PhD Position: Spatial Memory Consolidation Networks

Collaborative Research Center 1315 “Memory Consolidation” (SFB 1315)
Brain & Behavior Lab (Prof. Christoph Ploner/Prof. Carsten Finke)
Department of Neurology, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin

We invite applications for a four-year PhD position in the CRC 1315 project “Spatial Memory
Consolidation Networks”. The CRC 1315 “Memory Consolidation” brings together outstanding memory
researchers from Berlin institutions, including Charité, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Freie
Universität Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin and Max Delbrück Center. The successful applicant
will become a member of the Brain & Behavior Group at the Dept. of Neurology at Charité Berlin and
will be embedded in an interdisciplinary network of basic and clinical neuroscience researchers. There
will be continuous exchanges with PhD students, Postdocs and Faculty of the CRC and associated
Institutions, including the Excellence Cluster NeuroCure, the Bernstein Center for Computational
Neuroscience and the Berlin School of Mind and Brain.

The project will investigate spatial navigation in healthy subjects and patient cohorts with transient
and permanent hippocampal dysfunction using virtual reality paradigms and functional MRI. More
specifically, the aim is to study the dynamics of spatial memory network consolidation, integrating
clinical and cognitive neuroscience. Patient cohorts include patients with transient global amnesia,
patients undergoing anesthesia and patients undergoing surgical resections of the hippocampus. The
project will closely collaborate with two already established collaborative virtual reality projects at the
Berlin School of Mind and Brain (VReha, BRAIN).

Requirements
• Master’s degree in Psychology, Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, Biology, Computer Science or
related disciplines with excellent results
Desirable
• Familiarity with memory research, spatial cognition and hippocampal function
• Programming skills, preferably in Matlab, Python or R
• Experience with acquisition and analysis in fMRI
• Experience with standard tools for analysis of neuroimaging data (e.g. FSL, SPM, Freesurfer)

For informal inquiries please contact us at christoph.ploner@charite.de or carsten.finke@charite.de.
Please send your application as a single PDF files including a CV, a brief statement of research
experience and interests, and the names and contact details of two academic references to
carsten.finke@charite.de preferably before 31 August 2018, but later applications will be considered
until the position is filled.