Behavioural Role and Neural Representation of Temporal Dynamics in Sensory Stimuli

This 4-year PhD studentship is offered in Dr Andreas Schaefer’s Group based at the Francis Crick Institute (the Crick).

The external world is not static but in a constant state of flux. To understand how the brain functions, we, therefore, must investigate how it extracts relevant information from dynamic, highly fluctuating sensory signals.
Olfaction is an ideal modality with which to study this question. A key sense for nocturnal and crepuscular animals, such as laboratory rodents, the comparatively simple anatomy of the early olfactory system makes it highly accessible and tractable. Turbulent airflow creates a rich temporal structure in the intensity fluctuations of natural odour stimuli. Yet, how these dynamics are processed by the olfactory system and the extent to which it uses or ignores this information remains unknown.
We have recently established quantitative behavioural tools, genetic and optogenetic manipulation of the early olfactory system, electrophysiological and imaging approaches in the awake behaving mouse, and the tools to measure and generate temporally fluctuating olfactory stimuli with high bandwidth. We will now combine these approaches to tackle key questions relating to the significance of natural dynamics for the coding of sensory stimuli.

Examples of questions we are going to ask are

1: What information is contained in the dynamics of natural olfactory stimuli?
2: To what extent do neurons represent such dynamics?
3: How are stimulus dynamics used for behavioural tasks such as navigation?
4: What are the circuits and mechanisms that support, extract information from, or compensate for stimulus dynamics?

Our guiding hypothesis is that temporal dynamics and coherence of natural smells are decoded by the circuitry of the early olfactory system to extract information about distance, location and the nature of olfactory objects and scenes.
The successful candidate will use a combination of optogenetics, in vivo electrophysiology (patch and/or unit recordings) in awake, behaving mice, natural foraging behaviours and/or head-fixed virtual reality tasks guided by computational models to answer these questions.
She/He would bring some background and strong interest in and enthusiasm for systems neuroscience questions. A strong quantitative background and experience in computer programming (Labview, Matlab or similar) will be highly advantageous.

Talented and motivated students passionate about doing research are invited to apply for this PhD position. The successful applicant will join the Crick PhD Programme in September 2017 and will register for their PhD at one of the Crick partner universities (Imperial College London, King’s College London or UCL).

Applicants should hold or expect to gain a first/upper second-class honours degree or equivalent in a relevant subject and have appropriate research experience as part of, or outside of, a university degree course and/or a Masters degree in a relevant subject.

APPLICATIONS MUST BE MADE ONLINE VIA OUR WEBSITE BY 12NOON GMT NOVEMBER 14TH 2016. APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED IN ANY OTHER FORMAT.
https://www.crick.ac.uk/about-us/jobs-and-study/phd-programme/