[Eeglablist] Search for applicants for the 2025 campaign (deadline September 10th 2025) of the Marie Curie postdoctoral european grants

[Harold Mouras]

1 Request for applicants to the Marie Curie postdoctoral european grants – Environmental neuroscience – LNFP, Amiens, France
The LNFP laboratory (School of Medicine, University of Picardy Jules Verne, Amiens, France) is looking for highly motivated candidates for the 2025 postdoctoral fellowship campaign under the European Marie Curie program.

• Research Project Title: Motor and neural reactions in response to visual perception of environment and its pollution: role of immersion and embodiment
• Keywords: Posturography, EEG, Embodiment, Landscapes Perception, Pollution, Emotion, Immersion
• Abstract of the Research Project:

Over the past decade, posturography has made it possible to study the link between emotion and motor skills in the brain. For example, this technique has been successfully applied to the study of empathy. In today’s society, concern for the environment is on the increase. To take this into account, we need to understand in detail the biological mechanisms (in the brain in particular) involved in perceiving the environment, disrupting it through pollution, and by extension, in making decisions about it. Given that (i) empathy is an important process identified by environmental psychology in the appreciation of nature; (ii) emotions play an important role in the connection with nature; (iii) the subject’s immersion also modulates his reaction to the environment, we have pioneered the application of posturography to identify biomarkers of environmental pollution and its alteration by pollution. In previous studies, limitations such as the lack of measurement of brain reactivity and the lack of manipulation of the subject’s degree of immersion limited the scope of the results.
In this project, we propose to address these limitations by using electroencephalography in conjunction with posturography, and by increasing participants’ degree of immersion using immersive visual devices such as a 57-inch curved screen and a virtual reality headset. Building on the knowledge gained from our previous studies, this project should enable us to characterize behavioral and biological responses to nature in detail, and identify the levers on which to act to improve the decisions involved in safeguarding the environment.

• Context and Motivation:

The study of psychological and physiological processes involved in the perception of natural environments and the associated behavioral responses is a major contemporary research question. In line with our growing concern for the environment, a detailed understanding of how these processes are modulated by pollution is also a burning issue in our efforts to improve environmental protection systems. From an experimental point of view, various studies have used different methods such as EEG, eye-tracking...showing differential modulation of these responses (physiological, brain areas...) during landscape perception. At the crossroad of emotion and motricity, posturography has been used in different studies study (Akounach et al., 2022; Akounach et al., 2025a; Akounach et al., 2025b) to explore the physiological responses to pollution visual perception demonstrating a differential modulation of posture by (i) landscapes valence (pleasant vs non-pleasant) and (ii) participant’s immersion intensity within the depicted scene. Major limitations of the posturographic studies developed so far concern (i) the lack of data on the central mechanisms presiding over postural modulation and (ii) the absence of experimental manipulation of the degree of immersion other than by the instruction given.

• Scientific Objectives:

As explained above, we have recently applied posturography for the first time to the study of the motor correlates of the perception of pleasant and polluted environments (Akounach et al., 2022; Akounach et al., submitted). Work is currently in progress to overcome the methodological limitations of our previous studies: on the one hand, a study in which we wish to jointly collect posturography and electroencephalography during the viewing of landscapes varying in valence and degree of pollution, and on the other hand, a simple posturography study in which the degree of immersion is manipulated via the means of viewing the images (for increasing degree of immersion, curved screen then virtual reality headset). As these studies are currently under development, the start of the postdoctoral project will be based on preliminary data from these two studies. The main objectives of the internship will be:

1. test the feasibility of using a virtual reality device with the experimental paradigm enabling joint collection of posturography and electroencephalography;
2. expand the number of pictures available in our databases for these different experimental conditions: neutral landscapes, pleasant landscapes, polluted landscapes. We are currently working on 3D shooting to make our visual stimuli currently usable on both a curved screen and a virtual reality headset. For the pollution condition in particular, the aim is to match the basic visual properties of the images as closely as possible, and thus to manipulate the pollution factor on the same visual scene by pollution� the scene with the experimenter’s intervention (adding one or two plastic bottles; fast-food packaging, for example...). This work could be extended at the beginning of the course to considerably increase the stimuli currently available.
3. if applicable, to jointly measure postural and neural responses in electroencephalography to exposure to landscapes varying in valence and degree of pollution in a paradigm manipulating the degree of immersion of participants either via the instruction to imagine themselves in the scene represented or via modulation of the image presentation device (curved screen or virtual reality headset).


