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<p align="CENTER" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 0; orphans: 0;"><font face="Arial">An opening is available for a PhD project focusing on an integrated experimental and modeling approach to gaze orientation and learning. Please note that candidates should apply before <font color="#000000" style="text-align: justify;">July 15</font><font color="#000000" style="text-align: justify;"><sup>th</sup></font><font color="#000000" style="text-align: justify;">, 2014.</font></font></p><div><font face="Arial"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial">Cheers,</font></div><div><font face="Arial">Laurent</font></div><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font face="Arial"><br></font></p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
<font face="Arial"><b>Call for candidates for one PhD
fellowship </b>
</font></p><p lang="fr-FR" align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
<font face="Arial"><b>at the Institut de
Neurosciences de la Timone </b>
</font></p><p lang="fr-FR" align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
<b><font face="Arial">CNRS & Aix-Marseille
University (AMU)</font></b></p><p lang="fr-FR" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font face="Arial"><br>
</font></p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font face="Arial"><font><i>Gaze
orientation and learning: </i></font>
</font></p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font face="Arial"><i>an
integrated experimental and modeling approach</i></font></p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font face="Arial"><br>
</font></p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font face="Arial"><i>PhD
supervisors: Anna Montagnini and Laurent Perrinet</i></font></p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font face="Arial"><i>(InViBe
team)</i></font></p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font face="Arial"><a name="GoBack"></a>
<br>
</font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><font face="Arial"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-GB">How
do we maintain the accuracy of our movements despite changes
occurring in our environment or within the organism? Our research project is to
shed a new light on this question within a unified theoretical
framework centred on reinforcement learning. We will study visually
driven, voluntary eye movements as a model for motor learning.
Indeed, these</span></font><font color="#000000">
provide an ideal experimental preparation to probe sensorimotor
decisions across different time-scales, processing levels (from
sensory encoding to the final categorical choice) and movement
</font><font color="#000000"><i>repertoire
</i></font><font color="#000000">(e.g.
smooth pursuit vs saccades). In addition, a remarkable flexibility of
simple oculomotor behaviors has been highlighted, by manipulating the
expectancy for sensory features or the outcome associated to
particular motor responses. Behavioral experiments on human eye
movements will be designed, implemented and used to benchmark new
theoretical models based on the probabilistic framework. The main
focus will be on the modulation of oculomotor behavior (latency and
metric properties, such as amplitude or speed) that is observed in a
changing environment, especially in relation to a dynamic
reinforcement schedule.</font></font></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><font face="Arial"><font color="#000000">The
proposed PhD is part of a project </font><font color="#000000">(</font><font color="#000000"><i>Reinforcement
and Eye Movements</i></font><font color="#000000">
– REM, see </font><a href="http://invibe.net/LaurentPerrinet/TagAnrRem"><font color="#000000">http://invibe.net/LaurentPerrinet/TagAnrRem</font></a><font color="#000000">)
funded by the French National Research Agency ANR, and it will be
conducted in close collaborations with researchers at INT in
Marseille (A. Montagnini, L. Perrinet and F. Danion) and at the
University of Lille (L. Madelain and J. Jozefowiez). The </font><font color="#000000"><i>Institut
de Neurosciences de la Timone</i></font><font color="#000000">
(see </font><a href="http://www.int.univ-amu.fr/?lang=en"><font color="#000000">http://www.int.univ-amu.fr/?lang=en</font></a><font color="#000000">),
brings together a large, young and dynamic community of scientists
interested in frontline aspects of the integrative neurosciences. The
net salary will be around 1430 euros per month.</font></font></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial">Applicants
should have a keen interest in cognitive science and hold a Master or
equivalent degree in a relevant field (computational or cognitive
neuroscience, computer science, psychology, engineering, physics, or
mathematics). The selection process will strongly favor candidates
with excellent programming skills and/or experience with eye tracking
and visual psychophysics. Knowledge of French is not mandatory,
although willing to learn it will facilitate enjoying life in
Marseille and its beautiful surroundings.</font></font></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><font face="Arial"><font color="#000000">Applications
are now being accepted and until July 15</font><font color="#000000"><sup>th</sup></font><font color="#000000">,
2014. Interested candidates should send a CV, brief summary of
research accomplishments and interest, and the contact information
for two to three referees familiar with the candidates’
backgrounds. Position needs to be filled by September, 1</font><font color="#000000"><sup>st</sup></font><font color="#000000">,
2014. Please, send applications (in a single PDF file) to</font></font></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><font face="Arial"><font color="#000000">
</font><a href="mailto:Anna.montagnini@univ-amu.fr"><font color="#000000">Anna.montagnini@univ-amu.fr</font></a><font color="#000000">
and </font><a href="mailto:Laurent.perrinet@univ-amu.fr"><font color="#000000">Laurent.perrinet@univ-amu.fr</font></a><font color="#000000">.</font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><font face="Arial"><br>
</font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><font face="Arial"><b>Relevant
publications</b></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><font face="Arial">
</font></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-left: 1cm; text-indent: -1cm; margin-bottom: 0cm">
<font face="Arial">Bogadhi A, Montagnini A,
Perrinet LU, Mamassian P & Masson GS (2011) Pursuing motion
illusions: a realistic oculomotor framework for Bayesian inference.
