Neurophysiological mechanisms of mental simulation in humans

the project will investigate how humans internally simulate sequences of events and how these processes are reflected in brain activity and eye movements. The selected candidate will be required to contribute to the implementation and analysis of a Magnetoencephalography (MEG) experiment, aimed at identifying the neural signatures of mental simulation with high temporal resolution. The study will integrate behavioral paradigms, computational modeling, and neuroimaging techniques to test the role of the hippocampal-entorhinal system in mental exploration across both spatial and non-spatial domains. In parallel, eye tracking will be used to verify whether gaze dynamics can provide a behavioral index of internal cognitive processes. The candidate will be required to program the experiment in MATLAB/Python, collect data, and analyze MEG and eye-tracking data under the supervision of the Principal Investigator.