Connectionists: PhD position in computational neuroscience available for project "Learning to hear with plasticity across multiple timescales" at Imperial College London

[Dan Goodman]

A PhD position is available as part of the Neurotechnology centre for 
doctoral training at Imperial College London, jointly supervised by Dan 
Goodman, Paul Chadderton, Claudia Clopath and in collaboration with 
Agnes Leger:
- http://neural-reckoning.org/
- http://www.bg.ic.ac.uk/research/p.chadderton/ChaddertonLab/Home.html
- http://www.bg.ic.ac.uk/research/c.clopath/
- http://www.psych-sci.manchester.ac.uk/staff/Agnes.Leger

The title of the project is "Learning to hear with plasticity across 
multiple timescales", and it aims at understanding how the brain adapts 
and learns to cope with difficult listening situations (e.g. a crowded 
pub or restaurant), and applying this to developing new technology (e.g. 
for speech recognition). It will involve (1) developing mathematical and 
computational models of hearing and neural adaptation and plasticity, 
(2) experimental testing (including animal electrophysiology and human 
psychoacoustics), and (3) technology development for speech recognition, 
hearing aids and cochlear implants.

The candidate should be willing to learn experimental techniques (animal 
electrophysiology and/or human psychophysics), but is not required to 
have any previous experience.

The PhD programme is fully funded for four years, of which the first 
year is a taught MRes course. In addition to working within the centre, 
studying at Imperial College provides excellent opportunities for 
interacting with other theoretical and experimental researchers, both at 
Imperial (recently ranked 8th in the world in the QS world university 
rankings) and in the many neuroscience groups in London.

Note that unfortunately funding for non-UK/EU residents is quite limited 
and there will therefore be stronger competition for these places.

For more details on this project, the centre, and how to apply:

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/neurotechnology/cdt/projects/hear_with_plasticity/

Dan Goodman