Neuroscience | Reality Bending Lab

Postdoc in Psychology/Neuroscience

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

New Opportunities

None :(

Getting your own Postdoc Funding

If you’re a recent PhD graduate (or soon to be), you could consider applying for a postdoc fellowship to join the lab on your own terms, and develop your own research project.

Here are some existing opportunities for postdoc funding:

SENSS
Marie-curie postdoc fellowships (MSCA)
Newton International Fellowships (non-UK)
British Academy (UK PhDs holders)
UKRI Future Leaders
FYSSEN (French PhDs holders)
CRSH, FRQSC, Banting (Canadian PhDs holders)
NTU’s Humanities International Postdoctoral Scholarship (HIPS) (Singaporeans)

Get in touch with me once you have an opportunity in mind and a rough project idea, we can then refine your application to maximize your chances of getting it.

Don’t rely on what is written!

Ask directly members of team (current and past) about their experience in the lab!

PhD in Psychology / Neuroscience

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Flexible University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

New Opportunities

11 December 20205: Sussex Psychology PhD Program
- Fully funded for local and international students (i.e., pays university fees + gives you a salary)
- Selection is based on the candidate’s CV as well as on the project proposal
- Get in touch with potential supervisors before applying!
11 December 20205: SEDarc PhD Scholarship
- 3.5 years fully funded scholarship
- Project must fit within the SEDarc themes (e.g., data science)
- Selection is based on the candidate’s CV as well as on the project proposal
12 January 2026: Sussex Neuroscience 3+1 PhD Program
- Fully funded for local and international students (i.e., pays university fees + gives you a salary)
- You don’t need to chose a supervisor before applying. The first year is made of 3 different rotations in different labs
- Selection is based mostly on the candidate’s CV

What you will get

Doing a PhD at Sussex with Dominique Makowski means:

Joining a dynamic team with a vibrant lab life
A supervisor that actually supervises 🤯
A super interesting research topic
A French-style thesis defense to celebrate your accomplishments 🧀🍷

Don’t rely on what is written!

Ask directly members of team (current and past) about their experience in the lab!

How to do a PhD in Psychology?

The first step is usually to contact the potential supervisor to discuss a rough research project outline. Write an email with your CV, your research interests and - if you have - some ideas for a research project that matches your supervisor’s line of research. If you don’t have ideas yet, it’s perfectly fine! I will likely propose some avenues of research that might match your interest, and refine them down the line.
Ideally, you would also want to come up with a plan for funding. This is the most challenging part, unfortunately. There are typically 4 types of profiles: 1) the student and the supervisor come up with a tentative research project, with which the student then applies to scholarship opportunities. 2) the supervisor already has a scholarship for a specific project that he obtained a grant for, and will recruit a PhD for that specific research project; 3) the student already secured a scholarship that allows them to pursue a PhD with the supervisor of their choice (e.g., some schemes exist from countries for their nationals to do their PhD abroad). 4) Self-funding, which we don’t recommend unless you’re one of the lucky few with money to spare.

Funding Opportunities

Funding is a complicated topic, and often the main barrier between one’s goal and its achievement. Keep in mind that there are many other possibilities and case-by-case considerations.

Here are some scholarship opportunities for funded PhDs in the UK:

The Sussex Psychology Doctoral Research Studentship
The Sussex Neuroscience 3+1 years PhD
The Sussex AI PhD (you will need a primary supervisor from the School of Engineering and Informatics but I can be a cosupervisor)
The SEDarc studentships (see also here)
The South and East Network for Social Sciences (SENSS)
The Welcome Trust PhD Studentships
The UKRI studentship
The South Coast Biosciences Network (SoCoBio)
The Chevening Scholarship (International only)
The FIRE French scholarships (must be a collaboration with a Paris-based lab)
The DAAD scholarships (Germans)
The Joint China Scholarship (China)
Scholarship Opportunities for Singaporeans:

As well as other options:

Partnership: If an external partner agrees to cover half the cost (approx. £35k over three years), the university can match the other half of the cost. Useful for applied projects and collaborations with startups, private companies or NGOs. If you’re thinking of developing a product, a software or a service, this could be a good option.
Collaboration: Many universities allow some form of co-supervisorship. This means that you could do the main part of your PhD in another university, and come to Sussex sporadically as part of a collaboration. Note that official frameworks can exist for this type of configurations, such as the cotutelles in France.

