Dr Michael Okun
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
The project will focus on mechanisms regulating infraslow (second to minute) changes in neuronal activity in the brain.
Most systems-level neuroscience research focuses on millisecond to second timescales because a variety of complex cognitive operations can be completed in a fraction of a second, for example your ability to recognise pictures, sounds or smells, to get up from a chair, or to recollect your yesterday’s whereabouts. However, infraslow neuronal dynamics has important role in regulating these faster cognitive processes, and in behaviours occurring on long timescales, such as sleep. An additional practical motivation to study mechanisms regulating slow changes in brain activity is functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) – the most advanced method to observe brain activity non-invasively – which can detect only the slow changes in activation of different brain areas.
This project can be tailored to be either more experimental or computational, according to the background of the candidate. Areas to focus on include: (i) infraslow interactions between several cortical and sub-cortical areas, (ii) role of neuromodulators (such as noradrenaline and acetylcholine) in regulating brain activity, (iii) infraslow brain dynamics across wakefulness, sleep and anaesthesia.
The position will be based at the Centre for Systems Neuroscience, University of Leicester, UK. Our experimental facilities include state of the art in vivo electrophysiology and 2-photon microscopy setups.
Additional details on the PI and the Centre can be found at www2.le.ac.uk/departments/npb/people/mo178 and www.le.ac.uk/csn
Applications
Apply here: https://www2.le.ac.uk/research-degrees/phd/applyphd
Apply for Neuroscience, Psychology & Behaviour Research.
Include the supervisor and Project title in the Research Proposal Section
In the funding section add OKUN-AMS Grant
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