INSTITUTE OF PSYCHOLOGY

Professor of Neuropsychology (Chair), Head of Department

Principal Investigator am Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences (CBBS) Magdeburg

Member, Board of Directors of the CBBS

Member, Steering Committee of the CRC1436

Biosketch

Professor Markus Ullsperger heads the Department of Neuropsychology at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. His research focuses on developing and testing neurobiologically plausible models of performance monitoring and adaptive goal-directed behavior in humans. To this end he pursues a convergent-methods approach combining neuroimaging and EEG with computational modeling and pharmacological challenges. In addition to studies in healthy participants, his research extends to clinical populations with neurological, neuropsychological, and psychiatric disorders. His current work focuses on the interactions of the anterior midcingulate cortex with other brain regions to signal the necessity and implement adaptations, ranging from motor slowing via shifts in selective attention to learning and belief updating.

Trained as a physician, Markus Ullsperger obtained his doctoral degree at the Max Planck Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in Leipzig, Germany, in 2000. Thereafter he worked as a scientific staff member at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig at the Department of Cognitive Neurology. After his habilitation, he moved to Cologne, where he headed the Max Planck Research Group ‘Cognitive Neurology’ at the Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research. In 2009, he was appointed as full professor of Biological Psychology at the Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands, and principal investigator at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour. Since 2012, he has been full professor of Neuropsychology at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany.

Honors and Awards:

• 2021-2022 President of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR)
• 2021 ERC Advanced Grant
• Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychophysiology (Society for Psychophysiological Research, 2008)
• Dr. Carl Zeise Prize of Leipzig University (best medical Dissertation in year 2000)
• Scholarship of Gertrud Reemtsma Foundation

Research Interest:

• neuronal and neurochemical foundations of adaptive, goal-directed human behavior
• performance monitoring, cognitive control, decision making
• impairments of these functions in patients with neurological and mental disorders
• integration of multimodal methods of cognitive neuroscience