Junior Postdoc Position: Multimodal Language, Attention and RIFT

1. Introduction

Do you want to contribute to groundbreaking research at the intersection of language, communication and cognitive neuroscience? As a postdoctoral researcher, you will investigate how the human brain integrates speech with visual signals such as gestures and lip movements. Working with advanced EEG and MEG methods, naturalistic stimuli and innovative analytical approaches, you will help unravel the neural dynamics that support successful communication.

2. Job description

We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to study how the human brain integrates what we hear and what we see during communication. In daily conversations, spoken language is accompanied by a plethora of visual signals such as hand gestures and lip movements. Although these signals unfold at different speeds and provide different kinds of cues, listeners seem to integrate these signals effortlessly. However, how this happens at a neural level remains a fundamental open question in the language sciences.

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will focus on how multi-timescale oscillatory dynamics support multimodal integration and weighting. You will work with EEG/MEG data to measure how language users process and coordinate multimodal signals, and you will work with rapid invisible frequency tagging to track how the brain integrates and attends to speech, gestures and other visual signals over time. You will also work with naturalistic video materials and modern analytical approaches (e.g. MVPA, mTRFs) to capture the temporal dynamics of multimodal processing (i.e. determining which signals are relevant for comprehension at different moments in time). Finally, you will contribute to the development of novel methods to provide causal evidence for the involvement of neural oscillations in multimodal integration and weighting during language processing.

3. Profile

For this position, it is essential that you have demonstrable experience in setting up and conducting RIFT-EEG experiments on multimodal communication, as well as neuro- and psycholinguistic experiments focused on attention and speech planning during language comprehension.

In addition, you have

• Completed a PhD degree in neurolinguistics, preferably on the attentional trade-off to capture speech planning during comprehension.
• Strong programming skills in Python and/or MATLAB and/or R.
• Strong interest in multimodal communication, gesture, language processing and/or neurobiology of language.
• Experience with statistical modelling (e.g. mixed models, regression, MVPA, mTRFs) or a willingness to learn advanced methods.
• A good command of Dutch, or a willingness to learn the language.
• Affinity with working with naturalistic stimuli and computational tools for motion and speech analysis (e.g. OpenPose, OpenFace) is considered an asset.

4.

We are

You will be part of The Communicative Brain lab, an interdisciplinary team that brings together expertise from linguistics, cognitive neuroscience, multimodal communication, artificial intelligence and advanced signal analysis. The project provides extensive opportunities for training, collaboration and development as an early-career researcher.

5.

We offer

• We will give you a temporary employment contract of 4 year(s).
• Your salary within salary scale 11 depends on your previous education and number of years of (relevant) work experience. The amounts in the scale are based on a 38-hour working week.
• You will receive an 8% holiday allowance and an 8,3% end-of-year bonus.
• You will receive extra days off. With full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the statutory 20.

6. Practical information and applying

You can apply only via the button below. Address your letter of application to Linda Drijvers. In the application form, you will find which documents you need to include with your application. We look forward to receiving your application.

The first interviews will take place on Friday 30 October. You will preferably start your employment on 1 January 2027.

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