Postdoctoral researcher “A Multidisciplinary Approach Combining Sociology and Social Neuroscience to Frontotemporal Degeneration” (M/F)

Job Description

Missions

Description of the Scientific Context and the Postdoctoral Research Topic The Gendhi project aims to understand how social relations of domination interact to account for social inequalities in health, from early childhood through adulthood. The research is structured around two complementary questions: (i) How are (un)healthy bodies socially constructed? (ii) Do access to care and treatment by the healthcare system differ depending on the social characteristics of sick individuals? The approach is resolutely multidisciplinary, combining sociology, demography, economics, and epidemiology, in close collaboration with clinician-researchers. This project is led by Nathalie Bajos, sociologist and demographer, research director at Inserm; Muriel Darmon, sociologist, research director at the CNRS; Pierre-Yves Geoffard, economist, research director at the CNRS and PSE; and Michelle Kelly-Irving, epidemiologist, research director at Inserm.
The objective of this postdoctoral fellowship is to examine social inequalities in health related to Alzheimer's disease and related disorders, particularly frontotemporal degeneration. The effects of gender and socioeconomic background have been little studied in neurodegenerative diseases, both in neuroscience and in sociology. In behavioral frontotemporal degeneration (bFTD) (which is primarily characterized by severe impairments in the cognitive and affective mechanisms governing interpersonal relationships), however, it can be hypothesized that these factors significantly influence the clinical presentation and disease course. This postdoctoral fellowship will examine the hypothesis that, in patients with bFTD, gender and social background act as factors modulating the nature and severity of behavioral symptoms.
Using an approach that combines neuroscientific analytical tools and methodologies with the examination of clinical cases, in ongoing consultation with a sociologist and through an interdisciplinary partnership to supervise the postdoctoral research, this study will address the following questions: How do gender and social background influence the core symptoms of TBD, such as behavioral disinhibition, loss of interest in others, apathy, impaired emotional expressiveness, or reduced empathy? How do they also influence the early recognition of these symptoms by family members and the healthcare team? What links might these factors have with clinical, cognitive, or neural data? Finally, how do medical trajectories and care vary according to individuals' social characteristics, in terms of class, gender, and other power dynamics? The research must engage with the other disciplines within the Gendhi project, as well as with the other qualitative and quantitative studies conducted as part of the project (in particular, among the other studies on social inequalities in health care, the study on “language interactions in general practice and social inequalities in health”).

Activity

- Participate in the scientific activities of the Gendhi project. Serve as a liaison between the ERC Gendhi, the host laboratory (U1172, Lille Neuroscience and Cognition), and the Memory Center at Lille University Hospital (Center of Expertise for Rare and Early-Onset Dementias).
- Share knowledge about early-onset dementia and social neuroscience with the sociologist researcher as part of a multidisciplinary collaboration. Supervise the sociologist researcher's observation of patient consultations and neuropsychological testing.
- Clarify the clinical dimensions of the sociological project by interpreting and explaining the clinical decisions and interpretations made by the healthcare team.
- To analyze the database from the Méotis regional network of memory clinics in the Hauts-de-France region, and the demographic and clinical data within this database, specifically regarding patients at the memory center (in terms of the sex ratio of patients diagnosed with FTD, educational attainment and socioeconomic status, years of schooling and university education, time to consultation and diagnostic delay, misdiagnoses prior to an FTD diagnosis, etc.). Potentially, analysis of the National Alzheimer's Database (BNA) to provide a national perspective on the effects observed in the Méotis network data, subject to approval by the scientific advisory board.
- Contribute to the practical organization of sociological interviews by pre-identifying patients likely to participate and meeting the inclusion criteria set by the scientific leaders, contacting and recruiting patients, and planning interviews in collaboration with the sociologist-interviewer, the care team, and the memory center's clinical research coordination, as well as the coding of clinical, paraclinical, and demographic data.
- Conduct quantitative analyses, particularly of data from the Méotis network and the BNA, and, where appropriate, extract and analyze lexical-semantic and acoustic linguistic markers from audio recordings made during sociological interviews.
- Write scientific articles.
- Present research and participate in Gendhi working groups and seminars.
- 20% of working time may be devoted to promoting previous work, particularly the dissertation.

Your Profil

Skills

Required qualifications:
• PhD in neuroscience, already defended or with a defense date scheduled before the start of the postdoctoral fellowship.
• License to practice psychology and clinical experience in hospital-based neuropsychology.
• Experience with and proficiency in inferential statistics in neuroscience.
• Analytical and writing skills.
• Rigorous approach, initiative, and ability to work with a multidisciplinary team.
• Independence. Skills that are useful but not essential:
• Prior experience with the Méotis database.
• Proficiency in audio recording pre-processing tools and methods for extracting acoustic markers.
• Research experience in a multidisciplinary team.
• Clinical experience with patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal degeneration.

Your Work Environment

This recruitment is linked to the Gender and Health Inequalities (Gendhi) research project. This project has received funding from the European Research Council, via the 'ERC-Synergy-2019' call, for a period of seven years.
The successful candidate will work under the scientific supervision of Muriel DARMON (Principal Investigator of Gendhi, CESSP – CNRS UMR 8209 – EHESS – University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) and Maxime Bertoux (Director of the Inserm INTERACTIONS team – INTEgrative Research in Affective, CogniTIve and sOcial NeuroscienceS, University of Lille, Lille University Hospital and Head of Academic Research at the Lille Memory Centre). The post will be based in Paris (EHESS Raspail) but travel to the scientific laboratory in Lille is to be expected (in conjunction with the Lille Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory (UMRS1172, Inserm, University of Lille, Lille University Hospital).

Compensation and benefits

Compensation

Between €3,081 and a maximum of €4,806 gross per month, depending on experience. (according to established pay scales)

Annual leave and RTT

44 jours

Remote Working practice and compensation

Pratique et indemnisation du TT

Transport

Prise en charge à 75% du coût et forfait mobilité durable jusqu’à 300€

About the offer

About the CNRS

The CNRS is a major player in fundamental research on a global scale. The CNRS is the only French organization active in all scientific fields. Its unique position as a multi-specialist allows it to bring together different disciplines to address the most important challenges of the contemporary world, in connection with the actors of change.

CNRS

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