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Postdoc position in Cognitive Neuroscience (Leiden University)

Postdoc position in Cognitive Neuroscience Closing date: 24 November 2014

For more information: http://www.sandernieuwenhuis.nl/pdfs/JobAdPostdocPosition.pdf

Research Project “Arousal, neural gain and cognitive function” Arousal has a wide variety of effects on human attention and performance, as documented in a rich empirical literature that was developed mainly before the 1980s. The computational and neural mechanisms underlying these effects, however, are still poorly understood. The goal of the present project is to revisit this literature and try to understand the relationships between arousal and cognition by applying recent computational models and insights about the role of neuromodulator systems in cognitive function (e.g., models of the noradrenergic modulation of neural gain). The newly developed ideas can then be tested using various methods, including EEG, genetics, psychopharmacology, and pupillometry. Although much of the research will be focused on the brain, the main goal is to understand the basic mechanisms underlying the influence of arousal on cognitive function.