How the brain consolidates new memories during sleep
- Primary Supervisor: Dr Guifen Chen
- Co-supervisor(s): Dr Daniel Bush
- Studentship Funding: Awaiting CSC Funding Decision
- Application Deadline: 28th January 2026
- PhD Programme: PhD Psychology
Project Overview
Every day, our brains process a wealth of sensory information and integrate it with existing knowledge to guide future behaviour. It is believed that during sleep, the brain “replays” and reorganizes these experiences, helping us to consolidate new memories and use them to update our understanding of the world. In rodents, these processes are typically studied in the context of spatial navigation. In a brain region called the hippocampal formation, individual ‘place’ and ‘grid’ cells are active only when the animal is located in specific part of an environment. Sequences of activity in these cells can therefore represent specific routes through that environment, and be used to develop internal ‘cognitive maps’ that guide future navigation.
This project will study how the brain consolidates spatial maps during sleep as animals become familiar with their surroundings. By recording neural activity in mice during navigation and rest, we will study how sequential activity in place and grid cells represents ongoing experience and is reactivated during sleep. Specifically, the project will combine in vivo electrophysiology in two-dimensional virtual reality environments with computational modelling to interpret data and formulate hypotheses. The project can be tailored to the candidate’s interests and skills: those with mathematical or computational strengths may focus primarily or exclusively on data analysis and modelling, while those with an experimental background may focus on data collection and analysis.
This project offers a unique opportunity to bridge neuroscience, data science, and AI, helping to uncover how the brain turns transient experience into lasting memory.
Research Environment
Dr Chen leads a dynamic research group comprising eight members, including PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. Her long-term research interests focus on the network mechanisms of spatial cognition and episodic memory in healthy and diseased brains (such as Alzheimer’s Disease). Dr Bush’s group at University College London focusses on rodent and human electrophysiology, combining state-of-the-art experimental and computational approaches. The successful PhD candidate will receive training in in vivo electrophysiology, neural data analysis, and/or computational modelling. This interdisciplinary environment provides an exceptional opportunity for developing skills across systems neuroscience, data science, and translational research.
Dr Chen: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/sbbs/staff/guifen-chen.html
Dr Bush: https://bushlab-ucl.github.io/
Find out more about the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences on our website.
Keywords: Spatial navigation, memory, sensory integration, modelling, virtual reality
Funding & Eligibility
Queen Mary University of London has partnered with the China Scholarship Council (CSC) to offer a joint scholarship programme to enable Chinese students to study for a PhD programme at Queen Mary. Under the scheme, Queen Mary will provide scholarships to cover all tuition fees, whilst the CSC will provide living expenses and one return flight ticket to successful applicants.
Applicants must:
- Be applying for CSC funding.
- Be a citizen and permanent resident of the People’s Republic of China and hold a Chinese passport.
- Satisfy all eligibility criteria set out by the CSC and must refer to the CSC website for full details.
- Apply to QMUL by 28th January 2026. Late applications will not be considered.
- Submit ALL required documentation, including evidence of their English Language ability ahead of the CSC application deadline.
CSC application rules differ slightly for domestic applicants (students applying from China) and overseas applicants (students applying from overseas). Therefore, ALL applicants are advised to see the CSC website for full details on eligibility and conditions on the scholarship.
Entry Requirements
We are looking for candidates to have or expecting to receive a first or upper-second class honours degree and a Master’s degree in an area relevant to the project such as Maths, Neuroscience, Physics, Computer Science, Life Sciences, Medicine, or Psychology.
Ideal candidates should also have experience of programming in Matlab or Python, and a good understanding of maths and/or experience of rodent experiments are desirable.
You must meet the IELTS requirements for your course and upload evidence before CSC’s application deadline, ideally by 1st March 2026. You are therefore strongly advised to sit an approved English Language test as soon as possible, where your IELTS test must still be valid when you enrol for the programme.
Please find further details on our English Language requirements page.
How to Apply
Formal applications must be submitted through our online form by 28th January 2026 for consideration. Please identify yourself as a ‘CSC Scholar’ in the funding section of the application.
Applicants are required to submit the following documents:
- Your CV
- Personal Statement
- Evidence of English Language e.g.) IELTS Certificate
- Copies of academic transcripts and degree certificates
- References
Find out more about our application process on our SBBS website.
Informal enquiries about the project can be sent to Dr Guifen Chen
Admissions-related queries can be sent to sbbs-pgadmissions@qmul.ac.uk
Shortlisted applicants will be invited for a formal interview by the supervisor. If you are successful in your QMUL application, then you will be issued an QMUL Offer Letter, conditional on securing a CSC scholarship along with academic conditions still required to meet our entry requirements.
Once applicants have obtained their QMUL Offer Letter, they should then apply to CSC for the scholarship with the support of the supervisor.
For further information, please go to the QMUL China Scholarship Council webpage.
Apply online