Check-out this how to apply guide for additional information.

More info are available on the university’s PhD in psychology, Funding, PhD in cognitive science and PhD in neuroscience information page.

Other Pots of Money

Mostly for those already registered as PhD students.

Laura Bassi Scholarship: Masters and PhD on “neglected” research topics.

Questions and Answers

Clinical Psychology PhD or DClinPsy?

Unfortunately, the University of Sussex does not offer at the moment a PhD in Clinical Psychology that includes clinical placements and internships in hospitals. However, if you are interested in working with patients, it is entirely possible to have a research project that involves clinical populations, and specialize in “clinical” research. Some people then complement this kind of PhD with clinical trainings (e.g., psychotherapy) to transition from research to practice.

How to become a Neuropsychologist?

Neuropsychology is both an approach (focusing on the relationship between the brain and its output in the form of behaviour and thought) and a practice (involving neuropsychological assessments and rehabilitation). The latter is considered a specialization of Clinical Psychology, which means that one must be a clinical psychologist to be a clinical neuropsychologist. As said above, the University of Sussex unfortunately does not offer, at the moment, a formal PhD in clinical psychology or clinical neuropsychology. However, joining the Reality Bending Lab will get you well-prepared to eventually pursue this type of program, as the methods and mindset that we have draws heavily on neuropsychology (the use of neuropsychological tests, the focus on neurocognitive theories, etc.). In fact, some of our past members have become brilliant neuropsychologists, so feel free to ask them!

How to work on psychedelics?

Psychedelics and altered states of consciousness are a hot topic in psychology and neuroscience. Unfortunately, it is still extremely difficult to get authorizations to work with these substances. I would not recommend to base your PhD project on this potentiality, as it’s too risky that things might not work out (due to ethical, administrative, or political reasons). That said, we do have projects running in collaborations with experts in the field, and are always on the lookout for opportunities to work on these topics. Additionally, we think it’s also very interesting to study how altered states of consciousness can be induced without external substances (e.g., through meditation, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, neural stimulation, …), which might be a more sustainable and ethical way to approach these phenomena.

Application Advice

A few tips for your writing up your application dossier, in particular pertaining your CV and cover letter. Note that these are general guidelines that also apply to other contexts (master’s programs, industry jobs, etc.).

The key thing is to keep in mind that we receive a lot of applications (few hundreds for some positions). The first mistake you want to avoid is to have a generic, impersonal application: do address specific people (and do not make mistakes in the spelling of their names, it happens often and is a turn-off), and try to concisely paint a profile of yourself that the recruiter can easily picture and form an image of: what is your background, where do you come from, what are your expertise, interests and goals. This should really be one tightly written paragraph (you can expand on this in your CV). We often see long and convoluted CVs and cover letters, that try to show “a bit of everything”, leaving the reader with little more than a sense of confusion.

Next, after providing a clear depiction of who you are, you want to show that you have done your homework about where you are applying: be specific about the people of the department (e.g., “I am particularly interested in working with Dr. X because of their work on Y”), or the papers (“I particularly enjoyed your paper on X because of Y”). This shows that you are motivated and that you are not just sending the same application to 100 different places. That being said, do not list everything that is written on someone’s website or profile, because it makes it look like you just copied and pasted it. Be genuine, personal and specific. It is tempting to use AI to generate these kinds of things, but I would advise against it. Putting it the time, effort, and hard work will pay off.

Finally, you want to show that you are a good fit for the position, and show that you have experience in the methods that are used in the lab, that you have experience in the field, etc.

Research Assistant in Psychology / Neuroscience

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Flexible University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

Working as a research assistant (RA) is a formidable opportunity to take on before - eventually - signing up for a PhD. It is a flexible and varied position, and a perfect position to develop key research skills like writing, data analysis or neuroimaging; and eventually later pursue a postgraduate program in psychology/neuroscience/neuropsychology.

