PhD Studentship: Robust and Reproducible Oscillatory Phenotypes of Brain Function from Optically Pumped Magnetometers

4-year BBSRC MIBTP PhD Studentship
Further Information: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/mibtp/about_mibtp/
Dr Andrew Quinn & Dr Anna Kowalczyk, Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a safe, affordable and scalable measure of macro-scale synaptic dynamics. It can quantify healthy brain function and how it is modulated by cognitive context, ageing and clinical conditions. MEG has substantial potential for accurate assessment and tracking of brain health in individuals – a key global priority for modern medicine highlighted by the World Health Organisation in 2022. The next phase of MEG research is to move from robust population-level effects towards personalised and targeted monitoring of brain health and function in individuals. A challenge is that between-subject variability is often wider than observed group differences, making assessment ineffective for a substantial minority of people and limiting effective clinical translation of MEG as a tool for personalised medicine

This PhD project will reconcile robust group level effects with the wide variability in observed single subject oscillatory dynamics. We will undertake two related approaches to overcome these challenges using visual pathways of the human brain as a target neuronal system.

We will utilise Optically Pumped Magnetometers (OPM) in combination with individual anatomical structure to develop data collection and analysis methods that can separate the contributions of acquisition, anatomy and synaptic function to the measured signal. This will include work on methods to compute the expected effect size and statistical power of alpha and gamma band brain responses to visual stimulation at a single subject (N=1) level. We will use the cutting edge OPM laboratory at the Centre for Human Brain health as well as existing OPM datasets.

We are keen to recruit PhD students from under-represented groups, for example, home students who identify as BAME or those who grew up or went to school in an area where young people are less likely to enter higher education.

Applications should be directed to Andrew Quinn (a.quinn@bham.ac.uk) and informal enquiries prior to application are very welcome. To apply, please send an email with “[Oscillatory Phenotypes]” at the start of the RE line and the following information within the email:

CV or Summary of relevant experience
Links to any published or publicly available work
Summary of motivation to pursue this project (short statement of a few sentences)
Confirmation of UK home or international status 

Funding notes:

Further details on the funding availability is here: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/mibtp

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