Christian Büchel

Christian Büchel is a Professor in the Department of Neurology and Experimental Neurobiology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). He holds a faculty position within the Medical Faculty of Hamburg University. His research focuses on understanding brain mechanisms underlying pain, placebo/nocebo effects, and psychiatric disorders using advanced neuroimaging techniques. He leads studies on brain-body interactions, developmental neuroscience, and translational neurology.

Key research areas include structural and functional MRI investigations of pain modulation, addiction, and stress responses. He has contributed to multi-center neuroimaging studies and pioneered methods for spinal cord imaging. His work integrates cognitive neuroscience principles with clinical applications, particularly in chronic pain management and mental health.

Büchel's recent studies explore how environmental factors (e.g., urban green spaces) influence brain structure, and he investigates neural correlates of resilience to substance use in adolescents. He collaborates internationally on projects like the IMAGEN study and the ENIGMA consortium, emphasizing reproducibility in neuroimaging research.

His publications span over 20 years, with a focus on brain network dynamics, decision-making processes, and translational neuroscience. He actively contributes to developing open-access neuroimaging standards and has authored seminal papers on placebo mechanisms and brain plasticity.