Funded RA positions at Sussex can be seen on the recruitment page.

Sussex Psychology Placement Year

Students at the University of Sussex can also opt for a placement year between the second and third year of their studies. All undergraduates within the School are eligible to complete a placement year.

While it might seem like it would “add” one year and delay the end of the studies, the experience that you could gain is quite invaluable. Doing a full-year placement year in a research lab is the best way to take on larger projects and acquire a comprehensive research experience. Beyond providing you with a massive headstart for the final year, it is a great opportunity to learn new skills and meet many researchers, which will help you refine your career trajectory and maximize your chances of achieving your goals.

More information here.

Sussex Junior Research Associate (JRA)

Sussex also offers short summer internship opportunities for undergrads interested in developing your research skills and experience. You can apply to the Sussex Junior Research Associate (JRA) program to become a research associate and undertake an intensive eight-week research project over the summer break. Find out more information on how to apply here.

See this blogpost for a testimony.

SoSocBio Undergraduate Summer Studentship

Undergraduates residing in the UK can apply for a paid 6 weeks (30hr per week) internship between 1 July and 30 September.

More information here.

International Junior Research Associate (IJRA)

See here: https://www.sussex.ac.uk/suro/current/ijra

Other Bursaries

Neuropsychology International Fellowship (NIF): Small bursaries from the British Neuropsychological Society to support small research internship.

Volunteer Research assistant

Check the voluntary internships page for more information.

Don’t rely on what is written!

Ask directly members of team (current and past) about their experience in the lab!

Internship in Psychology / Neuroscience

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Flexible University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

If you are a undergrad student, doing a voluntary internship can be a good idea to get some first exposure with research, develop some useful skills and start growing your professional network. This is not by any means a necessity or a requirement, so don’t worry at all if you cannot afford (financially or in term of availabilities) to volunteer, and check-out instead possibly funded positions.

Sussex Psychology Placement Year: Check-out the Research Assistant page
Sussex Junior Research Assistant (JRA): Check-out the Research Assistant page
SoSocBio Undergraduate Summer Studentship: Check-out the Research Assistant page

Contact. Send CV to D.Makowski@sussex.ac.uk and explicitly say that you are interested in volunteering.

Don’t rely on what is written!

Ask directly members of team (current and past) about their experience in the lab!

Research Projects

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Flexible University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

Projects

Research in the Reality Bending Lab focuses primarily on the physiological and neurocognitive underpinnings of reality perception and aspects of reality bending (e.g., fiction, deception, fake news, illusions, and altered states of consciousness such as through meditation or immersion). Possible projects include (but are not limited to):

How do we know what is real? And what does it change?

Real vs. Fake: This project will typically involve presenting some real vs. “fake” stimuli (e.g., fake news, AI-generated images, …) to participants and investigate what interindividual/cognitive/emotional factors allows them to discriminate between the two.
Emotion regulation via fiction: believing that something is unreal (regardless of whether it actually is or is not) seem to have some ripple effect on various facets of our body and brain, such as emotions. This project studies the characteristics and potential use of fiction as an emotion regulation strategy. This project can be focused on negative emotions (with threatening/unpleasant stimuli) or “positive” emotions (e.g., sexual arousal, attractiveness).
Authenticity & Neuroaesthetics: This project investigates the effect of believing that an artwork is “forged” (e.g., an imitation of a great painter) on our appraisal of beauty.

Assessment of bodily and cognitive abilities and their relationship

Neuropsychological assessment of Cognitive Control: This project focuses on the development, validation and improvement of a neuropsychological task to reliably measure “cognitive control” (executive functions). This project requires some interest in neuropsychological assessment, task development and associated technical skills (programming, game development).
Physiological Control: development of measures (questionnaires, physiological tasks) measuring the ability to voluntarily regulate one’s physiology (e.g., heart rate, autonomic reactions, etc.).
Relationship between Interoception and higher-order functions: This project involves measuring various aspects of our relationship with our body (e.g., by measuring cardiac activity) and analyzing its relationship with cognitive abilities (e.g., Self control, emotion regulation) or higher-order constructs (e.g., primal world beliefsLinks to an external site.).
Secondary EEG data analysis: Investigating an existing dataset containing resting state EEG signal, from which one would extract features to try predicting dispositional indices (such as primal world beliefs).

