The to-be established Center for Affective and Automatic Neuroscience (CAAN) led by Dr. Mara Mather at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development invites applications for a fully funded 4-year postdoctoral fellow (requiring a Ph.D.) and research scientist position (requiring at least a few years of postdoctoral experience).
The Center for Affective and Automatic Neuroscience (CAAN) will be established at the MPIB starting September 1, 2026. CAAN will investigate how the affective and autonomic changes of adulthood shape cognition, emotion, and the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease — and how safe, scalable physiological interventions can influence these trajectories. The program integrates four strands:
• Emotion–cognition interactions in aging: mapping the brain mechanisms that allow older adults to maintain emotional well-being despite the physiological changes of aging.
• Brainstem imaging methods: developing next-generation 7T multimodal measures of locus coeruleus structure and function, including pCASL blood-flow measurement in the brainstem.
• Autonomic trajectories from age 20–60: the first longitudinal study to track parasympathetic decline and sympathetic shifts across this age range alongside CSF amyloid-β and locus coeruleus measures, testing whether midlife autonomic changes trigger the earliest pathology of Alzheimer’s disease.
• Causal tests via breathing interventions: randomized trials using slow-paced and 4-7-8 breathing to influence autonomic balance and measure downstream effects on AD biomarkers, cerebrovascular reactivity, emotion, and cognition.
For these positions, we seek researchers with outstanding quantitative skills interested in investigating autonomic changes in midlife and their causes and consequences in the brain and body. The ideal candidate will lead efforts to use large-scale datasets to examine relationships between changes in autonomic activity and changes in the brain (e.g., fMRI functional dynamics, MRI-assessed brain structure) as well as associated proteomic changes. The candidate will also have opportunities to design and analyze studies using the extensive facilities at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, including 3T and 7T MRI and EEG equipment.
Applications must be submitted by July 27, 2026 to ensure consideration. For more information and instructions on how to apply please see: