuroscience was ushered into the world. Two years later I arrived in Oslo as a visiting post-doc from the National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill, London. In this talk I recall the events that led us to embark on a systematic reinvestigation of the phenomenon now known as long-term potentiation (LTP) and will then go on to describe the discoveries and controversies that enlivened the early decades of research into synaptic plasticity in the mammalian brain. I will end with an observer’s view of the current state of research in the field, and what we might expect from it in the future.

Monash Biomedical Imaging is part of the new $71.2 million Australian Precision Medicine Enterprise (APME) facility, which will deliver large-scale development and manufacturing of precision medicines and theranostic radiopharmaceuticals for industry and research. A key feature of the APME project is a high-energy cyclotron with multiple production clean rooms, which will be located on the Monash Biomedical Imaging (MBI) site in Clayton. This strategic co-location will facilitate radiochemistry, PET and SPECT research and clinical use of theranostic (therapeutic and diagnostic) radioisotopes produced on-site. In this webinar, MBI’s Professor Gary Egan and Dr Maggie Aulsebrook will explain how the APME will secure Australia’s supply of critical radiopharmaceuticals, build a globally competitive Australian manufacturing hub, and train scientists and engineers for the Australian workforce. They will cover the APME’s state-of-the-art 30 MeV and 18-24 MeV cyclotrons and radiochemistry facilities, as well as the services that will be accessible to students, scientists, clinical researchers, and pharmaceutical companies in Australia and around the world. The APME is a collaboration between Monash University, Global Medical Solutions Australia, and Telix Pharmaceuticals. Professor Gary Egan is Director of Monash Biomedical Imaging, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function and a Distinguished Professor at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University. He is also lead investigator of the Victorian Biomedical Imaging Capability, and Deputy Director of the Australian National Imaging Facility. Dr Maggie Aulsebrook obtained her PhD in Chemistry at Monash University and specialises in the development and clinical translation of radiopharmaceuticals. She has led the development of several investigational radiopharmaceuticals for first-in-human application. Maggie leads the Radiochemistry Platform at Monash Biomedical Imaging.

The evolution of vision revolutionised animal biology, and eyes have evolved in a stunning array of diverse forms over the past half a billion years. Among these are curious duplicated visual systems, where eyes can be spread across the body and specialised for different tasks. Although it sounds radical, duplicated vision is found in most major groups across the animal kingdom, but remains poorly understood. We will explore how and why animals collect information about their environment in this unusual way, looking at examples from tropical forests to the sea floor, and from ancient arthropods to living jellyfish. Have we been short-changed with just two eyes? Dr Lauren Sumner-Rooney is a Research Fellow at the OUMNH studying the function and evolution of animal visual systems. Lauren completed her undergraduate degree at Oxford in 2012, and her PhD at Queen’s University Belfast in 2015. She worked as a research technician and science communicator at the Royal Veterinary College (2015-2016) and held a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin (2016-2017) before arriving at the Museum in 2017.

Liset M de la Prida is a Physicist (1994) and PhD in Neuroscience (1998), who leads the Laboratorio de Circuitos Neuronales at the Instituto Cajal, Madrid, Spain (http://www.hippo-circuitlab.es). The main focus of her lab is to understand the function of the hippocampal circuits in the normal and the diseased brain, in particular oscillations and neuronal representations. She is a leading international expert in the study of the basic mechanisms of physiological ripples and epileptic fast ripples, with strong visibility as developer of novel groundbreaking electrophysiological tools. Dr. de la Prida serves as an Editor for prestigious journals including eLife, Journal of Neuroscience Methods and eNeuro, and has commissioning duties in the American Epilepsy Society, FENS and the Spanish Society for Neurosciences.

