Neural circuit changes underpinning olfactory learning

Summary

The School of Biomedical Sciences invites applications from prospective postgraduate researchers who wish to commence study for a PhD in neuroscience in the academic year 2024/25. This opportunity is open to candidates who have the means to self-fund their studies or who have a sponsor who will cover this cost.

Learning is a fundamental feature of brains; they rewire their circuitry to store new information, such as an association between a stimulus and its positive or negative outcome. The olfactory system is an attractive location to study learning with it being easily accessible for in vivo imaging in the mouse. Olfactory learning plays important roles throughout life including: neonatal/maternal attachment, social interaction, food choice and identifying danger. The olfactory system contains numerous factors that are thought to participate in learning including: synaptic plasticity, adult neurogenesis, and extensive inputs from other neuromodulatory brain regions.

This project will ask the question: does it matter how an association is learnt? There are multiple ways to learn a food odour, including by social transmission, operant conditioning and passive association and it appears that different neural mechanisms are employed for each of these learning paradigms. Do the different methods of learning result in different neural correlates to represent the association?

Although learning is fundamental to what brains do, little is understood about whether different learning strategies result in the same neural outcome and whether some of these are more robust to degradation. This project will begin to address this important question.

The applicant will take advantage of a range of cutting-edge techniques to analyse the neural basis of learning, including: Behavioural analysis, computational modelling and in vivo brain imaging using 2-photon microscopy to measure neural activity within the different neural cell types of olfactory bulb.

We are seeking motivated and enthusiastic applicants with a background in neuroscience, physiology or engineering, applicants with some programming experience are particularly welcome. You would in the labs of Dr Jamie Johnston (www.johnstonlab.org) and Prof. Nikita Gamper and would be embedded within the broad neuroscience research community at Leeds (https://neural.leeds.ac.uk/). It is recommended that prior to applying you should contact Dr Johnston outlining how your research interests/background align with this project.

Applicants to research degree programmes should normally have at least a first class or an upper second class British Bachelors Honours degree (or equivalent) in an appropriate discipline. The criteria for entry for some research degrees may be higher, for example, several faculties, also require a Masters degree. Applicants are advised to check with the relevant School prior to making an application. Applicants who are uncertain about the requirements for a particular research degree are advised to contact the School or Graduate School prior to making an application.

The minimum English language entry requirement for research postgraduate research study is an IELTS of 6.0 overall with at least 5.5 in each component (reading, writing, listening and speaking) or equivalent. The test must be dated within two years of the start date of the course in order to be valid. Some schools and faculties have a higher requirement.