...you're in the middle of it
The Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy in Frankfurt investigates mental disorders along the life span with a focus on mood disorders (Treatment-resistant depression, bipolar disorder, suicidality), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and schizophrenia. Our research teams converge highly interdisciplinary expertise in psychiatry, clinical and applied psychology, as well as neurobiology to elucidate the pathophysiological, genetic, and molecular mechanisms of these disorders as well as to identify novel tailored treatments in the sense of precision psychiatry. We make use of a diverse range of cutting-edge methods that follow the logic of translational/experimental medicine, with results from basic studies being rapidly translated to the bedside. Our methodological spectrum covers the fields of molecular biology and genetics, animal models, lifestyle modifications, neurophysiology, neuroimaging and clinical studies.
About the Projects
This PhD project involves participation on two projects:
Project PRECISION investigates visuospatial working memory precision (VWMP) and the cortical signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as potential biomarkers for stimulant therapy in adult ADHD. While stimulants improve symptoms and cortical SNR, reliable markers to guide individualized stimulant dosing are lacking. Using fMRI in adults with ADHD and healthy controls after stimulant washout, we will assess VWMP performance and compute cortical SNR via visual mapping and multivariate encoding models. The project combines behavioral, neuroimaging, and genetic methods to advance precision medicine approaches in ADHD. The PhD candidate will benefit from the interdisciplinary collaboration of our department with the Ernst Strüngmann Institute (ESI) for Neuroscience and the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviou in Nijmegen.
Project Neuropsychobiology of Aggression aims to identify multidimensionally defined biosignatures of aggression in mental disorders. These will then be used to develop customized, biomarker-driven prevention and intervention measures. In sub-project Q01, a central recruitment platform will be established for collecting and curating a longitudinal dataset for studying individual aggression dynamics related to the neural, cognitive-emotional, neurobiological, psychopathological and environmental factors in patient groups. The doctoral position is embedded transregionally and in cooperation with the University of Frankfurt, RWTH Aachen University, the University of Heidelberg, the Central Institute of Mental Health as well as the Universities of Mainz, Würzburg and Forschungszentrum Jülich.
Your tasks:
- Scientific work with the aim of a publication-based doctorate
- Conducting and supervising fMRI measurements
- Support of ongoing patient recruitment
- Database management
- Data-driven analysis of the questions
- Publication of the results in scientific journals
- Presentation and discussion of the project and research results at specialist conferences in Germany and abroad
- Supervision of interns, Bachelor's/Master's and/or medical doctorate students
- Organizational tasks within the framework of the project
