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., 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