WEBINAR 1 Breaking the barrier: Using focused ultrasound for the development of targeted therapies for brain tumours presented by Dr Ekaterina (Caty) Salimova, Monash Biomedical Imaging Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) - brain cancer - is aggressive and difficult to treat as systemic therapies are hindered by the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Focused ultrasound (FUS) - a non-invasive technique that can induce targeted temporary disruption of the BBB – is a promising tool to improve GBM treatments. In this webinar, Dr Ekaterina Salimova will discuss the MRI-guided FUS modality at MBI and her research to develop novel targeted therapies for brain tumours. Dr Ekaterina (Caty) Salimova is a Research Fellow in the Preclinical Team at Monash Biomedical Imaging. Her research interests include imaging cardiovascular disease and MRI-guided focused ultrasound for investigating new therapeutic targets in neuro-oncology. - WEBINAR 2 Disposition of the Kv1.3 inhibitory peptide HsTX1[R14A], a novel attenuator of neuroinflammation presented by Sanjeevini Babu Reddiar, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences The voltage-gated potassium channel (Kv1.3) in microglia regulates membrane potential and pro-inflammatory functions, and non-selective blockade of Kv1.3 has shown anti-inflammatory and disease improvement in animal models of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Therefore, specific inhibitors of pro-inflammatory microglial processes with CNS bioavailability are urgently needed, as disease-modifying treatments for neurodegenerative disorders are lacking. In this webinar, PhD candidate Ms Sanju Reddiar will discuss the synthesis and biodistribution of a Kv1.3-inhibitory peptide using a [64Cu]Cu-DOTA labelled conjugate. Sanjeevini Babu Reddiar is a PhD student at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She is working on a project identifying the factors governing the brain disposition and blood-brain barrier permeability of a Kv1.3-blocking peptide.

In most animals including in humans, emotions occur together with changes in the body, such as variations in breathing or heart rate, sweaty palms, or facial expressions. It has been suggested that this interoceptive information acts as a feedback signal to the brain, enabling adaptive modulation of emotions that is essential for survival. As such, fear, one of our basic emotions, must be kept in a functional balance to minimize risk-taking while allowing for the pursuit of essential needs. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this adaptive modulation of fear remain poorly understood. In this talk, I want to present and discuss the data from my PhD work where we uncover a crucial role for the interoceptive insular cortex in detecting changes in heart rate to maintain an equilibrium between the extinction and maintenance of fear memories in mice.

The SynAGE committee members are thrilled to host ISYNC, the International SynAGE conference on healthy ageing, on 28-30 March 2022 in Magdeburg, Germany. This conference has been entirely organised from young scientists of the SynAGE research training group RTG 2413 (www.synage.de) and represents a unique occasion for researchers from all over the world to bring together and join great talks and sessions with us and our guests. A constantly updated list of our speakers can be found on the conference webpage: www.isync-md.de. During the conference, attendees will have access to a range of symposia which will deal with Glia, Biomarkers and Immunoresponses during ageing to neurodegeneration brain integrity and cognitive function in health and diseases. Moreover, the conference will offer social events especially for young researchers and the possibility to network together in a beautiful and suggestive location where our conference will take place: the Johanniskirche. The event will be happening in person, but due to the current pandemic situation and restrictions we are planning the conference as a hybrid event with lots of technical support to ensure that every participant can follow the talks and take part in the scientific discussions. The registration to our ISYNC conference is free of charge. However, the number of people attending the conference in person is restricted to 100. Afterwards, registrations will be accepted for joining virtually only. The registration is open until 15.02.2022. Especially for PhD and MD Students: Check our available Travel Grants, Poster Prize and SynAGE Award Dinner: https://www.isync-md.de/index.php/phd-md-specials/ If you need any further information don’t hesitate to contact us via email: contact@synage.de. We are looking forward to meet you in 2022 in Magdeburg to discuss about our research and ideas and bless together science. Your ISYNC organization Committee

How does the brain interpret signals from the outside world? Walking through a park, you might take for granted the ease with which you can understand what you see. Rather than seeing a series of still snapshots, you are able to see simple, fluid movement — of dogs running, squirrels foraging, or kids playing basketball. You can track their paths and know where they are headed without much thought. “How does this process take place?” asks Rudy Behnia, PhD, a principal investigator at Columbia’s Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. “For most of us, it’s hard to imagine a world where we can’t see motion, shapes, and color; where we can’t have a representation of the physical world in our head.” And yet this representation does not happen automatically — our brain has no direct connection with the outside world. Instead, it interprets information taken in by our senses. Dr. Behnia is studying how the brain builds these representations. As a starting point, she focuses on how we see motion

