This PhD project is part of a bigger Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) New Exploratory Research and Discovery grant entitled: Information Theoretic Disentanglement of the Exceptional Biological Learning Machine, which is headed by Professor Jan Østergaard.  The goal is to develop novel information-theoretic methods for identifying and analyzing temporal and spatial patterns of synergy and redundancy in brain signals elicited by acoustic stimuli.
The PhD project falls under Research Track 1: Informational Modes of Learning. Functional connectivity captures the statistical relationships between distinct brain regions, whereas effective connectivity characterizes the causal influences among them. Even in a resting state, the brain exhibits spontaneous neuronal activity organized into networks that regulate cognitive functions. These functional brain networks display intricate spatiotemporal dynamics that encode rich informational content. However, analyzing such interactions remains challenging due to the high dimensionality, nonlinearity, and noise inherent in neural signals.
In this project, we propose to expose participants to controlled acoustic stimuli and record the corresponding brain responses. The primary goal is to develop explainable spatiotemporal causal discovery frameworks for time-series data such as EEG, leveraging prior knowledge of the driving stimuli. Specifically, the project aims to determine which features of the acoustic input elicit particular EEG responses, thereby mapping stimulus-response relationships in both space and time. Understanding these dynamic informational patterns is key to revealing how the brain tracks, processes, and learns auditory information.
For more information about the position, please see the following link:
https://www.vacancies.aau.dk/phd-positions/show-vacancy/vacancyId/867572
