Occasional Research Associate Help Opportunity at ICN

POSITION : Research Associate
UNIT/DEPT: UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
REPORTS TO: Prof. Tamar Makin
GRADE : Grade 7

Job Description

Main Purpose

The Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience has an opening for a part-time research associate position for 1 year starting from June 2021. The post-holder will work in the Plasticity Group, headed by Prof. Tamar Makin, at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and will be expected to carry out research in the area of sensorimotor plasticity in one-handed individuals and support research in the area body augmentation. The post-holder will be responsible for supporting the development of new state of the art functional imaging protocols (fMRI) in combination with psychophysical and motor paradigms, their implementation, and supporting data collection and analysis.

Duties and Responsibilities

• To provide support on the development of new neuroimaging protocols and assist with complex analysis of neuroimaging data using software such as FSL or SPM, FreeSurfer and Matlab.
• To train and support junior lab members with neuroimaging and behavioural data analysis and provide insight into the design of upcoming research studies on brain plasticity in individuals with upper limb differences and body augmentation
• To record, analyse and write up the results of experiments, maintaining a permanent record of the methodologies and the experiment.
• To prepare and present findings of research activity to colleagues and at international meetings.
• To assist writing of scientific papers to publish in appropriate peer reviewed journals, collaborating with others as appropriate.
• To contribute to the overall activities of the research team and the department as appropriate.
• To contribute to the induction and direction of other research staff and students
• As duties and responsibilities change, the job description will be reviewed and amended in consultation with the post-holder
• The post-holder will carry out any other duties as are within the scope, spirit and purpose of the job as requested by the line manager or Head of Department/Division
• The post-holder will actively follow UCL policies including Equal Opportunities and Race Equality policies
• The post-holder will maintain an awareness and observation of Fire and Health & Safety Regulations.

Personal Specification

Essential:

•  PhD in Neuroscience, with evidence for distinction, on topics closely relating to plasticity in the somatosensory system and prosthesis representation in the brain.
• Previous experience working with amputees and individuals with a congenital upper limb difference.
• Previous experience working with body augmentation devices, preferably supernumerary robotic fingers such as the Third Thumb.
• Expertise in a range of psychophysical tasks to assess somatosensory perception and learning.
• Expertise in designing and running fMRI experiments (at 3 Tesla and at 7 Tesla).
• Expertise in analysing fMRI data: from pre-processing to GLM analysis, MVPA analysis (RSA), resting state and functional connectivity analysis.
• Good programming skills and software knowledge: Matlab, SPM or FSL, FreeSurfer.
• Proven ability to analyse and write up data, including several publications within this area of research in top-tier journals.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills, including oral and displayed presentations, as well as public engagement experience.
• Good organisational skills.
• Experience in supervising students.

Desirable:

• Experience with computational models such as Drift Diffusion Models (DDM)
• Experience with analysis of accelerometery data.
• Previous experience investigating motor and visual body representation

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