Keywords: fMRI, eye-tracking, neuroimaging, emotion, emotion perception, emotion regulation, empathy, autism, autism spectrum disorder, antisocial personality disorder, conduct disorder

 

Location: KJPK Basel and University of Basel, Switzerland

 

Date: as soon as possible (duration of 3 years)

 

Description: Empathy is the ability to identify, comprehend and share the emotional state of others. Cognitive Empathy is hereby defined as the ability to understand and predict behaviour of others and includes the attribution of mental states (including beliefs, knowledge, pretending and guessing). In contrary, Emotional Empathy is characterized as an emotional response resulting from and mirroring the emotional state of an opposing individual. Empathy deficits are core characteristics of some psychiatric disorders, but foremost it has been associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and conduct disease (CD) or antisocial personality disorder (APD).  The empathy imbalance theory suggests that individuals with ASD and APD/CD constitute opposing empathy imbalance disorder, with ASD characterized by disrupted cognitive empathy and intact emotional empathy and CD/APD characterized by intact cognitive empathy, but disturbed emotional empathy. However, the neuronal underpinnings that constitute these empathy deficits in ASD or APD are still subject to investigations, and rarely, projects have directly compared individuals of both disorders within the same study. In this project, we will employ functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (f/MRI) techniques as well as eye tracking to study the neuronal basis of emotion perception and emotion regulation in children/adolescents and young adults with and without a diagnosis of ASD or CD/APD.

 

Education / Requirements

We are looking for a highly motivated PhD student, interested in pursuing a career in cognitive neuroscience with keen interest in translational research. Students with a master degree and background in biology, psychology, neuroscience or equal disciplines are encouraged to apply. Experience with basic statistical software packages is requirement, and prior experience in experimental psychology and/or computer or programming skills (e.g. linux systems, matlab, fMRI analysis packages) are considered an advantage. We provide a unique learning opportunity within a multidisciplinary team of clinicians and researchers. PhD students will further be part of a European wide FP7 project on female conduct disorder.

 

The project is funded through a Swiss National Grant, payment are in accordance to SNF guidelines.

 

Please Contact

For further inquiries or to apply, please send a CV, short letter of intent including statement of research interest and contact details of two references to Nora Maria Raschle, PhD: nora.raschle@upkbs.ch – English or German. Reviewing of application will start immediately, and applications will be considered until the position has been filled.