POSTDOCTORAL POSITION IN “NEUROSCIENCE OF MUSIC”

• (2500001L)
  Commitment & contract: Collaboration contract, 24 months (plus possibility of extension)
  Location: Center for Life Nano- & Neuro-Science, Rome, Italy.

ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS

Essential expertise/background:

• A PhD in neuroscience, psychology, computational sciences, or any related discipline. Alternatively, a degree in a hard science (e.g. mathematics, physics, as well as biology).
• Coding skills (ideally signal processing, or a strong motivation to acquire them).
• A strong interest in music.
• Good writing and communication skills (in English).
• The ideal candidate should be independent, proactive and suited for collaborative work within an international and inter-disciplinary team

Desirable expertise/background:

• Analytical skills.
• Experience with neuroimaging data collection or analysis.
• Familiarity with the recent advancements in the field of neuroscience of music and social interaction (especially hyperscanning).

THE ROLE

The Neuroscience of Perception and Action research unit (NPA; npa.iit.it) is led by Giacomo Novembre (giacomonovembre.com). We are seeking a post doc to contribute to our ongoing research activities. We are an interdisciplinary team of brain and behavioral scientists with diverse cultural and educational backgrounds, combining insights from both hard and social sciences. Our research explores fundamental questions about how humans perceive the world and act within it, with a particular focus on two widespread human capacities: 1. Social interaction and 2. Musicality (the biological predispositions that make humans universally apt for musical behavior). We primarily study these capacities in human adults, comparing them with human infants and non-human. Our research integrates both traditional laboratory-based experiments and naturalistic approaches to brain and behavior, including free-behavior studies and ecologically valid sensory stimulation. We believe that these approaches complement each other—naturalistic settings allow us to observe behavior in its authentic context, while laboratory-based research enables rigorous testing of new theories.

YOUR ROLE AS A POSTDOC

As part of our team, you will have the chance to work on any of the above-listed topics. Your primary responsibility will be data analysis, either by:
• Working with previously collected datasets (including meta-analyses)
• Designing and conducting new experiments to gather ad hoc data
The selected candidate will join a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary environment, with the opportunity to lead experimental design for the project(s), collect and analyze behavioral and neuroimaging data, supervise research students, disseminate scientific results, and possibly collaborate with other research groups (nationally and internationally).