Enhancing memory processing has wide therapeutic potential in brain conditions including neuropsychiatric disorders. Yet, medical devices have not been effectively leveraged to modulate memory in the human brain. Targeted Memory Reactivation (TMR) is a non-invasive approach that is delivered with devices and holds promise for enhancing memory. TMR involves pairing new learning with specific auditory cues. These same auditory cues are then played again during periods of sleep, to bias the brain to reactivate and strengthen memory for the paired experience.

The overall goal of this PhD studentship is to investigate the underlying mechanisms by which TMR enhances memory and then leverage this knowledge to develop and optimise a TMR protocol suitable for translational use in humans. To achieve this, we will use a cross-species approach to implement a closed-loop TMR protocol. This closed-loop TMR protocol will involve delivering auditory stimulation during sleep when we detect hippocampal neuronal oscillations critical for memory strengthening. Using multi-channel electrophysiology in the hippocampus and related brain circuits in mice, we will then define the circuit mechanisms of closed-loop TMR to further optimise the approach and technology. The final two years of the project will involve translating research discoveries into humans by implementing the closed-loop TMR protocol on a custom-made headband allowing electroencephalography (EEG). Using this approach, we aim to demonstrate effective ‘at-home’ delivery of closed-loop TMR to enhance memory.

The project will take place in the Brain Network Dynamics Unit of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and in the Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence in Restorative Neural Dynamics (MRC CoRE RND). Students will benefit from the extensive interdisciplinary skills training and personalised career development opportunities available within the Unit and the MRC CoRE RND. Students will receive specialised training in their areas of project research (see below) as well as, for example, in the translation and commercialisation of research, best practice in Open Science, and how to effectively involve and engage patients and the public with research.

The studentship holder will be trained in the use of cutting-edge methods across mice and humans. You will gain expertise in multi-unit electrophysiology, optogenetic manipulations, and behavioural testing in mice. You will gain expertise in EEG and behavioural quantification in humans. You will also gain experience in using Python/Matlab for cross-species data analysis with advanced statistical methods, including application of machine learning.

This four-year Ph.D. (D.Phil.) studentship offers three years of full-time tuition fees at the Home rate, and four years of non-taxable stipend at the full-time UKRI rate (including any uplifts announced). Both Home students and International students are eligible to receive this funding package. Please see further details about MRC/UKRI studentships and updated guidance regarding Home and International eligibility. Successful offer-holders who have applied by the December deadline may also be considered for other University of Oxford scholarships.

Interested candidates should possess, or expect to receive, a 1st class or upper 2nd class degree (or equivalent) in a related scientific discipline, e.g. biological or physical sciences, medicine, computer science, engineering, mathematics. Previous experience in neuroscience research is highly desirable.

Candidates must contact the lead project supervisor before submitting an application. To find out more about this studentship, the research project, and the application process, please contact Associate Professor Helen Barron by email on helen.barron@ndcn.ox.ac.uk.

To be considered for this studentship, please submit an application for admission to the D.Phil. in Clinical Neurosciences at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences (course code RD_CU1), following the guidance for applications to this course. On the application form, in the section headed ‘Departmental Studentship Applications’, please indicate that you are applying for a studentship and enter the reference code “26NDCN01MRC” into the funding tab.

The closing date for applications is 12.00 midday UK time on Tuesday 2^nd December 2025.

Opening in November 2025, the MRC CoRE RND is an exciting team science enterprise that is focused on harnessing the moment-to-moment interactions between nerve cells (‘neural dynamics’) to transform medical device-based therapy for brain conditions. The MRC CoRE RND incorporates discovery research and translational research aligned to empirical neuroscience, computational neuroscience, experimental medicine, and biomedical engineering. The MRC CoRE RND is exceptionally collaborative, involving partners in academia, neurotechnology industry, research charities, and clinical services. It will champion values supporting a positive research culture.

Although Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is an established therapy for Parkinson’s disease, its potential for personalised symptom control remains underexploited. Recent advances in DBS technology now enable simultaneous neural sensing and responsive, tailored stimulation. These developments create new opportunities to identify neurophysiological biomarkers that could be targeted to alleviate specific symptoms, including tremor, gait disturbance, and cognitive impairment.

The goal of this PhD studentship is to advance our understanding of how activity within cortico-basal ganglia circuits contributes to specific motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s. These insights will inform the development of novel DBS strategies designed to normalise circuit dysfunction underlying individual symptoms. To achieve this, we will collect clinical and neurophysiological data from patients implanted with sensing-enabled DBS devices. Cortical activity, sleep, movement, and gait will be monitored using electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG), and wearable sensors. Advanced signal processing and machine learning methods will then be applied to identify biomarkers and to design targeted stimulation paradigms, which will be tested with patients.

The project will take place in the Brain Network Dynamics Unit of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and in the Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence in Restorative Neural Dynamics (MRC CoRE RND). Students will benefit from the extensive interdisciplinary skills training and personalised career development opportunities available within the Unit and the MRC CoRE RND. Students will receive specialised training in their areas of project research (see below) as well as, for example, in the translation and commercialisation of research, best practice in Open Science, and how to effectively involve and engage patients and the public with research.

Focusing on the cortico-basal ganglia circuit in Parkinson’s, this studentship offers the opportunity to work with cutting-edge techniques including wireless neural activity streaming from implanted DBS devices, high density EEG, EMG, and wearable sensor recordings. You will gain advanced training in patient facing research and in state-of-the-art analytical approaches spanning signal processing, computational modelling, and machine learning.

This four-year Ph.D. (D.Phil.) studentship offers three years of full-time tuition fees at the Home rate, and four years of non-taxable stipend at the full-time UKRI rate (including any uplifts announced). Both Home students and International students are eligible to receive this funding package. Please see further details about MRC/UKRI studentships and updated guidance regarding Home and International eligibility. Successful offer-holders who have applied by the December deadline may also be considered for other University of Oxford scholarships.

