The Laboratory of Neurocognitive Development (LNCD), under the direction of Dr. Beatriz Luna, is seeking post-doctoral fellows to join her group to probe normative and abnormal neurocognitive development through adolescence using cognitive and reward tasks and multimodal imaging including fMRI, rsfMRI, DSI, PET, MRSI, EEG, and intracortical EEG. We are seeking candidates with a PhD or MD who have a background in cognitive or developmental psychology, neuroscience, or a related field and have published in peer-reviewed journals. A strong research background in the following areas is highly desired: task and/or resting state fMRI analysis, neurophysiological MR-based imaging (spectroscopy, tissue iron, etc), EEG, sEEG, and statistical analysis of neurocognitive data. Familiarity with statistical methods including mixed effects models and/or structural equation modeling for characterizing neurodevelopment are a plus. The successful candidate will work on multimodal neuroimaging projects studying the brain basis of cognitive and reward system development drawing upon both existing and newly acquired longitudinal neuroimaging data. In addition, the LNCD is a highly collaborative environment, affording the opportunity to contribute to a variety of ongoing projects in the lab, and intra and external institution collaborations as well as to interact with lab members from a diverse array of backgrounds, including clinical and cognitive psychology, statistics, and bioengineering. Interested candidates should submit a curriculum vitae, the names of three references, a statement of research experience, and date of availability to Professor Beatriz Luna (lunab@upmc.edu). Funding requires US citizenship. More information on the LNCD can be found on this website (http://lncd.pitt.edu).
Ongoing Research projects include:
· Characterizing developmental changes through adolescence in MRI and PET indices of DA processing and their association with cognitive and reward processing.
· Characterizing developmental changes through adolescence in MRSI indices of neurotransmitter changes including GABA and glutamate and their association with cognitive development.
· Characterizing developmental changes through adolescence in DSI and rsfMRI indices of structural and functional connectivity and their association with cognitive development.
· Characterizing variability in developmental trajectories using a 10year fMRI longitudinal fMRI study.
· Characterizing mechanisms underlying reward driven and habit formation using task & rs-fMRI, EEG, and intracortical EEG
The candidate would develop their unique projects beginning with available data from ongoing studies and later transitioning into establishing their unique scientific trajectory. Strong verbal skills are needed to write impactful manuscripts, and quantitative analysis expertise with neuroimaging analyses are a plus for implementing AFNI, FSL, MATLAB, and R while incorporating high-level statistics. Pittsburgh has uniquely strong neuroscience, psychiatry, and psychology communities at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University who are highly collaborative. The imaging centers available for research are vast and high-level including PRISMA 3Ts, PET/MR, and 7T scanners. LNCD projects are supported by ongoing R01 NIMH grants and endowed support providing a stable research environment. The city of Pittsburgh has been highly sought after due to its affordability, long standing culture, university population, and entrepreneurship (Google, Uber).
Fellows will have the opportunity to:
1. Publish manuscripts from multiple NIH funded pre-existing, currently collected datasets, and Big Datasets (e.g., ABCD)
2. Collaborate on inter and multi-institutional research projects
3. Pursue grant funding with mentorship from the PI and the Psychiatry Department
4. Participate in fellowship didactic seminars and workshops on grant writing, career development, and preparing for faculty positions
Interested individuals, please email the PI directly: lunab@upmc.edu with the following
1. A brief description of research aims
2. CV
3. Three references, with their webpage, and email