Project 1)

Master’s Research Internship: Brain-Behavior Relationships in Population Neuroscience

H.Steven Scholte, Henk Cremers, Jan Henk Kamphuis

Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam

Project Duration 5-6 months (full-time) or equivalent part-time. Intern or thesis.

Start date: Flexible Location: University of Amsterdam, Department of Psychology

Project Overview 

Join our research team in exploring the relationships between psychological characteristics and brain structure/function using a comprehensive dataset from a representative Dutch population sample. This dataset, recently published by us in Nature Scientific Data, combines neuroimaging data with extensive psychological and demographic measurements.

 

Research Questions

·       How do different psychological constructs map onto brain structure and function?

·       Which psychological variables show stronger neural correlates: cognitive abilities (e.g., intelligence) or personality traits?

·       Can the degree to which these variables are correlated with brain activity be considered a proxy for the distance between the psychological construct and neuroscientific measurement?

 

What You’ll Do 

·       Work with a rich dataset combining neuroimaging and questionaire / behavioural measures.

·       Develop and validate predictive models using machine learning techniques

·       Apply cross-validation methods to ensure robust findings

·       Contribute to our understanding of brain-behavior relationships

 

Required skills & courses

·       Programming experience (preferably Python)

·       Courses: NeuroImaging | Bold-MRI  and/or Cognitive AI | NeuroImaging

 

What We Offer 

·       Access to a unique, high-quality dataset

·       Experience with state-of-the-art analysis methods

·       Supervision by experts in neuroimaging and psychological assessment

·       Opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge research in cognitive neuroscience

·       Potential for publication and conference presentations

 

How to Apply 

Send your CV, motivation letter, and academic transcript to h.s.scholte@uva.nl or sign up for the internship market. 3 research master students can work on this project.

 

Project 2)

Master’s Research Internship: Comparing Deep Neural Networks and Brain Representations

Dr. H.Steven Scholte

Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam 

 

Project Duration 5-6 months (full-time) or equivalent part-time. Intern or thesis.

Start date: Flexible Location: University of Amsterdam, Department of Psychology

 

Project Overview 

Join our research exploring the systematic comparison between artificial neural networks and human brain activity. While the relationship between deep neural networks (DNNs) and neural representations has been studied, we lack a comprehensive evaluation of alignment methods. This project investigates how different DNN components correspond to brain representations using multiple comparative techniques. Your work will advance our understanding of both human cognition and artificial intelligence by determining optimal methods for comparing artificial and biological neural networks.

 

Research Questions 

·       How to best determine the alignment between deep neural networks and brain activity.

 

What You’ll Do 

·       Implement and compare three different similarity measures between three different DNNs on three different types of brain data.

·       This will be done for different, and combined, layers of DCNNs.

·       Contribute to , and set, methodological best practices in computational cognitive neuroscience.

 

Required skills & courses

·       Programming skills and capable of working with data  and datamanagment.

·       Some experience with deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch).

·       Background in computer science, cognitive science, or neuroscience.

·       Understanding of linear algebra and statistics.

·       Courses: Cognitive AI & NN and/or Cognitive AI & NeuroImaging

 

What We Offer 

·       Work with state-of-the-art deep learning models

·       Access to high-quality neuroimaging datasets

·       Training in advanced computational methods

·       Contribution to an active research field

·       Potential for publication and conference presentations

 

Learning Opportunities 

·       Advanced methods in computational neuroscience

·       Learning about the structure and function of DCNNs

 

How to Apply 

Send your CV, motivation letter, and academic transcript to h.s.scholte@uva.nl or sign up for the internship market. 1 research master students can work on this project.

Project 3)
Master’s Research Internship: Modeling Human Visual Development with Deep Learning 

H.Steven Scholte1, Ingmar Visser1, Tessa Dekker2, Sander Bohte3

1Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam

2University College London

3Center for math and informatics, Amsterdam

 

Project Duration 5-6 months (full-time) or equivalent part-time. Intern or thesis.

Start date: Flexible Location: University of Amsterdam, Department of Psychology

 

Project Overview 

Join our interdisciplinary project studying human visual development using deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) and virtual reality. We simulate infant learning by training DCNNs on developmentally-inspired regimes in controlled VR environments. This innovative combination of developmental psychology, deep learning, and virtual reality will provide insights into both human learning and AI training methods.

 

Research Questions 

Can we mirror human developmental stages in deep convolutional neural networks?

 

What You’ll Do 

·       Create controlled visual environments using VR technology

·       Design developmental learning curricula with increasing complexity

·       Implement and modify DCNN training algorithms

·       Analyze similarities between artificial and human visual development

 

Required skills & courses

·       Programming skills (preferably python)

·       Experience with PyTorch and/or basic knowledge of VR development

·       Understanding of machine learning fundamentals

·       Courses: Cognitive AI & NN and/or Cognitive AI & NeuroImaging

 

What We Offer 

·       Experience with cutting-edge deep learning methods & VR generation.

·       Training in advanced computational methods

·       Contribution to an active research field

·       Potential for publication and conference presentations

 

Learning Opportunities 

·       Advanced deep learning techniques

·       Virtual reality development

·       Experimental design

 

How to Apply 

Send your CV, motivation letter, and academic transcript to h.s.scholte@uva.nl or sign up for the internship market. 2 research master students can work on this project.

 Project 4)

Master’s Research Internship: Neural Convergence of Vision and Language 

H.Steven Scholte, Claire Stevenson, Micha Heilborn

Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam

 

Project Overview

Recent findings suggest surprising similarities between how the brain processes visual scenes and their linguistic descriptions. This project investigates this convergence through a novel neuroimaging study, directly comparing neural responses to visual scenes with responses to their verbal descriptions. You’ll help uncover how and where the brain represents similar meaning across different modalities.

 

Research Questions 

·       Do visual and linguistic representations of scenes share neural substrates?

·       How, and does, the visual cortex encode linguistic structure?

·       Where in the brain do visual and linguistic representations converge?

 

What You’ll Do 

·       Conduct MRI recordings (the experiment has been desigend and tested).

·       Analyze neural responses using multivoxel pattern analysis.

·       Compare visual and linguistic representational spaces.

·       Contribute to understanding cross-modal neural processing.

 

Required Skills 

·       Programming skills and capable of working with data and datamanagment.

·       Some experience with deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch).

·       Understanding of linear algebra and statistics.

·       Courses: NeuroImaging | BOLD MRI and Cognitive AI & NN and/or Cognitive AI & NeuroImaging.

 

What We Offer 

·       Hands-on fMRI research experience.

·       Training in advanced neuroimaging analysis.

·       Supervision by experts in vision and language processing.

·       Potential for publication and conference presentations.

 

Learning Opportunities 

·       fMRI preprocessing and analysis.

·       Statistical analysis of neuroimaging data.

·       Training in advanced computational methods.

 

How to Apply 

Send your CV, motivation letter, and academic transcript to h.s.scholte@uva.nl or sign up for the internship market.