FYI
-------forwarded message----------
Programme Leader/Programme Leader Track
Cambridge
The MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (CBSU) is an internationally
renowned research institute with state-of-the-art cognitive neuroscience
facilities, including a research dedicated 3T Siemens TIM Trio MRI
scanner and 306-channel Elekta Neuromag MEG scanner.
We are seeking a talented new Group Leader to lead and manage the
Methods group at the Unit. The role of the group is both to provide
…
[View More]support for analysis of behavioural, fMRI, M/EEG data, DTI and other
data, and to develop and apply innovative methods to support the CBSU
mission to deliver world-class research on human cognition and its
biological underpinnings.
The post will be ideal for a senior postdoctoral scientist with an
outstanding record of scientific achievement, wishing to establish an
independent career in the field of cognitive neuroscience. You will
have a strong background in a relevant discipline (e.g., training in
signal processing, mathematics, physics, statistics, or computer
science), and experience of the type of methods and questions addressed
within human cognitive neuroscience.
This appointment may be made at either Programme Leader (starting salary
£44,314) or Programme Leader Track (starting salary £35,935) level.
This is supported by a flexible pay and reward policy, and optional MRC
final salary Pension Scheme. We offer 30 days annual leave entitlement.
Applications are handled by the RCUK Shared Services Centre; to apply
please visit our job board at https://ext.ssc.rcuk.ac.uk and complete an
online application form. Applicants who would like to receive this
advert in an alternative format (e.g. large print, Braille, audio or
hard copy), or who are unable to apply online should contact us by
telephone on 01793 867003, Please quote reference number IRC24431.
Closing date: 31st August 2011
--
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Dear Users
This Thursday (4-5 pm) there will be a project proposal presentation given
by Rich Harris. The title of Rich's talk is "The neural representation of
perceived changes in facial expression". Please see below for the talk
abstract.
Everyone is welcome to attend and refreshments will be provided.
Best wishes
Rebecca
Abstract:
How the brain represents different aspects of faces remains controversial.
This experiment will present participants with stimuli drawn from morphed
continua …
[View More]between two different emotional facial expressions. In paired
presentations, a second face could: (1) be identical to the first; (2) share
the perceived expression category but differ physically along the morphed
continuum (within-expression change); (3) differ physically by the same
distance along the continuum but in a direction that leads participants to
classify the face pairs as showing expressions of different basic emotions
(between-expression change). Using an fMR-adaptation paradigm, our aim is to
reveal regions of the brain whose activity corresponds to our sensitivity to
changes in facial expression.
--
Dr. Rebecca E. Millman
York Neuroimaging Centre
The Biocentre
York Science Park
York
YO10 5DG
Email: rem(a)ynic.york.ac.uk
Tel: 01904 435 5373
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Hi,
We've added Matlab 7.12 (R2011a) to the YNiC systems. The default has
not yet changed and remains 7.10 (R2010a). Details of the supported
versions are at:
https://www.ynic.york.ac.uk/doc/ITPages/FAQ/Misc/SupportedVersions#Matlab
At the same time, we've updated SPM8 to the latest revision which is
8+svn4290.
Can people please test the new Matlab version as we'll change the
default in September unless any major issues are found. We'll also be
looking to withdraw Matlab 7.8 in September (…
[View More]as previously announced) as
part of a major set of software upgrades. More on this later.
Thanks,
Mark
--
Mark Hymers
York Neuroimaging Centre
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Dear Users
Today (4-5 pm in YNiC) there will be a project proposal presentation by
Carin Whitney. The title of the project is "Investigating semantic
cognition with MEG, fMRI and TMS". Please see below for the talk abstract.
Everyone is welcome to attend and refreshments will be provided after
the talk.
Best wishes
Rebecca
Abstract:
Beth Jefferies, Carin Whitney, Piers Cornelissen and Andy Ellis
This project investigates how semantic cognition – referring to our
ability to understand …
[View More]the meaning of words, pictures, faces, sounds, and
smells – is represented in the brain. We will focus on semantic control,
which is one of two principal components of semantic cognition and
relates to executive mechanisms that enable us to retrieve and select
conceptual knowledge according to the current task or context.
