Tinnitus Job Offers

"Von H. Helmlechner - Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25815222"

One postdoctoral position and one PhD position are available to study tinnitus in a newly established Emmy-Noether research group (“From acute to chronic tinnitus – which signatures in brain activity make tinnitus persistent?”) led by Dr. Nadia Müller-Voggel and located at the MEG lab at the University Hospital of Erlangen/Germany.

Tinnitus is an acoustic phantom perception, which causes severe problems in daily life of millions of people worldwide. To date, there is no effective treatment that reliably eliminates tinnitus, also because processes generating and maintaining tinnitus are insufficiently understood. Our group will address these issues in a longitudinal manner and investigate tinnitus–relevant signatures in neuronal activity in different phases from tinnitus development to its chronification. Brain activity will be recorded with MEG and for some special issues with intracranial EEG. We will focus on local auditory markers, nonauditory networks and, importantly, their interaction. Tested will be mainly tinnitus patients, but also normal-hearing participants. Additionally, we will have access to special groups of tinnitus patients (i.e. patients operated at the acoustic nerve due to a tumour), highly relevant for the planned longitudinal approach. Neurophysiological investigations will be accompanied by behavioral and audiometric testing, so that a comprehensive understanding of the processes that make tinnitus persistent will be obtained.

The successful candidate will work in the University Hospital of Erlangen (Germany), preferably starting by February 2018, and will be supervised by Dr Nadia Müller-Voggel. We will work in close collaboration with a vibrant tinnitus research community (http://tinnet.tinnitusresearch.net/index.php) and have access to multimodal neuroimaging facilities including MEG, intracranial EEG and MRI.

Postdoc applicants: Successful candidates will have a PhD in cognitive neuroscience, psychology, or natural sciences. Applicants should have expertise in EEG or MEG signal processing (using MATLAB or equivalent) and statistical analysis. Advanced programming and analysis skills, publications in peerreviewed journals and the motivation to produce high quality scientific output including journal articles, conference papers and presentations are desirable. A background in auditory perception or tinnitus would be ideal, but is not required. The position offered does not include any teaching obligations. The position is funded by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), initially for three years, with possible extension. Salary is based on German Public service regulations (TV-L E13).

PhD applicants: Successful candidates will have a master degree (or equivalent) in psychology, cognitive sciences, neuroscience, medicine, or a related field. Applicants should have experience or, at least, interest in designing and conducting studies with patients and healthy participants using MEG. They should be motivated to apply advanced data analysis tools (MATLAB or equivalent) and to produce high quality scientific output including journal articles, conference papers and presentations. The position is funded by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). Salary is based on German Public service regulations (TV-L E13 65%). The PhD position is for three years.

If you are interested and wish to find out more, please contact Dr. Nadia Müller-Voggel (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) with your CV and a brief statement of interest.