Job ID: 84844

PhD position : Signatures of plasticity in dorsal striatum during procedural learning

Position: Ph.D. Student

Deadline: 10 September 2022

Employment Start Date: 1 October 2022

Contract Length: 3 years

City: Paris

Country: France

Institution: Collège de France

Department: Center for interdisciplinary biology

Description:

Laurent Venance’s lab (https://venancelab.wordpress.com/) is recruiting a highly-motivated student for a PhD. The main subject of the project will be focus on the signatures of plasticity in dorsal striatum during procedural learning. Using 2-photon calcium imaging at the network and subcellular levels in behaving mice, we will dissect the synaptic landscape dynamics used to accommodate novelty learning in dorsal striatum. We already identified that during motor-skill learning dorsal striatum expresses region-specific plasticity (Perez S, et al. Cell report 2022). The project aims at linking how distinct plasticity signatures could endow dorsal striatum with complementary capacities in memory acquisition and stabilization.

The successful candidate should be highly motivated to contribute to our efforts on dissecting mechanisms of neural circuit and synaptic plasticity at play during procedural learning and novelty experience. The candidate is expected to take a leading role in 2-photon imaging experiments (data acquisition and analysis), aligned with plasticity and behavioral performance. Experience with 2-photon imaging, electrophysiology, data analysis and programming experience are a significant plus.