Post-doctoral position in neurophysiology

Post-doc in Neurophysiology in Bordeaux

Available post-doctoral position in neurophysiology funded by ANR

A post-doc position is available at the Institut des Neurosciences Cognitives et Integratives D’Aquitaine (INCIA) in Bordeaux, France, under the supervision of François Lambert in the team DN3 (team leader Muriel Thoby-Brisson).

We are looking for highly motivated candidates with a PhD in neuroscience, biology. They will have to show good team work and organization skills, be rigorous and creative, be able to work independently and take initiatives. A background in in vitro electrophysiological recordings, in histology and signal processing will be appreciated. The selected candidate must be passionate about science and want to be part of a new dynamic team which fosters innovation in a collaborative environment.

The project: Multimodal integration and plasticity in extraocular motoneurons

Research Hypothesis. The proficiency and dynamics of locomotion critically depends on the ability to offset the deteriorating effects of body motion on concurrent retinal image stability. Thus, locomotor activity must be accompanied at all times by gaze-stabilizing eye movements that result from the synergistic interaction of motion-related sensory feedback and intrinsic feedforward signals. This computation occurs within dedicated brainstem circuits and ensures appropriate transformation of multimodal signals into motor commands for compensatory eye movements. Feedback and feedforward signals converge at the level of extraocular motoneurons in a spatio-temporally specific pattern that so far is only poorly understood. Our hypothesis is that this neuronal integration is distributed among functionally distinguishable sets of motoneurons that form frequency-tuned elements, each with distinct morpho-physiological characteristics and signal processing capacities. The ontogenetic assembly and functional maturation of the involved premotor and motor elements is likely governed by principles that are influenced by the differential, yet reciprocally adjusted acquisition of sensory motion sensitivity and locomotor proficiency.

Objectives. We propose to identify the activity profiles of extraocular motoneurons at different developmental stages and behavioral states and to manipulate sensory inputs, singly or in combination during locomotor activity 1) to demonstrate a differentiation of extraocular motor nuclei into subgroups, each dedicated to the generation of task-specific motor commands and 2) to demonstrate the reciprocal influence of the respective sensory and motor circuits during ontogeny.

Scientific and technical barriers. The developmental configuration and metamorphic reconfiguration of the body plan in the amphibian Xenopus laevis requires a constant functional adjustment of sensory-motor transformations to elicit spatio-temporally adequate compensatory eye movements independent of locomotor style. We will study the adaptive plasticity of extraocular motoneuronal computations during circuit formation and switch from tail-based undulatory swimming in larvae to limb-based locomotion in juveniles. To demonstrate the extent of morpho-physiological alterations, we will use a combination of techniques such as extracellular nerve and intracellular patch-clamp recordings, calcium imaging, neuronal tracing and immunohistochemistry, computational modeling, pharmacological and genetic manipulations of visual and vestibular sensory inputs as well as conflicting manipulations of sensory stimuli in a virtual reality environment along with high-speed video recordings of eye movements as objective motor output.

Related publication : https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-30636-6

More info on the team :

http://www.incia.u-bordeaux1.fr/spip.php?article794