Research has been plentiful in describing the spatial extent of the
brain regions that underpin semantic control, and has identified a
distributed fronto-temporo-parietal network. However, it remains largely
unknown how this system is organised (i.e., what the specific functions
of each component are) and how well they interact. In the proposed
project, we will apply a novel approach to investigate these questions
by combining MEG with TMS and fMRI. In particular, we will use MEG to
track neural activity, allowing us to generate predictions about likely
patterns of communication within the semantic control network and its
relation to other components of semantic cognition (i.e., brain areas
that encode conceptual knowledge). Follow-up TMS will then be used to
impair brain functioning at specific time points to prove causality.
Equivalent fMRI data – taken from the same participants and tasks – will
guide coil positioning for TMS and act as a spatial localiser for MEG.
The project hence aims to establish a neural model of semantic cognition
that is based on convergent evidence across different methods,
generating potentially strong conclusions about how meaning retrieval is
achieved.
--
************************************************************************
Dr. Rebecca E. Millman
Science Liaison Officer
York Neuroimaging Centre
The Biocentre
York Science Park
Heslington
YO10 5DG
Tel: +44 (0) 1904 567614
Fax: +44 (0) 1904 435356
[View Less]
Dear Users
This Thursday (4-5 pm in YNiC) there will be a project proposal
presentation by Carin Whitney. The title of the project is
"Investigating semantic cognition with MEG, fMRI and TMS". Please see
below for the talk abstract.
Everyone is welcome to attend and refreshments will be provided after
the talk.
Best wishes
Rebecca
Abstract:
Beth Jefferies, Carin Whitney, Piers Cornelissen and Andy Ellis
This project investigates how semantic cognition – referring to our
ability to …
[View More]understand the meaning of words, pictures, faces, sounds, and
smells – is represented in the brain. We will focus on semantic control,
which is one of two principal components of semantic cognition and
relates to executive mechanisms that enable us to retrieve and select
conceptual knowledge according to the current task or context.
Research has been plentiful in describing the spatial extent of the
brain regions that underpin semantic control, and has identified a
distributed fronto-temporo-parietal network. However, it remains largely
unknown how this system is organised (i.e., what the specific functions
of each component are) and how well they interact. In the proposed
project, we will apply a novel approach to investigate these questions
by combining MEG with TMS and fMRI. In particular, we will use MEG to
track neural activity, allowing us to generate predictions about likely
patterns of communication within the semantic control network and its
relation to other components of semantic cognition (i.e., brain areas
that encode conceptual knowledge). Follow-up TMS will then be used to
impair brain functioning at specific time points to prove causality.
Equivalent fMRI data – taken from the same participants and tasks – will
guide coil positioning for TMS and act as a spatial localiser for MEG.
The project hence aims to establish a neural model of semantic cognition
that is based on convergent evidence across different methods,
generating potentially strong conclusions about how meaning retrieval is
achieved.
--
************************************************************************
Dr. Rebecca E. Millman
Science Liaison Officer
York Neuroimaging Centre
The Biocentre
York Science Park
Heslington
YO10 5DG
Tel: +44 (0) 1904 567614
Fax: +44 (0) 1904 435356
[View Less]
Dear Users
Today (4-5 pm in YNiC) there will be a talk by Prof. Peter Redgrave from
the University of Sheffield.
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/psychology/staff/academic/peter-redgrave
The title of Prof. Redgrave's talk is "Goal-directed and habitual
control in the basal ganglia: implications
for Parkinson's disease". Please see below for the talk abstract.
Everyone is welcome to attend and refreshments will be provided after
the talk.
Best wishes
Rebecca
Abstract:
Progressive loss of the …
[View More]ascending dopaminergic projection in the basal
ganglia is a fundamental pathological feature of Parkinson’s disease.
Studies in animals and humans have identified spatially segregated
functional territories in the basal ganglia for the control of
goal-directed and habitual actions. In patients with Parkinson’s disease
the loss of dopamine is predominantly in the posterior putamen, a region
of the basal ganglia associated with the control of habitual behaviour.
These patients may therefore be forced into a progressive reliance on
the goal-directed mode of action control that is mediated by
comparatively preserved processing in rostro-medial striatum. Thus, in
addition of the loss of habits, the behavioural difficulties of
Parkinson patients may also be subject to distorting output signals from
habitual control circuits which impede the expression of goal-directed
action.