Non-invasive induction of altered states of consciousness

Emotion regulation via distancing: by instructing people to change their state of mind (e.g., “see the events in a detached manner, like a fly on the wall”), we hope to manipulate aspects of the sense of reality - such as absorption and psychological distance - and compare its effect (in particular on emotions) with that of other emotion regulation strategies.
Can we manipulate the state of consciousness and observe actual effects on the performance at various cognitive tasks? For instance, via hypnosis or mindfulness-like instructions, sound stimulation (binaural beats, drumming, …), sensory deprivation (“floating” tanks). We study the role of expectations and try to isolate the mechanism of change.
Qualitative + quantitative project: Investigation into the world of “reality shifters”, people claiming that have shifted between realities. Understand their language, personality, etc.

Metascience / Data science / Software development

Investigation of scientific practices: to what extent scientists engage in “new” practices (e.g., open science, slow science, preregistration, registered reports, …) and what factors (e.g., career level, time, ideology, …) are driving their adoption (or lack thereof). This might involve things like validating assessment tools (such as questionnaires or gamified measures like quizzes), distributing it widely and analysing the results.
Improving access of R to psychologists: R outputs can be complex, and we are developing tools to facilitate its understanding (e.g., the reportLinks to an external site. package). This project involves implementing functions in R to help communicate and interpret statistical results. This project requires some interest in programming and stats.
Neurophysiological signal analysis in Python: implementation and validation of new algorithms in Python, related for instance to chaos theory, EEG signal analysis, etc. This project requires some interest in programming, computer science and mathematics.
Psychophysiological methods: what is the optimal electrode configuration for recording skin conductance responses (often used as a marker of emotions).
Role of beauty in science: Is the impact of research publications related to the aeshetic qualities of figures.

Other / Collaborations

With Theodoros Karapanagiotidis: project involving secondary behavioural data analysis, exploring questions about the nature of thoughts, their patterns, the impact of mood and ongoing experience , and how they vary in in real-life settings. By analysing existing data, students will be able to examine the links between ongoing thoughts, brain structure and function, and their potential implications for mental health and well-being.

Some of these projects share strong links with philosophical concepts (e.g., the paradox of fiction) and/or carry some clinical relevance (e.g., for the understanding and treatment of mood/psychotic/dissociative disorders). Also, note that the lab is radically engaged in open science and, ultimately, quantitative methodologies: thus, most projects would typically require a substantial use of R (or Python) at some stage. However, it’s totally okay not to feel proficient at these skills at the start, but the important thing is to be interested and motivated to learn.

Projects might be conducted individually, in pairs, or in a group, depending on needs. Attending weekly lab meetings is also expected.

Skills

Joining the Reality Bending Lab will help you develop unique skills that your might not find in other labs, that will give an edge to your profile for future applications. These include:

Neuroimaging (EEG)
Psychophysiology (multimodal bodily recordings)
Computational Bayesian modelling with R
Advanced programming with Python
Open science best practices (using GitHub and various cutting edge tools)

Advice for Students

Choosing Options

Most psychology programs are proposing some optionality, i.e., some modules that you can pick. While many of them look interesting, you often have to make hard choices. Many students pick what looks interesting, from various psychology domains (e.g., a bit of social psychology, a module from cognitive, one from clinical etc.). They might also believe that picking a variety of options will provide them with a multidisciplinary profile, which might be valued later on.

While this is, in principle, true, in practice, a “consistent” profile is often much more appealing to recruiters. For instance, having a set of clinically-relevant options, or cognitive/neuroscience ones, will give you an edge (and sometimes, even for say a “neuroscience” opportunity, recruiters would prefer a clearly clinical profile rather than a “jack of all trades master of none” type of one). Make your choices wisely, and make them with a plan.

