Postdoctoral position in Systems Neuroscience & Closed-loop BMI - Paris-Saclay, France

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valego...@gmail.com

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Jan 10, 2026, 10:15:34 AM (2 days ago) Jan 10

to Systems Neuroscience

Who We Are
The Touch&Move laboratory (heads: Isabelle Ferezou & Valérie Ego-Stengel) aims to understand somatosensory-motor integration in the mouse system through the recording and manipulation of neuronal dynamics, both during haptic sensorimotor tasks and in brain-machine interfacing contexts.

Our team is located at the Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience (NeuroPSI), France, within one of the main research universities in Europe. We benefit from a dynamical scientific environment, and have access to many research platforms, including well-equipped imaging and animal facilities.

The Project
Over the past five years, we have developed several innovative motor brain-machine interfaces based on the readout of activity in the primary motor cortex (Arduin et al. 2013, Abbasi et al. 2018), and we have trained mice to control a custom-made mouse forelimb prosthesis with these brain-machine interfaces (Ferrand et al. 2025). In parallel, we have identified strategies to deliver somatosensory information to subjects through direct cortical stimulation (Lassagne et al. 2022, Abbasi et al. 2023). In particular, in closed-loop experiments, we have conveyed artificial, behaviorally-relevant somatosensory feedback to support motor control via a brain-machine interface.

A post-doctoral position is available to design innovative closed-loop bidirectional brain-machine interfacing of our miniature upper-limb prosthesis. We aim to explore proprioceptive-like cortical feedback strategies, and probe their impact on prosthesis control performance and embodiment. Towards this goal, we aim to take advantage of our all-optical mesoscale brain-machine interfacing strategy.

Who we are looking for
The candidate should have experience with animal experiments, and be able to work with a multidisciplinary and international team. We are looking for candidates with a strong background either or both in neuroscience (functional imaging, optogenetics, operant conditioning) and in engineering, as our project will involve significant efforts related to programming, robotics, optics and more.

How to Apply
The position is open for at least 24 months. Please include in your application a CV and a cover letter with contacts for 2 references.

Contact and inquiries luc.es...@cnrs.fr

Group website neuropsi.cnrs.fr/en/group-leader-ego-stengel-ferezou

Group publications:

Abbasi, A., Goueytes, D., Shulz, D. E., Ego-Stengel, V., & Estebanez, L. (2018). A fast intracortical brain–machine interface with patterned optogenetic feedback. Journal of neural engineering, 15(4), 046011.

Abbasi, A., Lassagne, H., Estebanez, L., Goueytes, D., Shulz, D. E., & Ego-Stengel, V. (2023). Brain-machine interface learning is facilitated by specific patterning of distributed cortical feedback. Science Advances, 9(38), eadh1328.

Arduin, P. J., Frégnac, Y., Shulz, D. E., & Ego-Stengel, V. (2013). “Master” neurons induced by operant conditioning in rat motor cortex during a brain-machine interface task. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(19), 8308-8320.

Ferrand, E., Hayatou, Z., Shulz, D. E., Makarov, M., Ego-Stengel, V., & Estebanez, L. (2025). Cortical control of a forelimb prosthesis in mice. bioRxiv, 2025-09.

Lassagne, H., Goueytes, D., Shulz, D. E., Estebanez, L., & Ego-Stengel, V. (2022). Continuity within the somatosensory cortical map facilitates learning. Cell Reports, 39(1).