Location: Neural Coding in the Auditory System group, Institut de l’Audition, Paris.
Type of contract: 12-month fixed-term contract (CDD) – The contract is initially for 1 year but can be extended.
Start date: November 2025
To apply: Application to the CNRS portal: https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/UMR8252-JERBAR-002/Default.aspx?lang=EN
Missions
Our team’s goal is to understand how the brain perceives and analyzes complex sounds. Sound processing begins in the ear, where the cochlea breaks down complex sounds into elementary frequencies. How these frequencies are represented in the brain and which neural network effectively conveys this information are central questions in the field of hearing and neuroscience in general.
We are developing several complementary approaches to answer these questions. We use functional approaches based on high-density electrophysiological recordings. We have an anatomical approach based on the reconstruction of the three-dimensional neural network. And finally, a computational approach with the generation of realistic models of the auditory system allows us to make theoretical predictions and verify our experimental results.
The engineer will be responsible for participating in these three aspects of our research by developing analysis pipelines and participating in the development of computational models. The contract is initially for 1 year but can be extended.
Activities
– Maintenance and monitoring of IT and experimental systems
– Generation of analysis pipelines for electrophysiological recordings
– Generation of image analysis pipelines for 3D reconstruction
– Participation in the development of a biophysical model of the auditory system
– Optical developments (two-photon microscopy)
– Formatting of results and statistical analyses
– Monitoring of literature and improvement/adaptation of techniques and analyses according to research projects
Skills
• Education:
– Master’s degree in neuroscience, biophysics, engineering, computer science, or a related field
• Desired experience:
– Recommended: Data analysis using Matlab or Python (signal processing, electrophysiology, image analysis, and statistics)
– Optional: Two-photon microscopy, development in LabVIEW
• Personal qualities:
– Motivation and curiosity
– Ability to work in a team and communicate in an international environment
– Rigorous, organized, and independent
– Good level of English (spoken and written)
Work Context
The project “Shedding light on the auditory circuit: from the cochlea to the brain” (funded by Impulscience of the Bettecourt-Schueller Foundation) combines functional, anatomical and computational approaches to describe the transformation of sound information by the peripheral and central auditory systems. This project will take place at the Institut de l’Audition, in Dr Jérémie Barral’s team. The Institut de l’Audition, a research center of the Institut Pasteur (Paris), aims to understand hearing from a fundamental and clinical point of view. It combines diverse approaches ranging from genetics and cell biology to biophysics and from human cognition and psychoacoustics to computational neuroscience to create a truly interdisciplinary research environment. More broadly, this position is part of the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire (IHU) reConnect, a new federative structure whose aim is to bring together all the players involved in hearing health to provide the best possible response to the medical, societal and educational needs raised by hearing disorders.