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Website Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Closing date: 14th November
A postdoctoral post in Dr David Berron’s Clinical Cognitive Neuroscience group in Magdeburg, using ultra-high-field 7T laminar fMRI to map how medial temporal lobe function breaks down in early Alzheimer’s disease
Everyday experience arrives as a continuous stream, and the brain has to cut it into meaningful episodes. That process depends on the hippocampus and medial temporal lobe, and it is disrupted early in Alzheimer’s disease, early enough that patients notice and report the difficulty themselves. What is not known is how event segmentation works at the level of individual hippocampal and entorhinal layers, or how Alzheimer’s pathology interferes with it.
This project combines naturalistic, movie-based fMRI with ultra-high-field laminar imaging, remote cognitive testing and multivariate and AI-based analyses, comparing young adults, cognitively healthy older adults and people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The post sits within subproject P7 of the DFG Research Unit “Layers of Memory”, a consortium spanning Bochum, Bonn, Dortmund, Duisburg-Essen, Magdeburg and Tübingen, with partner sites in the Netherlands and Austria.
About the role
- Acquiring and analysing 7T laminar fMRI data using a naturalistic, movie-based event segmentation paradigm
- Segmenting MTL subregions and hippocampal subfields, for example with ASHS, and defining cortical layer compartments
- Applying univariate and multivariate analyses, including representational similarity analysis, to characterise event boundary activity and temporal pattern separation and completion
- Comparing findings across young adults, cognitively healthy older adults and people in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease recruited in Magdeburg and Essen
- Co-supervising student assistants
- Preparing manuscripts and presenting at international conferences
About you
- A PhD in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, neuroscience or a related field
- A genuine interest in the neural basis of memory and cognitive impairment in early-stage neurodegenerative disease, approached through naturalistic and translational research
- Experience with (f)MRI analysis; prior work with ultra-high-field 7T or laminar imaging is a strong plus
- Experience with MTL and hippocampal subfield anatomy and segmentation, or the willingness to pick up these pipelines quickly
- Strong programming skills in R, Python or MATLAB, and familiarity with multivariate methods such as RSA
- Good communication skills and the ability to work in both a local and a distributed, multi-site team
- A track record of peer-reviewed publications
- Fluent written and spoken English; German is welcome but not required
The group is explicit that candidates who meet most but not all of these points should still apply.
What comes with the post
Access to 7T scanners including the 7T Siemens Terra.X Impulse Edition in Magdeburg, one of only a handful of these systems worldwide, alongside 3T MRI and PET. The project collaborates with laminar imaging pioneer Professor David Norris in Essen and a wider consortium spanning ultra-high-field and laminar fMRI methodology, clinical neurology and human memory research. You would also have access to richly phenotyped and biomarker-characterised patient and control cohorts, one-to-one supervision, regular lab meetings and journal club, and exchange with consortia including DFG CRC 1436 Neural Resources of Cognition and IHI-ACCESS-AD.
How to apply
Applications should include a CV, a short motivation letter and two references. Questions about the post go to Dr David Berron at david.berron@dzne.de. The closing date is 14 November 2026.
The German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases is part of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany’s largest scientific organisation, with more than 42,000 staff and an annual budget of over €5 billion.
To apply for this job please visit jobs.dzne.de.
