Professor Miguel Pérez-García, from the Department of Mind, Brain and Behavior Research at the University of Granada, welcomes postdoctoral candidates interested in applying for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF) in 2020 at this University. Please note that applicants must comply with the Mobility Rule (more information: http://sl.ugr.es/0aNV).

Brief description of the institution:

The University of Granada (UGR), founded in 1531, is one of the largest and most important universities in Spain. The UGR has been awarded with the "Human Resources Excellence in Research (HRS4R)", which reflects the UGR’s commitment to continuously improve its human resource policies in line with the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. The UGR is also a leading institution in research, located in the top 5/10 of Spanish universities by a variety of ranking criteria, such as national R&D projects, fellowships awarded, publications, or international funding.

UGR is one of the few Spanish Universities listed in the Shanghai Top 500 ranking (http://sl.ugr.es/0aw0). The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) places the UGR in 268th position in the world and as the 4th highest ranked University in Spain, reaffirming its position as an institution at the forefront of national and international research. From the perspective of specialist areas in the ARWU rankings, the UGR is outstanding in Documentation (ranked in the 36th in the world) or Food science technology (ranked 37th in the world), Mathematics and Computer Science (ranked among the top 76-100 in the world).

The UGR has 4 researchers at the top of the Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) list in the Computer Science area. With regard to broader subject fields, the UGR is ranked in 45th position in the universities worldwide in the discipline of Engineering. It is also well recognized for its web presence (http://sl.ugr.es/0a6i) taking 36th place in the top 200 Universities in Europe. Internationally, we bet decidedly by our participation in the calls of the Framework Programme of the European Union. For the duration of the last two Framework Programmes, the UGR has obtained a total of 66 projects, with total funding of 18.02 million euros, and for H2020, 80 projects with total funding around 20.6 million euros.

Brief description of the Centre/Research Group

The Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC-UGR) is a center for psychological excellence research. It incorporates scientists coming from all areas of Psychology motivated by the study of mental and brain functions using a cluster of classical and modern neuroimaging techniques. Home to the Functional Magnetic Resonance Unit of the UGR, the leading neuroimaging tool of Southern Spain, CIMCYC aims at improving citizens well-being, seeking to disentangle the ways in which mind, brain and behavior are causally related. We host and train over 250 researchers, and hold collaborations with more than 50 researchers throughout the world.

Located in the CIMCYC, the PNINSULA group is mainly focused on clinical neuropsychology, psychoneuroinmunology and neuroimaging applied to different research lines, including (i) obesity; (ii) intimate partner violence; (iii) stress and neuroinmunology; (iv) cross-cultural neuropsychology; (v) neuropsychological rehabilitation and (vi) neurodevelopment.

Our group holds an important scientific productivity and projects (see http://www.pninsula.com/):

Study the influence of cortisol on neurodevelopment:https://www.facebook.com/PerinatalStress/

Design of neuropsychological rehabilitation tools based on new technologies: http://cloudrehab.net

Study of neuropsychological deficits in woman who suffer intimate partner violence: www.projectbelieve.info

Cross-cultural studies and adaptation of neuropsychological tests to other cultures in children (http://www.benci.es) or adults (https://es-es.facebook.com/embraced.project/).

Project description

Our research line focusses on neuropsychological problems associated to different social challenges:

-Research on obesity and food addiction:

We have shown for the first time that 1) people with obesity have abnormally high activation of the brain reward system during high-calorie food choices, similar to people with addiction exposed to drug cues (Human Brain Mapping, 2017); 2) have gross abnormalities in global connectivity and topological organisation (Neuroimage, 2017); and 3) have shown for the first time that functional connectivity in striatocortical systems longitudinally predicts weight gain (Biological Psychiatry, 2017).

- Research on stress, cortisol and neurodevelopment:

We investigate how stress affects the course of pregnancy, the mother and the fetus. The approach to the problem involves psychological and neuropsychological evaluation of the mother and the newborn, endocrine and immunological determinations such as cortisol levels in hair, blood, etc. (Advanced in Neonatal Care, 2018; PlosOne, 2017).

- Research on intimate partner violence:

We assesses neuropsychological or cognitive sequelae (attention, memory, etc.) in women who have suffered intimate partner violence (IPV) (Daugherty et al, 2019) and our objective is to understand the implications of intimate partner violence on the brain and psychological functioning in battered women. Also, we have focused in the study of the neuropsychological and cerebral functioning of perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV). Our results showed an executive functioning profile of male batterers (Bueso-Izquierdo et al., 2016), Secondly, we have shown that the brain functioning of male batterers is different from that of men convicted for other crimes (Bueso-Izquierdo et al., 2019).

Research Area

Social Sciences and Humanities (SOC)

For a correct evaluation of your candidature, please send the documents below to Professor Miguel Pérez-García (mperezg@ugr.es):

• CV
• Letter of recommendation (optional)