Bonn and Melbourne Research and Graduate School in Decision Neuroscience

The Bonn and Melbourne Research and Graduate School in Decision Neuroscience is a research partnership between the University of Melbourne and the University of Bonn, Germany. Researchers from both universities work together on projects within the interdisciplinary fields of decision neuroscience and computational psychiatry. Members of the group are from various disciplinary backgrounds, including neuropsychiatry, psychology, finance, business and economics.

The Research and Graduate School hosts a joint PhD program, where candidates spend time at both Bonn and Melbourne, but also opportunities for broader research collaboration. The Group’s members also share their research within the wider community through an online seminar series that is open to the public.

Our Partner: University of Bonn

The University of Bonn was founded in 1818  and has many notable alumni, including leading philosophers and composers. Recognised as one of Germany’s eleven prestigious Universities of Excellence, Bonn is a leading research institution. It is the only German research university to be awarded six Clusters of Excellence, showcasing its research expertise in the fields of mathematics, immunisation, slavery studies, agricultural sciences, economics and quantum computing.

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Project spotlight

Investigating dysfunctional cognitive-affective processes in depression

People with depression often experience cognitive-affective impairments, including in their decision-making ability. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these dysfunctional processes and how they may moderate treatment response are not fully understood. This research project investigates task-related brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify the neural mechanisms that underlie impaired cognitive-affective function in depression as well as assess the predictive quality of this activity with regards to treatment response.

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Meet our academic lead

Professor Carsten Murawski is the academic lead of the Bonn and Melbourne Research and Graduate School of Decision Neuroscience. He is a professor in the Department of Finance and is the co-head of the Brain, Mind and Markets Laboratory at the University of Melbourne. Professor Murawski uses laboratory experiments in his research to study individual decision-making, in particular its neurobiological basis. The focus of his work is on determining in what ways information processing constraints in the brain affect decision-making, how they lead to phenomena such as cognitive biases, and in what ways decision-making can be improved.

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First published on 11 July 2023.

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