PhD Studentship - Revealing how climate fluctuations affect birds' community dynamics: A multispecies demography approach

Nous proposons une thèse (financée) pour étudier l'effet des fluctuations climatiques sur des communautés d'oiseaux via une approche de démographie multi-espèce. Tous les détails sont disponibles sur https://mycore.core-cloud.net/index.php/s/UmITEAmbVxOYvC3.

Graduate Position QMUL: Differences in cognition and behaviour in male/female chicks (Gallus gallus)

a PhD position is available at the Evolution and Comparative Cognition laboratory at Queen Mary University of London (supervisor Dr Elisabetta Versace) to investigate the spontaneous behaviour and learning strategies of male and female chicks (Gallus gallus). Here is the link to the project: http://www.sbcs.qmul.ac.uk/postgraduate/research/projects/display-title-527650-en.html

The project can be tailored on the interests and skills of the successful candidate, so we expect to receive applications from students of different backgrounds (e.g. biology, psychology, computer science). Informal inquiries welcome! e.versace@qmul.ac.ukThank you for circulating this information.

Appel à candidature (thèse à partir d’octobre 2018)

Contrôle d’altitude chez le bourdon :
les invariants optiques

Naviguer dans un environnement inconnu est une tâche aujourd’hui impossible à réaliser par un micro aéronef de quelques grammes, mais qui est réalisée tous les jours avec aisance par les insectes volants. Il existe donc des principes performants, basés en particulier sur des traitements adéquats de l’information visuelle, qui permettent aux insectes volants de réaliser des tâches de navigation spatiale avec précision. C'est précisément ces principes, encore peu connus, que nous voulons explorer, comprendre, modéliser, et simuler.

Le dispositif expérimental ci-dessous permet de tester différentes hypothèses en relation avec le contrôle d’altitude chez les insectes volants. Il se présente sous la forme d’un tunnel dans lequel on entraînera des bourdons à le traverser en fonction de différentes configurations optiques. Il conviendra ensuite de manipuler différents indices visuels (flux optique, lignes de perspective…) pour étudier les réactions du bourdon, on cherchera ensuite à mettre en évidence leur caractère invariant de certains d’entre eux au cours de vol.

Type du contrat : contrat doctoral

Durée du contrat : 3 ans à partir du 1^er octobre 2018
Salaire : 1460 € net /mois

(Auquel des missions telles que l’enseignement, la vulgarisation scientifique… peuvent s’ajouter

Techniques utilisées

• Paradigme expérimental : tunnel de vol tapissé de contrastes, attraction de bourdons, manipulations optiques, décorrélation d’indices visuels.
• Caméras + reconstitution de trajectoires des bourdons,
• Marquage des boudons, élevage en ruche.

Compétences requises

• Étudiant(e) intéressé(e) par l’éthologie, l’entomologie, les apidés, et les neurosciences.
• Statistiques (descriptive, inférentielle, ANOVA…). L’utilisation du logiciel R/Rstudio serait un plus.
• Des compétences en informatique/programmation. L’utilisation du logiciel Matlab serait un plus.

Merci d’envoyer un CV et une lettre de motivation à :

Julien SERRES® julien.serres@univ-amu.fr

Equipe Biorobotique, www.biorobotique.fr, Marseille.
Institut des Sciences du Mouvement, www.ism.univ-amu.fr, CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université.

PhD ou Post doc

Laboratory: Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive

Head of the laboratory: Johannes Ziegler   johannes.ziegler@univ-amu.fr

Team name: Cognition comparée

Team leader(s): Joel Fagot

First name and last name of the proposed PhD or Post-Doc supervisor(s):

Florence Gaunet (co-supervisor)

Anne-Lise Giraud (co-supervisor). Imera position from Feb to June 2019 (LPC and LPL).

The student will be 100% based in L.P.C./Marseille.

Collaboration with T. Legou/L.P.L. Research conducted in the Labex ILCB framework (Institute of Language, Communication and the Brain).

Title of the proposed PhD or 2-year Post-doc research project:

Contour, rhythm or content? What does dogs brain grasp from human speech?

http://www.blri.fr/2PhDgrants.html  and http://www.blri.fr/phd-programs.html

http://www.blri.fr/Postdoctoraltheme.html and http://www.blri.fr/postdoctoral-positions.html

For the application, PLEASE CONTACT F Gaunet florence.gaunet@univ-amu.fr and AL Giraud annelise.mamessier.giraud@gmail.com

Summary of the proposed research project

o  State of the art: Dogs have so closely coevolved with humans that they are able to make use of short word sequences to execute simple orders (e.g. “Titus, bring the ball”) (Kaminski et al., 2004). The dog speech perception capacity is particularly interesting to explore from a language evolution viewpoint because, while dogs cannot speak (Riede & Fitch, 1999), they show a strong motivation to communicate with us (Gaunet & El Massioui 2014). In humans, understanding connected speech requires segmentation of the acoustic flow. This capital pre-processing step involves slow neural oscillations, which naturally occur in the auditory cortex at a rate close to the average human syllabic rate (4-7Hz) (Giraud and Poeppel 2012). Since the syllabic structure is constrained by the motor system, its contribution to the speech perception is intensely debated (Park et al. 2015).

