Neurobiology of Consciousness
Not stated
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
- Application deadline
- 8 December 2026
About the project
About the Project Summary How does subjective experience emerge from the activity of billions of neurons? Why does consciousness disappear during anaesthesia, become profoundly altered by psychedelic drugs, and sometimes endure despite severe brain injury? These questions lie at the heart of one of the greatest unsolved problems in science. Our research combines neuroimaging and computational neuroscience to uncover the principles that make conscious experience possible. Recent work from the group suggests that consciousness depends not simply on activity within individual brain regions, but on the brain's capacity to integrate information and coordinate communication across large-scale networks. We investigate these mechanisms across a wide range of altered states, including anaesthesia, psychedelics and disorders of consciousness following severe brain injury. Project Aims Current projects utilise multimodal MRI and EEG data alongside cutting-edge approaches such as network neuroscience, machine learning and whole-brain computational modelling. By comparing diverse states of consciousness, we aim to identify fundamental organisational principles that generalise across both healthy and pathological brain function. Students joining this programme will contribute to an internationally recognised effort to understand one of the deepest questions in neuroscience while developing expertise in advanced neuroimaging, data science and computational modelling. Experience with neuroimaging, network analysis or scientific programming (Python, MATLAB, Linux) would be advantageous. Contact https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Yj0y0swAAAAJ&hl=en https://sites.google.com/site/ccigcambridge How to Apply; If you are interested in this project, please go to the University pages and apply via the online portal; PhD https://www.postgraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/directory/cvcnpdpcn/apply Research MPhil https://www.postgraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/directory/cvcnmpmds/apply