PostDoc: Reading the mind’s eye – Maastricht University (UM) – Maastricht

Are you interested in working within a dynamic team to investigate the neural representations and computations underlying visual mental imagery? Do you want to understand why the experienced vividness of mental images is so different across individuals? Then join the ERC-funded project ‘MINDSEYE’ as a postDoc.

Job Description
Despite extensive research, we still do not have a comprehensive computational understanding of the mechanisms of the mind’s eye: How do we create mental images? And why are some people better at it than others? How do the various brain regions involved in mental imagery contribute to the unified percept in our mind’s eye? Why do we experience imagery so differently ranging from no to extremely vivid mental images?

In the Advanced ERC project “Reading the mind’s eye – AI-inspired personalised brain models of mental imagery” of Prof. Rainer Goebel, a novel perspective on mental imagery is proposed, viewing it as a personalised computational process that takes into account individual brain characteristics. The task of this computational process is to progressively transform abstract object descriptions (semantic input) into visual representations (sensory-like output) through feedback connections in the brain’s processing hierarchy.

To unravel the stages of this conversion process, the team will employ ultra-high field fMRI (7 Tesla and beyond) to measure neural activity across the brain at an unparalleled level of detail. This allows to relate mental imagery and its experienced vividness to individual characteristics of cortical layers in feedback and feedforward pathways. Together the team will integrate the sub-millimetre fMRI data into personalised AI-inspired neural network models, test causal contributions of relevant brain areas to mental imagery, and develop a brain-computer interface to train the vividness of mental imagery. Your work as a PostDoc will focus on co-supervising 4 PhD students assigned to sub-projects. Depending on your experience and interests, you can contribute more specifically to one or two of the 4 sub-projects:

Ultra-high field fMRI to measure activity in feedforward and feedback pathways. You will design psychophysics and fMRI experiments to investigate mental imagery. Besides that you will become a certified user to run ultra-high field fMRI experiments

Non-invasive brain stimulation with TMS to assess the contribution of specific areas to mental image generation. You will design psychophysics, TMS and fMRI experiments to investigate mental imagery. Besides that you will become a certified user to run 3 Tesla fMRI and TMS experiments.

Development of personalized AI inspired brain models informed by fMRI and TMS data. You will develop “text-to-image” generative neural network models of mental imagery. Besides that you will develop laminar neural network architectures separating cortical feedforward and feedback processing streams.

Creation of brain-computer interfaces to recreate mental images and to develop a vividness neurofeedback training program. You will develop a BCI that creates mental images from 7 Tesla laminar fMRI data. Besides that your will become a certified user to run closed-loop ultra-high field fMRI experiments.

You will be part of the ERC ‘MINDSEYE’ team which will be embedded in a very open and cooperative group of colleagues and Pis forming the “Vision” lab (also known as the ‘computational architecture of visual processing streams’ section), which is led by Rainer Goebel. The Vision lab is embedded in the Department of Cognitive Neuroscience at Maastricht University. The Vision lab as well as the whole department work in the spirit of team science, in a very cooperative, collegial, and interdisciplinary work climate. We value and actively engage in local, national and international collaborations. With our empirical, theoretical and computational expertise we aim to contribute to our understanding of the psychological and neural mechanisms of the mind.

You will have the following responsibilities:

Co-supervision of PhD students.

Co-development of research experiments/ models.

Develop pipelines for data analyses.

Support integration of fMRI and TMS data in AI-inspired models.

Present at international conferences.

Write scientific papers.

Co-organize an international workshop.

Contribute to sharing data and models.

Teach in master and bachelor level courses.

Contribute to a nice and open group atmosphere.

Requirements
The ideal candidate is excited to link behavioural and fMRI data with AI-inspired computational modelling. In addition:

You have a PhD in a relevant field (e.g., cognitive neuroscience, computational neuroscience, biomedical engineering, cognitive psychology)

You are excited about research and want to advance your career in science

You have experience with programming languages such as Python (preferred) or Matlab.

You like working in a team and have good communication and leadership skills

You have an excellent command of written and spoken English

Depending on your expertise, you have experience in:
acquiring and analysing fMRI data; experience with ultra-high field imaging is a plus. acquiring and analysing TMS data. implementing DNNs using frameworks such as PyTorch and TensorFlow; experience in linking fMRI data to DNNs is a plus. with fMRI BCIs / neurofeedback

What we offer
As a PostDoc at Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience , you will be employed by the most international university in the Netherlands, located in the beautiful city of Maastricht. In addition, we offer you:

Good employment conditions. The position is graded in scale 10 according to UFO profile Researcher, with corresponding salary based on experience ranging from €3226,00 and €5090,00 gross per month (based on a full-time employment of 38 hours per week). In addition to the monthly salary, an 8.0% holiday allowance and an 8.3% year-end bonus apply.

An employment contract for a period of 48 months with a scope of 1,0 FTE.

At Maastricht University, the well-being of our employees is of utmost importance, we offer flexible working hours and the possibility to work partly from home if the nature of your position allows it. You will receive a monthly commuting and internet allowance for this. If you work full-time, you will be entitled to 29 vacation days and 4 additional public holidays per year, namely carnival Monday, carnival Tuesday, Good Friday, and Liberation Day. If you choose to accumulate compensation hours, an additional 12 days will be added. Furthermore, you can personalize your employment conditions through a collective labor agreement (CAO) choice model.

As Maastricht University, we offer various other excellent secondary employment conditions. These include a good pension scheme with the ABP and the opportunity for UM employees to participate in company fitness and make use of the extensive sports facilities that we also offer to our students.

Last but certainly not least, we provide the space and facilities for your personal and professional development. We facilitate this by offering a wide range of training programs and supporting various well-established initiatives such as ‘acknowledge and appreciate’.

The terms of employment at Maastricht University are largely set out in the collective labor agreement of Dutch Universities. In addition, local provisions specific to UM apply.

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