Interested candidates should possess, or expect to receive, a 1st class or upper 2nd class degree (or equivalent) in a related scientific discipline, e.g. biological or physical sciences, medicine, computer science, engineering, mathematics. Previous experience in neuroscience research is highly desirable.

Candidates must contact the lead project supervisor before submitting an application. To find out more about this studentship, the research project, and the application process, please contact Dr Ashwini Oswal by email on ashwini.oswal@ndcn.ox.ac.uk.

To be considered for this studentship, please submit an application for admission to the D.Phil. in Clinical Neurosciences at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences (course code RD_CU1), following the guidance for applications to this course. On the application form, in the section headed ‘Departmental Studentship Applications’, please indicate that you are applying for a studentship and enter the reference code “26NDCN01MRC” into the funding tab.

The closing date for applications is 12.00 midday UK time on Tuesday 2nd December 2025.

Opening in November 2025, the MRC CoRE RND is an exciting team science enterprise that is focused on harnessing the moment-to-moment interactions between nerve cells (‘neural dynamics’) to transform medical device-based therapy for brain conditions. The MRC CoRE RND incorporates discovery research and translational research aligned to empirical neuroscience, computational neuroscience, experimental medicine, and biomedical engineering. The MRC CoRE RND is exceptionally collaborative, involving partners in academia, neurotechnology industry, research charities, and clinical services. It will champion values supporting a positive research culture. 

Hippocampal neurons support memory through temporally precise coactivity patterns that enable the rapid encoding, consolidation, and retrieval of behaviourally relevant information. This process is facilitated by several prominent network oscillations, which coordinate the timing of neuronal population activity in the hippocampus and its associated neuronal circuits. In rodent models of Alzheimer’s disease, the core properties of theta and gamma oscillations are disrupted, interfering with memory encoding and retrieval processes. Additionally, sharp-wave ripples become weaker, impairing memory reactivation. Restoring these oscillatory activities to their normative state using closed-loop brain stimulation holds promise for alleviating the memory deficits associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Achieving this will require the development of approaches that can reliably modulate memory-related oscillations using approaches that can be implemented on human brain stimulation devices.

The overarching goal of this PhD studentship is to develop, optimise, and implement closed-loop stimulation strategies that can enhance the oscillatory neural activities underpinning memory processing. We can already amplify specific oscillatory patterns by delivering stimulation based on their instantaneous power and phase. However, to fully exploit these approaches, they should be applied during the specific behavioural states (e.g., exploration, rest, sleep) associated with each oscillatory activity. For translation into therapeutic applications, this state-dependent control must be fully automated and resilient to artefacts introduced by the stimulation itself. Where phase-targeted stimulation is used, the optimal phase for achieving a specific outcome parameter will also need to be determined automatically. The student project will focus on integrating these approaches into a unified framework and testing them in behaving rodents, in collaboration with other members of the research team.

The project will take place in the Brain Network Dynamics Unit of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and in the Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence in Restorative Neural Dynamics (MRC CoRE RND). Students will benefit from the extensive interdisciplinary skills training and personalised career development opportunities available within the Unit and the MRC CoRE RND. Students will receive specialised training in their areas of project research (see below) as well as, for example, in the translation and commercialisation of research, best practice in Open Science, and how to effectively involve and engage patients and the public with research.

The studentship holder will receive training in the development and validation of closed-loop algorithms, and their implementation across a range of hardware platforms (e.g. FPGA, embedded processors). You will gain extensive skills in analysing neural data from behaving animals and will have the opportunity to develop expertise in performing high-density recordings in rodents performing cognitive tasks during electrical and/or optogenetic stimulation. As part of the wider team, you will also gain valuable insight into the development of neuromodulation approaches for clinical applications.

This four-year Ph.D. (D.Phil.) studentship offers three years of full-time tuition fees at the Home rate, and four years of non-taxable stipend at the full-time UKRI rate (including any uplifts announced). Both Home students and International students are eligible to receive this funding package. Please see further details about MRC/UKRI studentships and updated guidance regarding Home and International eligibility. Successful offer-holders who have applied by the December deadline may also be considered for other University of Oxford scholarships.

Interested candidates should possess, or expect to receive, a 1st class or upper 2nd class degree (or equivalent) in computer science, engineering or mathematics. Candidates with equivalent qualifications in biological/physical sciences or medicine and who can also demonstrate considerable programming experience will also be considered. Previous experience in neuroscience research is desirable.

Candidates must contact the lead project supervisor before submitting an application. To find out more about this studentship, the research project, and the application process, please contact Professor Andrew Sharott by email on andrew.sharott@ndcn.ox.ac.uk.

To be considered for this studentship, please submit an application for admission to the D.Phil. in Clinical Neurosciences at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences (course code RD_CU1), following the guidance for applications to this course. On the application form, in the section headed ‘Departmental Studentship Applications’, please indicate that you are applying for a studentship and enter the reference code “26NDCN01MRC” into the funding tab.

The closing date for applications is 12.00 midday UK time on Tuesday 2nd December 2025.

Opening in November 2025, the MRC CoRE RND is an exciting team science enterprise that is focused on harnessing the moment-to-moment interactions between nerve cells (‘neural dynamics’) to transform medical device-based therapy for brain conditions. The MRC CoRE RND incorporates discovery research and translational research aligned to empirical neuroscience, computational neuroscience, experimental medicine, and biomedical engineering. The MRC CoRE RND is exceptionally collaborative, involving partners in academia, neurotechnology industry, research charities, and clinical services. It will champion values supporting a positive research culture.