I studied Computer Science and Psychology at the Universities of Dresden, Magdeburg, and London. I finished my Diploma (equivalent to MSc) in Psychology in 2002 with distinction.

I did my PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Max-Planck-Institute (MPI) of Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences at Leipzig in 2007. Topic: How does our brain cope with artificially generated hierarchical sequences that mimic natural languages. Grade: 1.0, “magna cum laude”.

Subsequently, I was a Post-Doc at the MPI for 3 years. Next, I went to UC Berkeley and was a Post-Doc at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Department, also for 3 years.

After that, I established and managed the Statistics and Scientific Methods Section of the Department of Psychology at Lübeck University (1 year), did my Habilitation (Whats that? ), and was a Senior Researcher at that University for 4 years.