<i>Vision Research</i> 51, 867-880</font></p><p style="margin-left: 1cm; text-indent: -1cm; margin-bottom: 0cm"><span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: -1cm;">Khoei
MA, Masson GS, Perrinet LU (2013). Motion-based prediction explains
the role of tracking in motion extrapolation. </span><i style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: -1cm;">Journal
of Physiology-Paris</i><span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: -1cm;">,
107(5):409—420</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-left: 1cm; text-indent: -1cm; margin-bottom: 0cm">
<font face="Arial">Bogadhi A, Montagnini A & Masson
GS (2013) Dynamical interaction between retinal and extra-retinal
signals in motion integration for smooth pursuit. <i>Journal
of Vision</i> 13(13) :
1-25</font></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-left: 1cm; text-indent: -1cm; margin-bottom: 0cm">
<font face="Arial">Servant M, Montagnini A & Burle B
(2014) Conflict tasks and the diffusion framework: Insight in model
constraints based on psychological laws <i>Cognitive
Psychology</i>,
72(2014):162-195</font></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-left: 1cm; text-indent: -1cm; margin-bottom: 0cm">
<font face="Arial"><span lang="it-IT">Simoncini C,</span><span lang="it-IT"><b>
</b></span><span lang="it-IT">Perrinet
LU, Montagnini A</span><span lang="it-IT">,
Pascal Mamassian, Guillaume S. Masson (2012). </span>More
is not always better: dissociation between perception and action
explained by adaptive gain control. <i>Nature
Neuroscience 15(11):1596-603</i></font></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-left: 1cm; text-indent: -1cm; margin-bottom: 0cm">
<font face="Arial"><font color="#000000">Sanz-</font><font color="#000000">Leon
P, Vanzetta I, Masson GS, </font><font color="#000000">Perrinet
LU</font><font color="#000000">
(2012) Motion Clouds: Model-based stimulus synthesis of natural-like
random textures for the study of motion perception. </font><font color="#000000"><i>Journal
of Neurophysiology</i></font><font color="#000000">,
</font><font color="#000000">107</font><font color="#000000">(11):3217--3226,
</font>
</font></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-left: 1cm; text-indent: -1cm; margin-bottom: 0cm">
<font face="Arial">Montagnini A., Mamassian P.,
Perrinet L., Castet E. and Masson G. (2007). Bayesian modeling of
dynamic motion integration. <i>Journal
of Physiology-Paris, </i>Vol
101(1-3):64-77</font></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-left: 1cm; text-indent: -1cm; margin-bottom: 0cm">
<font face="Arial">Perrinet LU, Adams R, Friston K
(2014) Active Inference, eye movements and oculomotor delays. Submitted.</font></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-left: 1cm; text-indent: -1cm; margin-bottom: 0cm">
<font face="Arial">Adams RA, Perrinet LU, Friston K
(2012) Smooth Pursuit and Visual Occlusion: Active Inference and
Oculomotor Control in Schizophrenia.<i>
PLoS ONE,</i> 7(10):e47502</font></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-left: 1cm; text-indent: -1cm; margin-bottom: 0cm"><font face="Arial">Spering M, and Montagnini A (2011) Do we track what we see? Common versus independent processing
for motion perception and smooth pursuit eye movements: A review.
<i>Vision Research </i>51:
836–852</font></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-left: 1cm; text-indent: -1cm; margin-bottom: 0cm"><font face="Arial">Montagnini A and Chelazzi L (2005)
The urgency to look: Prompt saccades for the benefit of perception.
<i>Vision Research</i>,
45 (27): p. 3391-3401.</font></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-left: 1cm; text-indent: -1cm; margin-bottom: 0cm">
<font face="Arial">Madelain, L., Herman, J. P., &
Harwood, M. R. (2013) Saccade adaptation goes for the goal. <i>Journal
of Vision</i>, 13(4).</font></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-left: 1cm; text-indent: -1cm; margin-bottom: 0cm">
<font face="Arial">Madelain, L., Paeye, C., &
Wallman, J. (2011) Modification of saccadic gain by reinforcement.
<span lang="fr-FR"><i>Journal
Neurophysiology</i></span><span lang="fr-FR">,
106(1), 219-232.</span></font></p><p lang="fr-FR" align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-left: 1cm; text-indent: -1cm; margin-bottom: 0cm"><br></p><br><br>
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