I am working on color vision in Drosophila, identifying behaviors that involve color vision and understanding the neural circuits supporting them (Longden 2016). I have a long-term interest in understanding how neural computations operate reliably under changing circumstances, be they external changes in the sensory context, or internal changes of state such as hunger and locomotion. On internal state-modulation of sensory processing, I have shown how hunger alters visual motion processing in blowflies (Longden et al. 2014), and identified a role for octopamine in modulating motion vision during locomotion (Longden and Krapp 2009, 2010). On responses to external cues, I have shown how one kind of uncertainty in the motion of the visual scene is resolved by the fly (Saleem, Longden et al. 2012), and I have identified novel cells for processing translation-induced optic flow (Longden et al. 2017). I like working with colleagues who use different model systems, to get at principles of neural operation that might apply in many species (Ding et al. 2016, Dyakova et al. 2015). I like work motivated by computational principles - my background is computational neuroscience, with a PhD on models of memory formation in the hippocampus (Longden and Willshaw, 2007).

Interest in psychedelic compounds is growing due to their remarkable potential for understanding altered neural states and their breakthrough status to treat various psychiatric disorders. However, there are major knowledge gaps regarding how psychedelics affect the brain. The Computational Neuroscience Laboratory at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, uses multimodal neuroimaging to test hypotheses of the brain’s functional reorganisation under psychedelics, informed by the accounts of hierarchical predictive processing, using dynamic causal modelling (DCM). DCM is a generative modelling technique which allows to infer the directed connectivity among brain regions using functional brain imaging measurements. In this webinar, Associate Professor Adeel Razi and PhD candidate Devon Stoliker will showcase a series of previous and new findings of how changes to synaptic mechanisms, under the control of serotonin receptors, across the brain hierarchy influence sensory and associative brain connectivity. Understanding these neural mechanisms of subjective and therapeutic effects of psychedelics is critical for rational development of novel treatments and for the design and success of future clinical trials. Associate Professor Adeel Razi is a NHMRC Investigator Fellow and CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar at the Turner Institute of Brain and Mental Health, Monash University. He performs cross-disciplinary research combining engineering, physics, and machine-learning. Devon Stoliker is a PhD candidate at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University. His interest in consciousness and psychiatry has led him to investigate the neural mechanisms of classic psychedelic effects in the brain.

On behalf of NeurotechEU, we are pleased to invite you to participate in the Summit 2021 pre-selection event on October 23, 2021. The event will be held online via the Platform Crowdcast.io, and it is going to be organized by NeurotechEU-The European University of Brain and Technology. Students from all over NeurotechEU have the chance to present their research (bachelor’s thesis, Master’s thesis, PhD, post-doc…) following the methodology of three minutes thesis (3MT from the University of Queensland): https://threeminutethesis.uq.edu.au/resources/3mt-competitor-guide. There will be one session per university and at the end of it, two semi-finalists will be selected from each university. They will compete in the Summit 2021 on November 22nd. There will be prizes for the winners who will be selected by voting of the audience.

John DowlingJohn E. Dowling received his AB and PhD from Harvard University. He taught in the Biology Department at Harvard from 1961 to 1964, first as an Instructor, then as assistant professor. In 1964 he moved to Johns Hopkins University, where he held an appointment as associate professor of Ophthalmology and Biophysics. He returned to Harvard as professor of Biology in 1971, was the Maria Moors Cabot Professor of Natural Sciences from 1971-2001, Harvard College professor from 1999-2004 and is presently the Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences. Dowling was chairman of the Biology Department at Harvard from 1975 to 1978 and served as associate dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences from 1980 to 1984. He was Master of Leverett House at Harvard from 1981-1998 and currently serves as president of the Corporation of The Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a member of the American Philosophical Society. Awards that Dowling received include the Friedenwald Medal from the Association of Research in Ophthalmology and Vision in 1970, the Annual Award of the New England Ophthalmological Society in 1979, the Retinal Research Foundation Award for Retinal Research in 1981, an Alcon Vision Research Recognition Award in 1986, a National Eye Institute's MERIT award in 1987, the Von Sallman Prize in 1992, The Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research in 2000 and the Llura Ligget Gund Award for Lifetime Achievement and Recognition of Contribution to the Foundation Fighting Blindness in 2001. He was granted an honorary MD degree by the University of Lund (Sweden) in 1982 and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Dalhousie University (Canada) in 2012. Dowling's research interests have focused on the vertebrate retina as a model piece of the brain. He and his collaborators have long been interested in the functional organization of the retina, studying its synaptic organization, the electrical responses of the retinal neurons, and the mechanisms underlying neurotransmission and neuromodulation in the retina. Dowling became interested in zebrafish as a system in which one could explore the development and genetics of the vertebrate retina about 20 years ago. Part of his research team has focused on retinal development in zebrafish and the role of retinoic acid in early eye and photoreceptor development. A second group has developed behavioral tests to isolate mutations, both recessive and dominant, specific to the visual system.

