Can we influence Human Sensorimotor Control through Brain Stimulation?

Applicants are invited for a funded PhD position within the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham, UK. The objective of this project is to employ emerging brain stimulation techniques to causally interact with neural activity during tasks related to human motor planning and execution.

Our capacity to interact with the world relies on our ability to continually integrate sensory information with past experiences to produce an ’optimal’ motor plan. As such our movements are influenced by virtually every part of the human nervous system. Understanding how these systems interact to plan and regulate motor actions is a fundamental question in human neuroscience which has important clinical implications.

This project will focus on our ability to manipulate basic motor actions, starting with physiological tremor in healthy participants. The project will follow an experimental focus but will employ a strong analytic approach. Signal processing and/or mathematical modelling will be used to develop hypotheses and interpret data. The applicant will be involved in the design and conduct of experiments involving human participants and will support undergraduate students in the conduct of ancillary experiments. Behavioural paradigms exploring motor psychophysics will be coupled with the collection of kinematic and electrophysiological data (electromyography, electroencephalography, accelerometry, etc.) along with the application of brain stimulation techniques (transcranial alternating current stimulation and variants thereof; transcranial magnetic stimulation).

Interested candidates should possess or expect to receive a 1st class or upper 2nd class degree (or equivalent) in a related scientific discipline, e.g. biological or physical sciences, computer science, mathematics. Proficiency with technology is essential. Familiarity with programming (especially Matlab and/or Unity), motor psychophysics and some signal processing knowledge is desirable.

For further information see
https://more.bham.ac.uk/cognitive-motor-neuroscience/
https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/psychology/brittain-john-stuart.aspx