I studied geophysics and physics at the University of Münster (Germany). During my diploma thesis I worked at the Siemens AG in Erlangen (Germany) developing and applying multi sensor MEG analysis software. After graduation, I did my PhD at the University of Konstanz (Germany) where I further developed multi sensor EEG/MEG data analysis methods. As Postdoc in the CSEA lab in Gainesville (Florida, USA) I have been responsible for the EEG lab and investigated ERPs of affective scene processing.

Returning to Konstanz, I have been investigating neural correlates of emotion and attention, emotional communication and the impact of stress on emotional perception and have been appointed Junior Professor in 2004. In 2005 I became senior researcher and deputy director of the Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis (IBB) at the University of Münster, where I received my Habilitation, got appointed as Professor in 2012 and where I am working since then. From 2008 to 2020 I have been principal investigator (PI) in the collaborative research center (CRC) “Fear, Anxiety, Anxiety Disorders” and since 2024 I am PI in the CRC “Trajectories of Affective Disorders “. In 2018 I have been Visiting Scholar at the University of Georgia (UGA) and between 2020 and 2025 I have been speaker of the graduate school ‘Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience’. My main interests are in affective learning, in effects of transcranial cortical stimulation and in disordered emotional processing in depression, anxiety and tinnitus.