Postdoc position in ultrasound imaging of rodent harm-aversion

Aggression causes immense societal harm, yet we still know surprisingly little about how the brain converts another individual’s pain and distress into harm-aversion. In the NWO Vici project “Empathy, helping and aggression: unravelling the missing neural link”, we investigate how empathic responses to the pain of others inhibit harmful behaviour across contexts, individuals, and species.

This postdoctoral position focuses on comparative work in rodents to understand the evolution and neural mechanisms of harm-aversion. The project asks whether mice use neural and computational mechanisms comparable to humans when avoiding harm to others, and whether disruptions in ACC–mPFC circuits contribute to pathological aggression.

The postdoc will use functional ultrasound imaging, behavioural assays, physiological recordings, computational modelling, and pathway-selective chemogenetic manipulations to study harm-aversion in mice.

The project will focus on the AC...