[Eeglablist] Thesis fellowship EEG Neurofeedback to control mind wandering

[Arnaud Delorme]

Thesis fellowship for 3 years financed by the French ministry of  
research in Toulouse, France: EEG Neurofeedback to control mind  
wandering

The capacity to concentrate for long period of times is critical both  
for students and some specific position (air traffic controller,  
monitor security guard, child care teacher or even Paris taxi driver).  
Failure to do so can result in life-threatening accident. Monks of  
various traditions, practicing concentrative meditation, excel at  
developing a one point focus attention. Over the 3-year course of this  
project, we intend to 1) record the brain activity of monks in  
meditation using EEG. 2) train normal non-meditative subjects to  
produce the same brain rhythms as the monk do. 3) test the  
concentrative capacities of these subjects before and after training.
The institution hosting the project is the University of Toulouse III  
and the CNRS laboratory CERCO. The CERCO (Center for Brain and  
Cognition Research) is an internationally recognized laboratory of 18  
professional independent CNRS researchers. In 2006 4-year evaluation,  
this laboratory was ranked first in Neuroscience in France. It is well  
known for its multidisciplinary approach to cognitive neuroscience  
with experiments on mice, monkeys and humans, and a wide range of  
imaging methodologies including modeling.

The ideal candidate will have:

- a master degree or equivalent in the cognitive or computational  
domain (no constraint in terms of nationality)

- an interest for studying the brain and altered states of  
consciousness such as those induced by neurofeedback or meditation

- a training in mathematics, signal processing and/or computer science

- fluency in English. Working knowledge in French is preferred.

- capacity to work independently

- age limit: 25 (or 30 under special circumstances)

Contact: Arnaud Delorme via email before the 31 of August 2008 (arno at cerco.ups-tlse.fr 
) (include PDF of a motivation letter, a CV, any publication in  
english/french and have 2 references send recommendation letter  
independently by email). http://cerco.ups-tlse.fr/~delorme