• Practical informations: if interested, send a CV, letter of motivation and one letter of recommendation (if possible) to harold.mouras at u-picardie.fr before 10th August 2025.
• Skills appreciated: previous experience data (EEG or posturographic) data processing, interest for socioaffective neuroscience, R and statistical software etc...
• Administrative requirements to be met in order to apply for the AAP with our laboratory:
    • MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to postdoctoral researchers from all over the world that
        • hold a PhD degree on the closing date for applications. Applicants who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis but who have not yet formally been awarded the doctoral degree are also eligible to apply
        • have a maximum of eight years of experience in research from the date of the award of the PhD degree of the following experience will not be counted towards this maximum
            • years of experience outside research and career breaks
            • years of experience in research in third countries, for nationals or long-term residents of EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries who wish to reintegrate to Europe
        • comply with mobility rules: they must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the beneficiary (for European Postdoctoral Fellowships), or the host organization for the outgoing phase (for Global Postdoctoral Fellowships) for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the call deadline

2 Request for applicants to the Marie Curie postdoctoral European grants – Motivational neuroscience – LNFP, Amiens, France
The LNFP laboratory (School of Medicine, University of Picardy Jules Verne, Amiens, France) is looking for highly motivated candidates for the 2025 postdoctoral fellowship campaign under the European Marie Curie program.

• Research Project Title: Neural and postural biomarkers of appetite for food and alcohol: influence of consumption level and subject immersion
• Keywords: Posturography, EEG, Embodiment, Motivation, Incentives, Emotion, Immersion
• Abstract of the Research Project:

Alcohol consumption is one of the major health problems in contemporary societies, influencing the development of a number of diseases, particularly neurological ones. Following in the footsteps of Darwin’s pioneering work, the study of the interaction between emotional and motor processes has benefited from the study of the posturographic correlates of the processing of socioaffective information, demonstrating in particular that they are modulated by the valence of the emotional information and the degree of immersion (perceptual and/or cognitive) of the subject. The number of posturography studies conducted under motivational conditions is small (one study on sexual motivation, one study on food, two studies on alcohol). A major limitation of the studies was the lack of collection of neural responses associated with postural modulation. Initial funding enabled the selection of motivational stimuli (alcohol and food) implemented in an experimental stimulation paradigm compatible with the joint collection of posturography and EEG. The preliminary results, currently being finalized, are very encouraging and show that posture and eeg are modulated by the motivational conditions. In this research, we will use the important methodological foundations of this pioneering project to focus on exploring the differential modulation of postural and neural correlates by (i) the degree of immersion (cognitive and/or perceptual) of the subject (for which previous studies have shown the modulatory leverage effect) and (ii) the level of consumption of the subjects. We therefore hypothesize a differential modulation of postural and neural correlates (evoked potentials and spectral activity) in response to the presentation of food and alcohol stimuli by these two parameters

• Context and Motivation:

The study of psychological and physiological processes involved in the perception of incentives and the associated behavioral responses is a major contemporary research question. In line with our growing concern for motivation, a detailed understanding of how these processes are modulated by embodiment is also a burning issue in our efforts to improve health. From an experimental point of view, various studies have used different methods such as EEG, eye-tracking...showing differential modulation of these responses (physiological, brain areas...) during landscape perception. At the crossroad of emotion and motricity, posturography has been used in different studies study (Duman et al., sub; Kisilizik et al, sub; Zitouni et al, sub) to explore the physiological responses to visual incentives demonstrating a differential modulation of posture by (i) incentives valence (food vs alcohol) and (ii) participant’s immersion intensity within the depicted scene. Major limitations of the posturographic studies developed so far concern (i) the lack of data on the central mechanisms presiding over postural modulation and (ii) the absence of experimental manipulation of the degree of immersion other than by the instruction given.

• Scientific Objectives:

As explained above, we have recently applied posturography for the first time to the study of the motor correlates of the perception of pleasant and polluted environments (Akounach et al., 2022; Akounach et al., submitted). Work is currently in progress to overcome the methodological limitations of our previous studies: on the one hand, a study in which we wish to jointly collect posturography and electroencephalography during the viewing of incentives varying in valence, and on the other hand, a simple posturography study in which the degree of immersion is manipulated via the means of viewing the images (for increasing degree of immersion, curved screen then virtual reality headset). As these studies are currently under development, the start of the postdoctoral project will be based on preliminary data from these two studies. The main objectives of the internship will be:

1. test the feasibility of using a virtual reality device with the experimental paradigm enabling joint collection of posturography and electroencephalography;
2. expand the number of pictures available in our databases for these different experimental conditions


• Practical informations: if interested, send a CV, letter of motivation and one letter of recommendation (if possible) to harold.mouras at u-picardie.fr before 10th August 2025.
• Skills appreciated: previous experience data (EEG or posturographic) data processing, interest for socioaffective neuroscience, R and statistical software etc...
• Administrative requirements to be met in order to apply for the AAP with our laboratory:
    • MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to postdoctoral researchers from all over the world that
        • hold a PhD degree on the closing date for applications. Applicants who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis but who have not yet formally been awarded the doctoral degree are also eligible to apply
        • have a maximum of eight years of experience in research from the date of the award of the PhD degree of following experience will not be counted towards this maximum
            • years of experience outside research and career breaks
            • years of experience in research in third countries, for nationals or long-term residents of EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries who wish to reintegrate to Europe
        • comply with mobility rules: they must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the beneficiary (for European Postdoctoral Fellowships), or the host organization for the outgoing phase (for Global Postdoctoral Fellowships) for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the call deadline