Three (3) PhD Positions in Auditory Neuroscience, Universität Oldenburg, Germany (2015-2016)

We are part of a vibrant community of auditory and sensory neuroscience groups in Oldenburg, joined in the Cluster of Excellence “Hearing4All” (http://hearing4all.eu/EN/), Research Centre Neurosensory Science, and Collaborative Research Centre “Active Hearing”. Our PhD students participate in the structured graduate programs of the associated Graduate School (http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/en/phd-neurosensory-science/).

Description

The projects
We are looking for 3 PhD candidates to work in projects funded by the DFG priority program “Ultrafast and temporally precise information processing” (http://www.pp1608.com/).
Candidate 1 will study the effects of age-related hearing loss on auditory perception of temporal fine structure in gerbils. We will causally link perception to cochlear degeneration. The behavioural work will be carried out in the lab of Georg Klump (http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/en/animalphysiology/)
Candidate 2 will carry out the complementary study, measuring cochlear electrophysiology (single-unit and evoked responses) and cochlear morphology in the same gerbils as tested behaviourally. This work will be carried out in the lab of Christine Köppl (http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/en/cochlea/).
Candidate 3 will use a chicken model where cochlear development is altered by long-term, virus-mediated gene misexpression. We will generate the modified chickens and study the resulting changes in synaptic morphology and the functional consequences for temporal coding at the level of the auditory nerve (single-unit and evoked responses). This work will also be carried out in the lab of Christine Köppl and will be co-supervised by Ulrike Sienknecht (http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/en/cochlea/).

Your profile
Applicants must hold an academic university degree (M.Sc.) or equivalent in a relevant discipline (e.g., Biology, Neuroscience, Biomedical Engineering, Physics). They should have basic knowledge in statistics and should have used Matlab before. You are enthusiastic about doing a PhD.
Candidate 1 would benefit from a background in animal behavioural research or hearing research in general.
Candidates 2 and 3 ideally should have previous experience with neurophysiology and/or with immunohistochemistry.
Candidate 3 would further benefit from a background in molecular biology and cell culture

Further details:
http://ec.europa.eu