Early Visuocognitive and Motor Development Following Preterm Birth: Trajectories and Determinants

KU Leuven is an international community where innovative research forms the basis of all our academic programmes. Across the university, driven researchers and curious students continually gain new insights and use their knowledge to tackle the foremost challenges of our time. Owing to its cutting-edge research, KU Leuven is a charter member of LERU, has been ranked as Europe’s most innovative university and is among the Top 10 of European universities.

This position is offered as joint-PhD with KU Leuven as host institution (Department of Development and Regeneration, PRONTO research lab and Department of Neurosciences) and in collaboration with Ghent University (Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Pediatric Rehabilitation Research Unit), providing access to complementary expertise and training environments. You will closely collaborate with the project members, including another PhD student, post-doctoral researcher and researcher co-workers. You will participate in regular team meetings of both research groups, and benefit from close supervision, a collaborative research culture, and opportunities for interdisciplinary learning and professional development.

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Project

The proposed PhD project aims to develop and apply innovative assessments of visuomotor abilities combining clinical evaluations, eye-tracking and wearable technologies. Longitudinal assessments during the first 2 years of life will be conducted to establish developmental trajectories of visuocognitive and motor development and identify early biomarkers of aberrant development and bimanual coordination outcome through multimodal analysis.

The PhD activities are closely embedded within the Centre for Developmental Disorders (COS) and University Hospitals Leuven (neonatology unit and pediatric ophthalmology service), where preterm infants are followed within structured clinical follow-up programs, ensuring strong integration between research and clinical care. It will involve expertise in neonatology, pediatric neurology, neuropsychology, ophthalmology, biomedical engineering and rehabilitation sciences.

As a PhD researcher, you will:

• Recruit and follow up preterm infants and typically developing children
• Conduct clinical, behavioural assessments for visuocognitive and motor domains
• Implement eye-tracking paradigms and wearable sensor measurements
• Coordinate longitudinal follow-up assessments (at ages of 4, 9, 18 and 24 months)
• Work closely with infants, families, clinicians and researchers in a multidisciplinary environment.
• Manage and curate clinical datasets
• Analyse developmental trajectories and contribute to multimodal integration models
• Disseminate findings through publications, conferences and public outreach initiatives

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Interested?

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