PhD positions in Neurolinguistics

Job description

We offer two 4-year PhD positions in Neurolinguistics to work on a project regarding language testing in awake brain surgery (see The PhD project, below). The two PhD candidates will be supervised by Dr. Adrià Rofes (daily advisor), Prof. Dr. Roel Jonkers (promotor), and Prof. Dr. Thomas Picht (co-advisor). The PhD candidates will spend the first three years at the Image Guidance Lab of the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Germany) and one year at the laboratory of Dr. Adrià Rofes at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). Three to five days of travel outside of the working place per year will be paid and encouraged (i.e., conferences, workshops). Teaching duties are not required during the 3-year period in Berlin. However, teaching duties are recommended during the last year in Groningen. Patient assessments will also include additional neuropsychological assessments as part of the routine pre-operative clinical work-up. The project presupposes knowledge of cognitive science or related (e.g., neurolinguistics, speech therapy, psychology), experience with neuroimaging or willingness to learn (i.e., navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, Direct Electrical Stimulation), and capacity to gather and analyze linguistic data in German. Please see a list of requirements below (Qualification).

The PhD Project

Removing a brain tumor can trigger language problems. To avoid this, patients are kept awake during surgery and asked to name pictures of objects (e.g., bike). For >10 years, our group has shown that this is an outdated procedure because, for example, naming actions (e.g., swimming) better predicts communication abilities and detects more/different brain areas than object naming. As a result, action naming is now used in several hospitals. Still, language impairments can occur after surgery for functions that are not assessed, namely, language comprehension. Today, we have the knowledge and the network to improve language outcomes in people with brain tumors.

In this research, you will develop two new tasks (object/action association, associative judgment) to assess language comprehension in-depth (taxonomic/thematic relations), compare the new tasks against object naming between healthy people and people with brain tumors and correlate all the tasks with communication abilities. You will use neuroimaging methods before and during surgery (navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, Direct Electrical Stimulation) and also computational methods for task-design and to detect mild language problems (word network metrics). This research is timely because people with brain tumors have language impairments that escape current testing protocols. The methods are a unique opportunity to investigate language comprehension directly in the brain, and the results update a field that focuses on language production and that can benefit from advances in neuro- and computational linguistics.

You will be asked to:

• Develop and validate language comprehension tasks in German.
• Administer language tasks with navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (nTMS).
• Collect intraoperative language data during awake brain tumor surgery.
• Analyze data, write academic papers, and present at conference (e.g., 1-2 per year).
• Complete the PhD in the specified timeframe (4 years).

Organisation(s)

Since its foundation in 1614, the University of Groningen has established an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative university offering high-quality teaching and research. Its 27,000 students are encouraged to develop their own individual talents through challenging study- and career paths. The University of Groningen is an international centre of knowledge: It belongs to the best research universities in Europe and is allied with prestigious partner universities and networks worldwide.

The Faculty of Arts is a large, dynamic faculty in the heart of the city of Groningen. It has more than 5000 students and 700 staff members, who are working at the frontiers of knowledge every day. The Faculty offers a wide range of degree programmes: 15 Bachelor's programmes and over 35 Master's specialisations. Our research, which is internationally widely acclaimed, covers Archaeology, Cultural Studies, History, International Relations, Language and Literary Studies, Linguistics and Media and Journalism Studies.

Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin is one of Europe's largest university hospitals. The clinical care, research, and education are led by physicians and researchers of the highest global caliber. Charité is proud to be home to more than half of all German Nobel Prize winners in Physiology or Medicine. The institution is internationally recognized for its excellence in teaching and training. Charité serves as the joint medical faculty of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Charité is organized into 17 specialized Charité Centers. Located in the Charité Centre for Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, the Image Guidance Lab, led by Prof. Dr. Thomas Picht, is a major translational research hub that brings together researchers from the life sciences, humanities and design to improve the treatment of patients with neurological disorders.

Qualifications

• A Research Master’s or Master’s degree in cognitive science or related (e.g., neurolinguistics, speech therapy, psychology). In the absence of a Master’s degree, evidence of completion is needed (e.g., signed letter by a study advisor and/or thesis supervisor indicating that the thesis will be handed in on time).
• Excellent academic writing skills in English.
• Capacity to develop language tests and assess language capacities in German.
• Medium to advanced statistical skills (e.g., group and single case statistics, correlations).

Organisation

Conditions of employment

In accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, the University of Groningen offers you:

• A salary of € 2.901 gross per month in the first year, up to a maximum of € 3.707 gross per month in the final year, based on a full-time position.
• A holiday allowance of 8% gross annual income.
• An 8.3% end-of-the-year allowance.
• A temporary 1.0 FTE appointment for a specified period of four years. The candidate will first be appointed for twelve months. After six months, an assessment will take place of the candidate’s results and the progress of the PhD project, in order to decide whether employment will be continued.
• The PhD candidate will be recommended to teach (0.1 fte) during their fourth year of their appointment. Supervision of MA and MSc thesis related to the PhD project may be suggested one or two times a year during the entire PhD. None of these teaching duties is compulsory.
• Excellent work-life balance.
• Willingness to move and reside in Germany (3 years) and in the Netherlands (1 year).

The appointment will commence in October 2025 at the very latest. We allow 3 months from selection in case of VISA applications.