PhD student in Neuroscience; Effects of Virtual Reality Neural Activity and Behavior

PhD student in Neuroscience (Effects of Virtual Reality on Neural Activity and Behavior)

NEU

The Optophysiology Group at the Institute for Machine-Brain Interfacing Technology (IMBIT), University of Freiburg, is seeking a highly motivated PhD student in Neuroscience (Effects of Virtual Reality on Neural Activity and Behavior) to join our interdisciplinary research team.

Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and central funds of the University of Freiburg, the project will investigate how the brain represents and processes information in virtual versus real-world environments. Using mice performing behavioral tasks in both settings, we will examine whether animals can transfer learned information between virtual and real environments and whether the two contexts lead to differences in neuronal activity and population dynamics.

Do the neural representations formed in virtual environments resemble those formed during real-world experience—and can knowledge acquired in one environment be used in the other?

You will work on an interdisciplinary project combining rodent behavior, virtual reality, two-photon calcium imaging, optogenetics, and computational data analysis.

• Designing and conducting behavioral experiments with mice in virtual and real environments
• Performing two-photon calcium imaging of neuronal activity
• Applying holographic optogenetics to selectively manipulate neuronal populations (see Ammer et al., 2024)
• Contributing to the design and development of a novel two-photon miniscope
• Characterizing and validating the newly developed miniscope in vivo
• Analyzing and modelling the resulting behavioural and neural data
• Contributing to the interpretation and publication of the findings

The position is 65% TV-L, funded for three years
, with the possibility of extension.

We are looking for a candidate with a background in neuroscience, neurobiology, computational neuroscience, or a related field who is excited about combining experimental and quantitative approaches.

Essential qualifications:

• A university degree (Master's or equivalent) in neuroscience, neurobiology, biology, biomedical sciences, or a related discipline
• Experience with or a strong interest in neuroscience and animal behavior
• Good programming skills, preferably Python
• Basic knowledge of statistics and quantitative data analysis
• Ability to work independently while contributing actively to a collaborative research team
• Motivation to learn and apply advanced experimental and computational methods

Experience with FELASA-certified laboratory animal training is an advantage but not essential and can be acquired during the project, where applicable.

• Experience with rodent behavioural training and/or in vivo experiments
• Calcium imaging and/or optogenetics
• Arduino or other microcontroller-based systems
• Basic electronics and circuit design
• Machine learn
  ing or computational neuroscience

You do not need to have experience in all of these areas.
Curiosity, scientific independence, and the motivation to learn new techniques are more important.

You will join the
Optophysiology Lab
, led by Prof. Ilka Diester
, at IMBIT, a state-of-the-art research center at the University of Freiburg. Our international team investigates cognitive motor control and the neural mechanisms underlying flexible behavior
, combining behavioral neuroscience with cutting-edge technologies including optogenetics, electrophysiology, calcium imaging, and computational approaches.

The project is embedded in an interdisciplinary collaboration with:
Prof. Caglar Ataman
, an expert in endoscopy, microsystems, and bioelectronics
Prof. Marlene Bartos
, an expert in neuronal calcium imaging…