We are looking for an intrepid Ph.D. candidate to work on theoretical models of predictive processing and learning. This collaborative project with the Keller Lab is based on the hypothesis that cortical circuits build models of the external world to predict the future. Prediction is useful for our survival because it allows us to respond to stimuli more rapidly and to evaluate the consequences of our actions before we execute them. To achieve this feat, cortical circuits have to compute predictions, compare them to sensory input, and to learn to minimize the associated prediction errors. How cortical circuits achieve this at circuit level is unknown, but it suggests distinct roles for different cortical cell types. The successful candidate, will build and analyze biologically constrained plastic network models of predictive processing and validate these models, in collaboration with the Keller Lab, using in-vivo recordings from visual cortical areas.

Application deadline 16th of November 2019.

Feel free to contact me for additional information.

Image credits: Creative Commons, Mike MacKenzie