--
************************************************************************
Dr. Rebecca E. Millman
Science Liaison Officer
York Neuroimaging Centre
The Biocentre
York Science Park
Heslington
YO10 5DG
Tel: +44 (0) 1904 567614
Fax: +44 (0) 1904 435356
[View Less]
Dear Users
This Thursday (4-5 pm in YNiC) there will be a talk by Prof. Peter
Redgrave from the University of Sheffield.
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/psychology/staff/academic/peter-redgrave
The title of Prof. Redgrave's talk is "Goal-directed and habitual
control in the basal ganglia: implications
for Parkinson's disease". Please see below for the talk abstract.
Everyone is welcome to attend and refreshments will be provided after
the talk.
Best wishes
Rebecca
Abstract:
Progressive loss …
[View More]of the ascending dopaminergic projection in the basal
ganglia is a fundamental pathological feature of Parkinson’s disease.
Studies in animals and humans have identified spatially segregated
functional territories in the basal ganglia for the control of
goal-directed and habitual actions. In patients with Parkinson’s disease
the loss of dopamine is predominantly in the posterior putamen, a region
of the basal ganglia associated with the control of habitual behaviour.
These patients may therefore be forced into a progressive reliance on
the goal-directed mode of action control that is mediated by
comparatively preserved processing in rostro-medial striatum. Thus, in
addition of the loss of habits, the behavioural difficulties of
Parkinson patients may also be subject to distorting output signals from
habitual control circuits which impede the expression of goal-directed
action
--
************************************************************************
Dr. Rebecca E. Millman
Science Liaison Officer
York Neuroimaging Centre
The Biocentre
York Science Park
Heslington
YO10 5DG
Tel: +44 (0) 1904 567614
Fax: +44 (0) 1904 435356
[View Less]
Hi,
We have just pushed some core changes to the YNiC NAF Beamforming code.
The change is that nafEpochRejection will no longer produce what have
become known as "Epoch Rejection Files" but will instead produce "Slice
Rejection Files".
"Epoch Rejection File" are simply a list of epochs of data which should
be rejected during analysis due to artifacts. This can be problematic,
as if you change your pre-trigger or epoch duration, the timings of the
epochs will move around and you will reject …
[View More]data you didn't mean to,
whilst not rejecting the data around your artifacts.
The replacement for these are "Slice Rejection Files". These are a list
of slice ranges containing bad data - simply a list of comma separated
slice ranges; one per line.
The analysis (beamformer) code itself will continue to accept Epoch
Rejection Files which are listed in YAML files for analysis, but will
produce "Deprecation Warnings" to remind you that you should consider
converting.
If you wish to convert an existing Epoch Rejection File to a Slice
Rejection File, you can do one of the following:
* Use the nafEpochRejectToSliceReject tool (documented at
/mnt/common/naf/naf-doc/userref/scripts/nafEpochRejectToSliceReject.html )
* Load the Epoch Rejection file into nafEpochRejection using the -e
flag and it will output a slice rejection file.
* Load you study into the Study Definer Tool (nafStudyDefiner) and it
will offer to convert all epoch rejection files into slice rejection
files and update the YAML file for you at the same time.
Although the nafEpochRejection and nafStudyDefiner tool will still read
Epoch Rejection Files (to perform conversions), they will no longer
allow you to edit or output them; they will only work with and output
slice rejection files.
It should be noted that internally, all of the code now converts Epoch
Rejection Files to Slice Rejection Files. This means that strictly
speaking, if you have overlapping epochs, a single epoch number in an
epoch rejection may now result in more than one epoch being rejected.
This should be a rare corner case and if you want to fully understand
and see what is going on, you can use the nafShowEpochs tool to list the
epochs you have and, if a epoch or slice rejection file is present in your
YAML file, whether or not they will be rejected.
This is one of the final big changes before we make the NAF tools
available by default on the system. More on that soon.
Thanks,
Mark
--
Mark Hymers
York Neuroimaging Centre
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Dear all,
We need to reboot the main fileservers at YNiC over the weekend, most
likely on Saturday. Can I therefore ask that people log off at the end
of Friday and do not leave jobs running on the cluster which will
continue beyond Saturday morning - any jobs running at that point will
be cancelled.
