Via my master studies at the Paris-Lodron-University of Salzburg, I obtained an inter-disciplinary background comprised of biology, psychology, philosophy and mathematics. I obtained two PhDs in Philosophy and Cognitive Neuroscience, respectively, and spent my first PostDoc year at the University of California, Irvine, researching the effects of sex and sex hormones on processing strategies during cognitive tasks. After returning to Austria, I followed up on this question including brain parameters within the framework of a single investigators project funded by the Austrian Science Fund. The results were summarized in my habilitation thesis in Psychology.
My research interests comprise all aspects of hormone-brain interactions, with a particular focus on sex hormones and gender-related aspects of neuroscience. I am currently the PI of the ERC Starting Grant BECONTRA, which investigates the effects of hormonal contraceptives on the female brain.
