[Eeglablist] Ph.D position on neural correlates of motivated social interaction

[Estelle Longin]

Ph.D Title: "Neuroimaging study of neural correlates of motivated social
interaction”



Keywords: social neuroscience ; affective neuroscience ; social context of
affiliation ; empathy ; motivation



Summary:

Two important areas in cognitive neuroscience have developed exponentially
for the last 15 years:

(i) the affective neuroscience that focuses on the study of brain processes
involved in the processing of

emotional information and psychological processes associated, and (ii)
social neuroscience that focuses

on the study of the role of the brain in social relations and the
psychological processes involved. These two

fields converge on the issue of psychological and neural processing of
emotional information expressed by congeners.

In most social relations, we can consider a motivational component of
inter-attraction. It is therefore possible

to understand the psychological and brain processes involved in various
working models, made of different

functional contexts of inter-attraction. Ongoing work in our laboratory
includes the study of these mechanisms

through two functional contexts: empathy for pain and sexual motivation.
These studies are mainly focused on

the knowledge of generalizable cerebral and psychological processes
involved in these contexts, as well as

the determinants modulating the responses (familiarity, social class etc.).

The thesis project aims to understand the neural mechanisms involved by
conducting experiments using two

functional neuroimaging techniques: on the one hand, high-density
electroencephalography characterized by high

temporal resolution, and on the other hand, functional Magnetic Resonance
Imaging characterized by a high

spatial resolution. In a second step, these techniques will be coupled in a
single experimental phase to access

to the indices of correlations between these two types of signals.

The central research question of the project will be to determine the
variation of the neural correlates of both

functional contexts of affiliation mentioned above, according to the social
determinants of the congeners that interact.



Required qualification / Experience:

     - Interest in social and affective neuroscience

     - Experience in functional neuroimaging methodology: design of
experimental paradigms (E-Prime);

     fMRI and / or EEG data collection ; fMRI and / or EEG analysis (SPM ;
BrainVision Analyzer2 ; Matlab ...)



Location : Laboratoire de Neurosciences Fonctionnelles et Pathologies,
Amiens, France.



Contact information: Dr Harold Mouras, hmouras at u-picardie.fr
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