Anne Kühnel

Anne Kühnel is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bonn, currently coordinating the research domain ‘Computational Psychiatry & Neuroimaging’ at the Section of Medical Psychology. She joined the neuroMADLAB as a visiting scientist in 2019 and has since become an expert in computational psychiatry and neuroimaging, specializing in theory-driven modeling techniques like reinforcement learning.

Education:

• Bachelor’s in Psychology, University of Koblenz and Landau
• Master’s in Neuroscience, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (thesis with Prof. Dr. Martin Walter)
• PhD in Translational Psychiatry, LMU Munich (supervised by Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Binder)

Anne’s research focuses on understanding the mechanistic links between acute stress responses and psychopathology, advancing computational models of brain-behavior interactions. She leads a project on pulsed transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) to enhance reinforcement learning via phasic monoaminergic responses. Her work emphasizes algorithmic rigor and reproducibility in computational psychiatry.

At neuroMADLAB, she integrates hierarchical statistical modeling and neuroimaging to develop theory-driven frameworks for mental health research. Her expertise bridges psychological theory, neuroscience, and computational methods.

She also applies her meticulous approach to pastry-making, ensuring precision in both science and dessert.