Personalised medicine will be greatly enhanced with the introduction of new radiopharmaceuticals for the diagnosis and treatment of various cancers, as well as cardiovascular disease and brain disorders. The unprecedented interest in developing theranostic radiopharmaceuticals is mainly due to the recent clinical successes of radiometal-based products including: • 177LuDOTA-TATE (trade name Lutathera, FDA approved in 2018), a peptide-based tracer that is used for treating metastatic neuroendocrine tumours • Ga 68 PSMA-11 (FDA approved in 2020), a positron emission tomography agent for imaging prostate-specific membrane antigen positive lesions in men with prostate cancer. In this webinar, Dr Brett Paterson and PhD candidate Mr Cormac Kelderman will present their research on developing the chemistry and radiochemistry to produce new radiometal-based imaging and therapy agents. They will discuss the synthesis of new molecules, the optimisation of the radiochemistry, and results from preclinical evaluations. Dr Brett Paterson is a National Imaging Facility Fellow at Monash Biomedical Imaging and academic group leader in the School of Chemistry, Monash University. His research focuses on the development of radiochemistry and new radiopharmaceuticals. Cormac Kelderman is a PhD candidate under the supervision of Dr Brett Paterson in the School of Chemistry, Monash University. His research focuses on developing new bis(thiosemicarbazone) chelators for technetium-99m SPECT imaging.

Dr. Stowers obtained her PhD at Harvard University and remained there to undertake the study of olfactory-mediated behavior with Catherine Dulac. During this time she completed experiments identifying vomeronasal organ neurons as sensors for mouse pheromones. In 2002 she began independent work at The Scripps Research Institute where she remains today. Her lab is leveraging the olfactory system to identify and study the information code that underlies emotion-linked innate behavior. She has been a Pew Scholar and a Senior Scholar in Neuroscience from the Ellison Medical Foundation.

In this webinar, Dr Ye Tian and A/Prof Andrew Zalesky will present new research on mapping the functional architecture of the human subcortex. They used 3T and 7T functional MRI from more than 1000 people to map one of the most detailed functional atlases of the human subcortex to date. Comprising four hierarchical scales, the new atlas reveals the complex topographic organisation of the subcortex, which dynamically adapts to changing cognitive demands. The atlas enables whole-brain mapping of connectomes and has been used to optimise targeting of deep brain stimulation. This joint work with Professors Michael Breakspear and Daniel Margulies was recently published in Nature Neuroscience. In the second part of the webinar, Dr Ye Tian will present her current research on the biological ageing of different body systems, including the human brain, in health and degenerative conditions. Conducted in more than 30,000 individuals, this research reveals associations between the biological ageing of different body systems. She will show the impact of lifestyle factors on ageing and how advanced ageing can predict the risk of mortality. Associate Professor Andrew Zalesky is a Principal Researcher with a joint appointment between the Faculties of Engineering and Medicine at The University of Melbourne. He currently holds a NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship and serves as Associate Editor for Brain Topography, Neuroimage Clinical and Network Neuroscience. Dr Zalesky is recognised for the novel tools that he has developed to analyse brain networks and their application to the study of neuropsychiatric disorders. Dr Ye Tian is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne. She received her PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2020, during which she established the Melbourne Subcortex Atlas. Dr Tian is interested in understanding brain organisation and using brain imaging techniques to unveil neuropathology underpinning neuropsychiatric disorders.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most present neurodegenerative disease in the world after Alzheimer's. It is due to the progressive and irreversible loss of dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra Pars Compacta. Alpha synuclein deposits and the appearance of Lewi bodies are systematically associated with it. PD is characterized by four cardinal motor symptoms: bradykinesia / akinesia, rigidity, postural instability and tremors at rest. These symptoms appear when 80% of the dopaminergic endings disappear in the striatum. According to Braak's theory, non-motor symptoms appear much earlier and this is particularly the case with anxiety, depression, anhedonia, and sleep disturbances. In 90 to 95% of cases, the causes of the appearance of the disease remain unknown, but polluting toxic molecules are incriminated more and more. In Africa, neurodegenerative diseases of the Parkinson's type are increasingly present and a parallel seems to exist between the increase in cases and the presence of toxic and polluting products such as metals. My Web conference will focus on this aspect, i.e. present experimental arguments which reinforce the hypothesis of the incrimination of these pollutants in the incidence of Parkinson's disease and / or Parkinsonism. Among the lines of research that we have developed in my laboratory in Rabat, Morocco, I have chosen this one knowing that many of our PhD students and IBRO Alumni are working or trying to develop scientific research on neurotoxicity in correlation with pathologies of the brain.

