PhD position EEG and Neurobiological Markers

Are you a motivated early-career researcher with a strong interest in EEG, neurobiology, and precision medicine
? Would you like to investigate how neurobiological markers related to reward, motivation, and impulsivity can contribute to a better understanding of health and disease?

We are looking for an enthusiastic PhD candidate to join an international, multidisciplinary research programme investigating reward, motivation, and impulsivity across major depressive disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, and obesity
.

Your PhD research will combine three closely connected components: a systematic review of EEG measures, empirical EEG analyses, and hypothesis-driven research investigating relationships between EEG and other neurobiological markers
.

The position provides an opportunity to develop expertise in EEG methodology and quantitative analysis while contributing to a broader precision medicine approach that integrates evidence across different populations, research settings, and types of biological and clinical data.

Faculty of Science and Engineering

PhD position EEG and Neurobiological Markers

Your PhD research will connect systematic evidence synthesis with empirical EEG research and hypothesis-driven investigation of neurobiological markers.

Systematic review of EEG measures

A first component of your research will be a systematic review of EEG measures relevant to reward, motivation, and impulsivity.

You will:

• Develop and conduct a systematic review of EEG measures relevant to reward, motivation, and impulsivity.
• Define and document search strategies and eligibility criteria.
• Screen and select relevant scientific literature.
• Extract and organise information on EEG measures, study characteristics, populations, outcomes, and relevant neurobiological markers.
• Synthesise and map the available evidence in a transparent and reproducible manner.
• Investigate the consistency and potential relevance of different EEG measures across populations and research settings.
• Identify promising EEG measures as well as important gaps in the existing evidence.
• Contribute to scientific publications and other outputs arising from the evidence synthesis.

This work will provide an evidence-based foundation for the interpretation and selection of EEG measures used in the empirical research.

EEG analyses

A substantial part of your PhD will involve analysing EEG data generated through cohort and clinical research.

Depending on the available datasets and specific research questions, you will:

• Contribute to the preparation, preprocessing, and quality control of EEG data.
• Develop and apply appropriate EEG analysis pipelines.
• Investigate EEG measures relevant to reward, motivation, and impulsivity.
• Examine associations between EEG measures and behavioural, clinical, and other relevant variables.
• Analyse data collected across different populations and research settings.
• Contribute to the development of reproducible and well-documented analytical workflows.
• Interpret EEG findings in the context of the broader scientific framework.
• Communicate findings through scientific publications, presentations, and research meetings.

You will progressively develop methodological independence and contribute to decisions concerning the analysis and interpretation of EEG data under the guidance of the supervisory team.

Hypothesis testing with neurobiological markers

A further aim of the PhD is to investigate hypothesis-driven relationships between EEG measures and other neurobiological markers
.

You will:

• Formulate and test hypotheses concerning relationships between neurobiological markers relevant to reward, motivation, and impulsivity.
• Investigate associations between EEG measures and other available biological, clinical, behavioural, or phenotypic measures.
• Examine whether neurobiological markers are associated with transdiagnostic dimensions of reward, motivation, and impulsivity or with relevant clinical outcomes.
• Apply appropriate statistical methods to test predefined hypotheses.
• Investigate whether combinations of neurobiological measures provide complementary information.
• Interpret findings in relation to existing evidence and the broader precision medicine framework.
• Contribute to understanding the potential of neurobiological markers for characterising clinically relevant profiles across different conditions.

The precise analytical approaches will be developed in collaboration with the supervisory team and will depend on the available datasets and…