Ernst Pöppel studied psychology and biology in Freiburg, Munich and Innsbruck. He did research at the Max-Planck-Institute of Behavioral Physiology, the Max-Planck-Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, and at the MIT in Cambridge, USA. He got a first habilitation in 1974 at the Medical Faculty of LMU Munich in Sensory Physiology (Dr.med. habil.), and a second habilitation in 1976 at the Science Faculty of the University of Innsbruck (Dr.phil. habil.). Also in 1976 he became full professor of Medical Psychology at LMU Munich. From 1992 until 1997 he was Board Member of the Research Center Jülich being responsible for the Life Sciences, Biotechnology, Brain Research, Environmental Research and Mathematical Modeling. In 1997 he co-founded the Human Science Center of LMU Munich and was its first chairman. Since 2002 he is guest professor in the School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences of Peking University. In 2009 he co-founded the Parmenides Center for Art and Science at the Parmenides Foundation and has since been its director. Since 1993 he is member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and he is also member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (Salzburg), the Academia Europaea (London), and the Russian Academy of Education (Moscow). Since 2016 he is Editor-in-Chief of the PsyCh Journal published by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Wiley. His research is focused on neural mechanisms of visual perception, temporal processing in the brain, and the relationship between art and science; he has published more than 300 scientific papers and also some 10 books for the general public. His personal motto is: “Scientists are Natural Ambassadors”.

Selected Publications

Taoxi Yang, Sarita Silveira, Arusu Formuli, Marco Paolini, Ernst Pöppel, Tilmann Sander, Yan Bao (2019). Aesthetic experiences across cultures: neural correlates when viewing traditional Eastern or Western landscape paintings. Frontiers in Psychology 10:798. Cognitive Science doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00798

Ernst Pöppel (2018): East of West, West of East: a matter of global and local identity. Cognitive Processing. doi.org/10.1007/s10339-018-0885-2

Yan Bao, Alexandra von Stosch, Mona Park, Ernst Pöppel (2017). Complementarity as Generative Principle: A Thought Pattern for Aesthetic Appreciations and Cognitive Appraisals in General. Frontiers in Psychology. Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology. Doi.org/10.3389/fp-syg.2017.00727

Yan Bao, Taoxi Yang, Jinfan Zhang, Jiyuan Zhang, Xiaoxiong Lin, Marco Paolini, Ernst Pöppel, Sarita Silveira (2017): The “Third Abstraction” of the Chinese artist LaoZhu: Neural and behavioral indicators of aesthetic appreciation. PsyCh Journal 6 (2017): 110–119 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.167

Bin Zhou, Ernst Pöppel, Lingyan Wang, Taoxi Yang, Yuliya Zaytseva, Yan Bao (2016). Seeing without knowing: Operational principles along the early visual pathway. PsyCh Journal, 5: 145-160. DOI: 10.1002/pchj.141

Yan Bao, Taoxi Yang, Xiaoxiong Lin, Yuan Fang, Yi Wang, Ernst Pöppel, Quan Lei (2016). Aesthetic Preferences for Eastern and Western Traditional Visual Art: Identity Matters. Frontiers in Psychology, 7:1596. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01596

Lingyan Wang, Yan Bao, Jiyuan Zhang, Xiaoxiong Lin, Lang Yang, Ernst Pöppel, Bin Zhou (2016). Scanning the world in three seconds: Mismatch negativity as an indicator of temporal segmentation. Psych Journal, 5: 170-176. DOI: 10.1002/pchj.144

Sarita Silveira, Yan Bao, Lingyan Wang, Ernst Pöppel, Mihai Avram, Fabian Simmank, Yuliya Zaytseva, Janusch Blautzik (2015): Does a bishop pray when he prays? And does his brain distinguish between different religions? PsyCh Journal, 4, 199-2017. Doi:. DOI: 10.1002/pchj.116

Aline Vedder, Lukasz Smigielski, Evgeny Gutyrchik, Yan Bao, Janusch Blautzik, Ernst Pöppel, Yuliya Zaytseva, Edmund Russell (2015). Neurofunctional Correlates of Environmental Cognition. An fMRI Study with Images from Episodic Memory. PloS ONE 10(4): e0122470. doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0122470

Mona Park, Evgeny Gutyrchik, Lorenz Welker, Petra Carl, Ernst Pöppel, Yuliya Zaytseva, Thomas Meindl, Janusch Blautzik, Maximilian Reiser, Yan Bao (2015). Sadness is unique: Neural Processing of Emotions in Speech Prosody in Musicians and Non-musicians. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience”, doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.01049

Yan Bao, Ernst Pöppel, Lingyan Wang, Xiaoxiong Lin, Taoxi Yang, Mihai Avram, Janusch Blautzik, Marco Paolini, Sarita Silveira, Aline Vedder, Yuliya Zaytseva, Bin Zhou (2015): Synchronization as a biological, psychological and social mechanism to create common time: A theoretical frame and a single case study. PsyCh Journal 4: 243–254. DOI: 10.1002/pchj.119

Yuliya Zaytseva, Evgeny Gutyrchik, Yan Bao, Ernst Pöppel, Shihui Han, Georg Northoff, Lorenz Welker, Thomas Meindl, Janusch Blautzik (2014). Self processing in the brain: A paradigmatic fMRI case study with a professional singer. Brain and Cognition, 87: 104-108

Bin Zhou, Ernst Pöppel, Yan Bao (2014). In the jungle of time: The concept of identity as an escape. Frontiers in Psychology. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00844

Mihai Avram, Evgeny Gutyrchik, Yan Bao, Ernst Pöppel, Maximilian Reiser, Janusch Blautzik (2013). Neurofunctional correlates of aesthetic and moral judgments: Equal but not the same. Neuroscience Letters, 534, 128-132

Sarita Silveira, Verena Graupmann, Dieter Frey, Janusch Blautzik, Thomas Meindl, Maximilian Reiser, Cheng Chen, Yizhou Wang, Yan Bao, Ernst Pöppel, Evgeny Gutyrchik (2012). Matching reality in the arts: Self-referential neural processing of naturalistic compared to surrealistic images. Perception, 41, 569-576. doi:10.1068/p7191