Description du sujet de thèse

The project is part of an ambitious research program aimed at understanding the neural mechanisms underlying behavioral flexibility and decision-making. We seek to decipher how the brain adapts to a changing environment and how internal states modulate these processes.
This PhD project focuses specifically on the computational aspect of this research. The successful candidate will be responsible for analyzing and modeling rich and complex datasets from large-scale electrophysiological recordings (Neuropixels probes) in multiple regions of the frontal cortex and striatum of mice engaged in decision-making tasks.
The PhD student will play a central role in modeling the data and transforming it into neuroscientific discoveries. In close collaboration with the experimentalists, he/she will seek to answer fundamental questions:
Information coding: How is task-relevant and irrelevant information coded and differentiated within neural populations?
Dynamics of behavioral states: What are the signatures of neural dynamics that characterize shifts in behavioral states, such as the transition from an exploratory to an exploitative strategy, or a change in decision-making strategy?
Behavior prediction: Can we identify specific changes in brain activity that precede and predict the animal's decisions?

Contexte de travail

The project is developed at the Timone Neuroscience Institute (INT), an interdisciplinary research center of the CNRS and Aix-Marseille University, located on the Timone health campus in Marseille.
The successful candidate will join a dynamic team and will be directly supervised by Fanny Cazettes (CNRS). He/she will benefit from the expertise of the entire research group and from collaborations with theorists for the more computational aspects of the project.

Contraintes et risques

None