This seminar is part of our “Emergent Scientists” series, an initiative that provides a platform for scientists at the critical PhD/postdoc transition period to share their work with a broad audience and network. Summary: These talks cover Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research in both mice and humans. Christiana will discuss in particular the translational aspects of applying mouse work to humans and the importance of timing in disease pathology and intervention (e.g. timing between AD biomarkers vs. symptom onset, timing of therapy, etc.). Siddharth will discuss a rare variant of Alzheimer’s disease called “Logopenic Progressive Aphasia”, which presents with temporo-parietal atrophy yet relative sparing of hippocampal circuitry. Siddharth will discuss how, despite the unusual anatomical basis underlying this AD variant, degeneration of the angular gyrus in the left inferior parietal lobule contributes to memory deficits similar to those of typical amnesic Alzheimer’s disease. Christiana’s abstract: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder that causes severe deterioration of memory, cognition, behavior, and the ability to perform daily activities. The disease is characterized by the accumulation of two proteins in fibrillar form; Amyloid-β forms fibrils that accumulate as extracellular plaques while tau fibrils form intracellular tangles. Here we aim to translate findings from a commonly used AD mouse model to AD patients. Here we initiate and chronically inhibit neuropathology in lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC) layer two neurons in an AD mouse model. This is achieved by over-expressing P301L tau virally and chronically activating hM4Di DREADDs intracranially using the ligand dechloroclozapine. Biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is measured longitudinally in the model using microdialysis, and we use this same system to intracranially administer drugs aimed at halting AD-related neuropathology. The models are additionally tested in a novel contextual memory task. Preliminary findings indicate that viral injections of P301L tau into LEC layer two reveal direct projections between this region and the outer molecular layer of dentate gyrus and the rest of hippocampus. Additionally, phosphorylated tau co-localize with ‘starter cells’ and appear to spread from the injection site. Preliminary microdialysis results suggest that the concentrations of CSF amyloid-β and tau proteins mirror changes observed along the disease cascade in patients. The disease-modifying drugs appear to halt neuropathological development in this preclincial model. These findings will lead to a novel platform for translational AD research, linking the extensive research done in rodents to clinical applications. Siddharth’s abstract: A distributed brain network supports our ability to remember past events. The parietal cortex is a critical member of this network, yet, its exact contributions to episodic remembering remain unclear. Neurodegenerative syndromes affecting the posterior neocortex offer a unique opportunity to understand the importance and role of parietal regions to episodic memory. In this talk, I introduce and explore the rare neurodegenerative syndrome of Logopenic Progressive Aphasia (LPA), an aphasic variant of Alzheimer’s disease presenting with early, left-lateralized temporo-parietal atrophy, amidst relatively spared hippocampal integrity. I then discuss two key studies from my recent Ph.D. work showcasing pervasive episodic and autobiographical memory dysfunction in LPA, to a level comparable to typical, amnesic Alzheimer’s disease. Using multimodal neuroimaging, I demonstrate how degeneration of the angular gyrus in the left inferior parietal lobule, and its structural connections to the hippocampus, contribute to amnesic profiles in this syndrome. I finally evaluate these findings in the context of memory profiles in other posterior cortical neurodegenerative syndromes as well as recent theoretical models underscoring the importance of the parietal cortex in the integration and representation of episodic contextual information.