But I don’t know what I want to do later, so I want to keep most doors open.

Yes, that’s a common issue. You can still keep doors open while at the same time having a coherent profile. You should at least have an idea of what subbranch of psychology you don’t want to do (e.g., social psychology).

For psychology students at Sussex, if you would like to work with me, I recommend picking some of the following options:

Cognitive Neuroscience (must have)
Conscious and Unconscious Mental Processes
Biological Psychology of Mental Health
Perspectives on Psychology
Self Regulation: The Science of Achieving Your Goals
Attention: Distraction, Daydreaming and Diversity
Drugs, Brain and Behaviour

Don’t rely on what is written!

Ask directly members of team (current and past) about their experience in the lab!

Podcast 'Learn Bayesian Stats' with Dominique Makowski

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The ‘Learning Bayesian Statistics’ Podcast

I had the chance of being invited to talk about R, Python, Reality Bending and much more! It was my first experience of that kind, so thanks a ton to the host of the podcast Alex Andorra. Listen to it here:

https://www.learnbayesstats.com/episode/55-neuropsychology-illusions-bending-reality-dominique-makowski

We're recruiting a Research Assistant!

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

We’re recruiting a Research Assistant!

In the context of a new collaboration between Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) and Future Cities Laboratory, myself and Dr Panos Mavros are recruiting a Research Assistant in psychology/neuroscience (bachelor/master) to contribute to an exciting new research project that combines a neuroscientific approach to studying the interaction between beauty and the perception of urban spaces.

Perfect for psychology graduates interested in joining a cool team and learning skills like EEG, physiological techniques, advanced statistics and more!

Apply through this portal
More info here

Pyllusion has been published

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Pyllusion has been published!

Pyllusion is a package for Python that implements a systematic way to manipulate and generate illusions using a set of parameters.

For instance, the famous Müller-Lyer illusion below, which causes the observer to perceive the 2 segments of being different lengths depending on the shape of the arrows, can be generated wit the following lines of code:

mullerlyer = pyllusion.MullerLyer(illusion_strength=30)
mullerlyer.to_image()

To understand more about the parametric approach being implemented in the Pyllusion package, we recommend reading our paper, which includes a hands-on example on how to generate some classic illusions (such as the Delbeouf Illusion), and discusses how Pyllusion contributes to address conceptual and methodological issues in illusion science.

import pyllusion

delboeuf = pyllusion.Delboeuf(illusion_strength=3)
delboeuf.to_image()

Don’t forget to keep a look out for our repo for more exciting open-source projects!

The symbolism behind the ReBeL logo

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The Reality Bending logo includes several references to various concepts. Can you try to guess them?

👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇

Wizard

One of the most striking feature of the logo is the guy in the middle, which represents a wizard. It represent us, the people who delve in the science of reality bending.

Wizards are a powerful archetype, that are primarily defined through the learned ability (by seeking, studying and gathering arcane knowledge) of controlling and manipulating reality. Though many specializations and facets exist, the understanding of the true nature of the world is a core facets that binds all wizards.

the wizard Gandalf facing the forces of darkness with his light.

Beard

In Greco-Roman antiquity, the beard was seen as the defining feature of a philosopher (see the Philosopher’s beard on wikipedia), expressing the idea that philosophy is no mere intellectual hobby but rather a way of life that, by definition, transforms every aspect of one’s behavior (including one’s shaving habits).

Show me your beard and I’ll tell you what philosopher you are:

Cynics had long dirty beards to indicate their “strict indifference to all external goods and social customs”
Stoics were occasionally trimming and washing their beards in accordance with their view “that it is acceptable to prefer certain external goods so long as they are never valued above virtue”
Peripatetics took great care of their beards believing in accordance with Aristotle that “external goods and social status were necessary for the good life together with virtue”

A glorious beard.

