to determine markers of emotional states in rodents

Are you interested in understanding what animals feel by leveraging advanced techniques to read facial expressions using machine learning in combination with electrocardiogram, respiration and startle reflect potentiation? The powerful methods available in rodents make them the primary species to understand the neural mechanisms of emotions and empathy, but we cannot simply ask rodents what they feel. If you want to help us understand what they feel, and prepare yourself to later join a competitive PhD program, then consider joining the Social Brain Lab in an exciting collaboration with UCSD’s Sanford Center for Empathy and Compassion. If you are curious, have a passion for working with animals, like finding patterns in complex datasets and wish to work in a vibrant, international, interdisciplinary and highly collaborative environment at the forefront of social and affective neuroscience, then this position might be ideal for you.

What you will be doing
As a research assistant you will be a critical part of a subteam within the laboratory, composed of you, another PhD-student and three postdocs, that examine what animals feel when they witness the distress of others and what brain mechanisms trigger this feeling. The team studies the brain network recruited when rats and mice witness fear reactions of others. Your aim will be to refine our ability to read out what the witness feels while witnessing the distress of others by combining a pallet of readouts that have traditionally been used in humans, including facial expressions, pupil dilation, heart rate and its variability, respiration and startle potentiation. You will work closely with another research assistant that will examine similar readouts in humans witnessing the distress of others.

During your research assistantship you will have the opportunity to:

• Learn to use cutting edge computer-vision tools to provide fine-grained analyses of facial expressions and behavior from more experienced team members
• Learn to perform surgeries to implant electrodes to measure electro-cardio and electro-myograms.
• Gain experience in stereotactic surgeries to perform head-fixed experiments in mice
• Closely collaborate and coordinate with other members of the team in Amsterdam and our collaborators at UCSD consortium
• Coauthor your findings in open access scientific journals
• Actively participate in simultaneous measurements of neural activity using neuropixel probes
• Prepare yourself for a competitive PhD program in affective or social neuroscience

What you will be contributing

We are looking for an enthusiastic team-player, who:

• Has a research master in the field of neuroscience or related fields
• Preferably has an Article 9 license to work with rodents
• Enjoys working with rodents
• Enjoys advanced data analyses and statistical inferences
• Enjoys learning new techniques
• Functions well both in a team as well as independently, and possess good communication skills
• Enjoys finalizing projects and writing papers

Fixed-term contract: 6 months.

Terms of employment

The appointment will initially be for 6 months but may be extended based on performance and funding availability.

Depending on education and experience the minimum salary is € 2.715 and the maximum salary is € 3.266 gross per month for a full-time appointment (scale 5 cao Nederlandse Universiteiten/KNAW). This is exclusive of 8% vacation allowance, 8.3% year-end bonus, travel allowance, internet allowance, home working allowance and pension accrual with ABP.

The NIN/ KNAW offers its staff an excellent package of secondary benefits. A package that meets the different needs of employees depending on their stage of life, lifestyle or career ambitions. For example, by working an extra two hours a week, it is possible to increase the number of days off from 29 to 41 days a year (with full-time employment).

For a complete overview of the terms of employment, please refer to the web page: werken bij de KNAW.

Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience is the country's leading fundamental neuroscience research institute, in the international and progressive city of Amsterdam. The institute is part of the Royal Netherlands Academy for Art and Sciences (KNAW). The institute provides a critical mass of scientists (spanning more than 27 nationalities) and neuroscience facilities, in a highly interactive, dynamic, multi-cultural environment, with English as the working language.

Social Brain Lab (SBL)

The Social Brain Lab (SBL) at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience is the result of the joint venture of the research groups of Prof. Christian Keysers and Dr. Valeria Gazzola, aiming at shedding light on the neural mechanisms of empathy by combining studies in humans and rodents. The SBL is funded by multiple European (ERC, Marie Curie), Dutch (VENI/VIDI/VICI, Gravitation, XL) and international (Sanford Center for Empathy and Compassion) grants, and is characterized by an unusually diverse environment, with members from all over the world, backgrounds (ranging from philosophy to engineering with an emphasis on biology and psychology), and neuroscientific techniques (spanning from ultra-high field fMRI in humans to single-cell recordings in rodents). The SBL is appreciated for its collaborative, enthusiastic and supportive environment, where people strive to become successful, recognized and appreciated scientists.