My research interests are concerned with the computational principles and neuronal mechanisms underlying perceptual learning and cognition.

I am interested in the role of mismatch responses in the cortical hierarchy and their relation to Bayesian inference and predictive processing. Using electrophysiological measures and fMRI, I inspect signatures of neuronal surprise in somatosensory and multisensory cortex.

In my work for Project 2 of the MeMoSLAP Research Unit, I investigate how electrical brain stimulation can improve tactile working memory function and pattern decoding of working memory content during fMRI acquisition.

Grundei, M., von der Behrens, W., Astikainen, P., Wetzel, N., & Blankenburg, F. (2025). The Somatosensory Mismatch Negativity. European Journal of Neuroscience, 62(10), e70301. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.7030

Grundei, M., Schmidt, T. T., Barbieri, P., & Blankenburg, F. (2025). Decoding tactile working memory content reveals performance relevance of parietal fMRI activity patterns. Brain and Cognition 191:106375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2025.106375

Gütlin, D. C., McDermott, H. H., Grundei, M., & Auksztulewicz, R. (2025). Model-Based Approaches to Investigating Mismatch Responses in Schizophrenia. Clinical EEG and Neuroscience 56(1):8–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/15500594241253910

Grundei, M., Schmidt, T. T., & Blankenburg, F. (2023). A multimodal cortical network of sensory expectation violation revealed by fMRI. Human Brain Mapping 44:17, 5871-5891. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26482

Grundei, M., Schröder, P., Gijsen, S., & Blankenburg, F. (2023). EEG mismatch responses in a multimodal roving stimulus paradigm provide evidence for probabilistic inference across audition, somatosensation, and vision. Human Brain Mapping 44:9, 3644-3668. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26303

Gijsen, S., Grundei, M., & Blankenburg, F. (2022). Active inference and the two-step task. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 17682. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21766-4

Gijsen, S*., Grundei, M.*, Lange, R. T., Ostwald, D., & Blankenburg, F. (2021). Neural surprise in somatosensory Bayesian learning. PLoS computational biology, 17(2), e1008068. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008068

*equal contribution