Postdoctoral researcher in Neuropixels recordings, predictive processing, and navigation

[Caspar M. Schwiedrzik]

We are looking for an outstanding postdoctoral researcher to establish
and lead a new research program using Neuropixels recordings in
behaving mice to study predictive processing at the interface of
vision, space, and navigation. We will investigate how the brain
learns regularities in structured environments and uses them to
generate predictions about upcoming events. The successful candidate
will develop experiments in which mice navigate controlled
environments while encountering visual objects or events with
learnable statistical structure. The goal is to understand how neural
populations represent expectations, prediction errors, and the
interaction between visual and spatial information during navigation.
This new research program will be part of the lab’s broader
cross-species research program on predictive processing and
experience-dependent plasticity. Related experiments are conducted in
the lab in non-human primates and humans, using electrophysiology,
fMRI, (intracranial) EEG, and behavioral approaches. The position
therefore offers the opportunity to develop mechanistic experiments in
rodents while contributing to an integrated research program within
the lab across species, methods, and spatial scales.

The lab seeks to understand the cortical basis and computational
principles of perception and experience-dependent plasticity in the
brain. See https://doi.org/10.64898/2025.11.30.691163,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51543-y, and
https://doi.org/10.64898/2025.12.17.694881 for recent examples of our
work. The postdoc will play a key role in expanding these efforts
toward high-density electrophysiology in behaving mice. Experiments
will take place at the new research building THINK – Center for
Theoretical and Integrative Neuroscience and Cognitive Science at Ruhr
University Bochum
(https://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/think/index.html.en). THINK provides a
highly interdisciplinary environment for integrative neuroscience and
cognitive science, with dedicated infrastructure for human and animal
research, neuroimaging, behavioral experimentation, data analysis, and
high-performance computing. The postdoc will join a growing team in
the lab, including researchers working on electrophysiology, fMRI, and
behavior in mice. The position is funded through the Research Center
One Health Ruhr of the University Alliance Ruhr. One Health Ruhr
brings together researchers from neuroscience, molecular biology,
water research, cancer research, and related fields to study
fundamental mechanisms of health and disease across biological and
environmental scales.

Please find the official job ad and further information here:
https://jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/jobposting/a6646cd83e1d4ed7e6d72b4ead787ec28f531ce90