This does not affect the Psychology email server.
Thanks,
Mark
--
Mark Hymers
York Neuroimaging Centre
FYI
-------------------------------
Dear colleagues,
please find below two separate announcements for open positions
in our research team.
Kind regards,
Alfons Schnitzler & Katja Biermann-Ruben
/**********************************************************************/
PhD Position in Düsseldorf
A *PhD position* is available at the Institute of Clinical Neuroscience
and Medical Psychology, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, to study
neural representations of action related …
[View More]concepts.
The successful candidate will be expected to work within the
interdisciplinary collaborative research center (CRC/SFB 991) "The
Structures of Representation in Language, Science and Cognition"
starting July 2011. Within this linguistic CRC and on the theoretical
basis of embodiment and the mirror neuron system our neuroscientific
project investigates the functional relevance of the motor cortex for
conceptual representation of verbs and nouns which derived from action
verbs. Methods will be non-invasive 306-channel MEG, TMS and behavioural
priming.
Successful candidates will have a MSc in psychology, neuroscience or
related fields and are highly motivated to learn MEG and TMS measurement
and data analysis. Preference will be given to candidates with
experimental practice.
We offer a stimulating and inspiring atmosphere in a young,
interdisciplinary team of neurologists, psychologists, physicists, and
biologists.
The position is for an initial period of two years but may be extended.
Earliest start for the position is July 2011. Applications will be
accepted until the position is filled.
To apply, please send a full CV, a brief outline of current research and
interests, certificates, and contact information of two academic
references via email to/: schnitza(a)med.uni-duesseldorf.de and
K.Biermann-Ruben(a)uni-duesseldorf.de/
/ /
Or via regular mail to: Dr. Katja Biermann-Ruben,
Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Institute of Clinical Neuroscience
and Medical Psychology, Moorenstr. 5, D-40225 Düsseldorf
//
/**********************************************************************/
//
//
PostDoc Position in Düsseldorf
A *postdoctoral position* is available at the Institute of Clinical
Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Heinrich-Heine-University
Düsseldorf, to study neural representations of action related concepts.
The successful candidate will be expected to play a key role in our
neuroscientific the interdisciplinary collaborative research center
(CRC/SFB 991) "The Structures of Representation in Language, Science and
Cognition" starting July 2011. Within this linguistic CRC and on the
theoretical basis of embodiment and the mirror neuron system our project
investigates the functional relevance of the motor cortex for conceptual
representation of verbs and nouns which derived from action verbs.
Methods will be non-invasive 306-channel MEG, TMS and behavioural priming.
Successful candidates will have a PhD in neuroscience or related fields.
Preference will be given to candidates with a strong background in
systems level neurophysiological research (MEG/EEG, TMS) and related
signal analysis methods (MEG/EEG analysis in frequency and time domain).
We offer a stimulating and inspiring atmosphere in a young,
interdisciplinary team of neurologists, psychologists, physicists, and
biologists.
The position is for a period of four years. Earliest is July 2011.
Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.
To apply, please send a full CV, a brief outline of current research and
interests, certificates, and contact information of two academic
references via email to/: //schnitza(a)med.uni-duesseldorf.de// and
//K.Biermann-Ruben(a)uni-duesseldorf.de/
/ /
Or via regular mail to: Dr. Katja Biermann-Ruben,
Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Institute of Clinical Neuroscience
and Medical Psychology, Moorenstr. 5, D-40225 Düsseldorf
//
//**********************************************************************//
//
*Alfons Schnitzler, MD*
Professor and Chairman
Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Universitätstr. 1, D-40225 Düsseldorf
tel. ++49 211-81-13014
fax ++49 211-81-13015
&
Movement Disorders and Neuromodulation
Department of Neurology, University Hospital Düsseldorf
Moorenstr. 5, D-40225 Düsseldorf
tel. ++49 211-81-16756
fax ++49 211-81-19032
*Katja Biermann-Ruben, PhD*
Postdoctoral scientist
Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology
Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf
Universitätsstr. 1, D-40225 Düsseldorf
tel. ++49 211-81-13015
fax ++49 211-81-13015
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