o  Objectives: This project proposes to explore the neural bases (including laterality) of dog speech processing to address the contribution of the motor system to speech perception. We expect to determine whether dogs perceive speech on the basis of acoustic cues they can themselves produce, i.e. short “syllable-like” intonated sounds, or whether alternatively, they can be sensitive to cues that they cannot produce at all, phoneme-level cues.

o   Methods:

Project 1: acoustic analysis. We will first record single and polysyllabic animal vocalizations. Polysyllabic vocalizations can be obtained in dogs by mimetism with human speech (Gaunet & Legou In prep; Legou & Gaunet In prep). We will use these recordings to perform a comparative acoustic analysis of dog and man vocalizations. We will compute modulation power spectrum (MPS) as in (Arnal et al. 2015), for both types of signal and will determine the overlap of dog and man modulation acoustic landscape. This analysis will serve to interpret the neural responses and to determine how much of the human communication MPS area is also used by dogs. A preliminary study analyzing dogs’ vocal productions, using internet videos posted by dog owners, is in preparation by Legou and Gaunet.

Project 2: non-­‐invasive electrophysiology. We plan to record EEG in 5 dogs (Kis et al. 2014, 2017; Bunford et al. 2017) to explore the ability of auditory cortical rhythms to track syllable boundaries in human speech in: 1/ natural continuous speech of an unknown human intended to the dog, 2/ natural continuous speech of the dog’s owner intended to the dog, 3/ a simple sentence usually understood by the dog pronounced by the dog’s owner with prosody, 4/ the same condition without prosody, 5/ aprosodic single words, 6/ single words with intonation.

The data will be analyzed individually using state of the art methods, involving standard analyses of evoked potentials for single words, and more advanced methods of speech/brain cross-­‐correlations (cross spectral density etc.) and EEG time-­‐frequency analyses for continuous speech, as we recently described (Pefkou et al. 2017). We will also use detrended fluctuation analysis to evaluate long range temporal correlations in dogs EEG at rest and during speech (Borges et al. 2017).

o   Expected results

We expect to determine whether the dog’s auditory cortical system spontaneously track syllables in speech, how much this tracking depends on the owner’s voice and/or the owner’s prosody, whether word content can be accessed in dogs without prosodic cues, and finally whether their integration capacity fits with long-range autocorrelation properties of their neural activity.

o  Feasibility over the 3-year period, including project financial support and ethics committee authorizations: F Gaunet: expert in dog communication; will provide theoretical and practical requirements for dog behaviour experiments. T Legou: expert on instrumentation and signal processing, will provide dedicated technical tools. AL Giraud: expert in the neurobiology of speech processing (incl. EEG) will provide corresponding theoretical and practical support. EEG material and vacations to cover dogs’ training will be partly provided by ALG funding and partly asked to ILCB. Although EEG in dogs is only minimally invasive, Ethics committee approval will be obtained prior to EEG measurements.

o  Expected candidate profile: Basic knowledge in EEG (e.g. master training or more), interest in animal cognition, good contact with animals, very good French level.

  

Two PhD studentships opportunities at Plymouth University

The first: 'Understanding the importance of individual heterogeneity in group-living animals' will explore how the role of differences in ‘state’ and experience shape individual – and group-level dynamics in the Trinidadian guppy.

https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/student-life/your-studies/research-degrees/postgraduate-research-studentships/understanding-the-importance-of-individual-heterogeneity-in-group-living-animals

The second: 'Validating a new cognitive proxy measure of animals’ affective state' will develop a novel cognitive test of animal affect, designed to reduce the need for labour-intensive animal training. It will involve working with horses and dogs. 

https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/student-life/your-studies/research-degrees/postgraduate-research-studentships/validating-a-new-cognitive-proxy-measure-of-animals-affective-state

The studentship will have a three year duration and will cover full-time home/EU tuition fees plus a stipend of £14,777 per annum. The studentship will only fund those applicants who are eligible for home/EU fees with relevant qualifications. Applicants required to cover overseas fees will have to cover the difference between home/EU and overseas tuition fee rates (approximately £10,350 per annum). 

Please contact the relevant supervisor for initial informal discussions. The closing date for applications is 12 noon, 06 April 2018.

12 PhD positions - Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, Psychology, and (Psycho-) Linguistics - Göttingen, Germany

The Research Training Group RTG 2070 „Understanding Social Relationships“ (Speaker: Prof. Julia Fischer) at the University of Göttingen and the German Primate Center offers 12 PhD positions beginning on October 1st, 2018. The scientific disciplines involved are Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, Psychology, and (Psycho-) Linguistics.

The research projects of the RTG focus on the social relationships of human and non-human primates. The common aim is to identify core principles explaining the development, maintenance and function of social relationships. Research is structured in the three domains “social signals”, “social monitoring” and “social coordination”.

Detailed information on the application process, the research projects and the training program are available at www.uni-goettingen.de/social-relationships. Application deadline is April 10^th.