Eyepatch

For any mythology fan, a bearded figure with an eyepatch (or a missing eye) is known to represent Odin, the chief deity of the norse pantheon. He’s a very complex character, with a deeply ambivalent nature. One of the key moment of Odin’s story is when he sacrifices one of his eyes in return for wisdom…

Losing direct sight of reality in return for a deeper knowledge of reality - here is an interesting idea that we can discuss and (over)interpret with some drinks 🍺

Odin portrayed by one of my favourite actor.

Pipe

The pipe refers to the most famous painting of the surrealist René Magritte. One of the common interpretation suggests that it symbolizes the difference between the authentic thing (a real pipe) and its representation. This, we believe, is just one level that differentiates the real from the unreal…

The Treachery of Images (Magritte, 1929).

Smoke

The smoke takes the form of a Psi letter Ψ, which is the symbol of psychology.

The Psi within the brain, a representation of neuropsychology, and the logo of the Neuropsydia software.

The Flower

The flower in the background is not just any flower. It is a poppy flower, from which the seed have been used throughout history to create diverse substances to alter our perception of reality…

Incidentally, it is also the symbol of the Makowski family (which names refers to “poppy seed” in polish).

The Makowski's Poppy Flower.

Did you spot any more 😏? Let us know!

What visual agnosia might feel like

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Name One Thing In This Photo

Can you name one thing in the image above? It all looks familiar, but something is off. The image makes “sense” overall; there are well-defined shapes and objects, that seem to be placed in a plausible - albeit chaotic - fashion, like some random rubbish thrown in the corner of a room. Even the colors, the lightning, the quality, is coherent, and helps making it believable. And yet, chances are you cannot name one single element that composes it.

This image, after appearing on twitter in April 2019, surfaced on reddit with the caption “This picture is designed to give the viewer the simulated experience of having a stroke (particularly in the occipital lobe of the cerebral cortex, where visual perception occurs.) Everything looks hauntingly familiar but you just can’t quite recognize anything”, and became subsequently viral. However, the author of the caption later admitted that he made this description up.

So where does the image come from?

One can trace back the original publication to an instagram account, which author declared having made the image using ArtBreeder.com. This website gives access to an AI algorithm (Generative Adversarial Networks - GAN), commonly used in the processing and generation of images (one mindblowing example can be found on thispersondoesnotexist.com, which generates realistic pictures of non-existing people). There were even some attempts to reverse engineer the process to retrieve what the original image could have been like.

After all, it seems like there is no intelligent design behind this image. No clever neuropsychologist carefully crafting a meaningful experience. Just one of these lucky accident.

Nonetheless, it’s still an intriguing image, falling in this uncanny abyss of things that we recognize as familiar, but slightly too alien for our sense-seeking brains to dissolve in meaning. Could it tell something about brain processes? Surely, but brain disorders? Maybe.

The “occipital stroke” hypothesis mentioned above suggests, by its formulation, a lesion to the primary visual cortices. However, as neuroscientists know, these brain regions, located at the extreme back of the brain, are mostly supporting lower level aspects of visual processing, and their damage is usually related to alterations of a somewhat different nature than of that above, such as vision loss, visual hallucinations, visual deformations, loss of color, movement, stereoscopy, etc.

However, there is another neuropsychological disorder, referred to as “visual agnosia”, in which patients experience difficulties to recognize visually presented objects, despite preserving an intact vision. In fact, it is more an umbrella term for different subcategories of deficits, and the image above could be reminiscent of visual agnosia of the associative type, which corresponds to a a specific impairment in the assignment of meaning to a stimulus that is accurately perceived (and can be visually described). This symptom is often related to injuries in the left occipito-temporal region, located on the ventral “what” stream of the brain (as opposed to the so-called “where” dorsal stream).

Ivan Seal’s Art

From there, the youtuber Solar Sands helped me discover the artist Ivan Seal, which work is somewhat akin to the image above. They are not purely abstract renditions, or depictions of impossible entities, but plausible objects that sit in this awkward space, deep between boring reality and total weirdness.

Thanks for reading! Do not hesitate to tweet and share this post and don’t forget to join me on X 🐦 @Dom_Makowski