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Affiliations
AffiliationTelephone
Head of Department in the Department of Psychology+44 (0) 191 33 43286
Head of Department in the Department of Psychology
Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing0191 33 43286

Biography

1996 Diploma in Psychology (Dipl. Psych.)

2000 PhD in Psychology (Dr. rer. nat.)

2006 Habilitation, Venia legendi in Cognitive Neuroscience.

Markus joined Durham University (UK) in April 2007. Prior to this he held positions at the Ruhr-University Bochum (Germany), University of Auckland (New Zealand) and Marmara University Istanbul (Turkey). Markus’ research covers the full range of topics that comprise biological and neuropsychology, from spatial cognition to attention, from neuroendocrinology to social cognition. He has made a particular contribution to the understanding of hormonal modulation of cognition and functional brain organisation by proposing and developing the “hypothesis of progesterone-mediated interhemispheric decoupling”, the idea that sex hormones modulate the interaction between the left and right cerebral hemispheres. More recently he proposed and developed a biopsychosocial approach of cognitive sex/gender differences. This work has been published in over 100 academic papers, in journals such as Archives of Sexual Behavior, Cortex, Hormones & Behavior, Journal of Neuroscience, Neuropsychologia, Neuroimage, Psychoneuroendocrinology, and Intelligence. Markus is committed to supporting and shaping the future of psychological science and has held roles as panel member and grant reviewer for funding bodies, including international research councils in Austria (ÖAW), Belgium (FNRS, FWO), Canada (NSERC), Germany (DFG), Israel (ISF), Ireland (SFI), The Netherlands (NWO), Switzerland (SNF), and the UK (British Academy, ESRC, MRC, Welcome Trust). He is member of the Advisory Board at Brain & Cognition and became Editor at Laterality in 2019.

Research interests

  • A biopsychosocial approach to cognitive sex differences
  • Neuromodulatory properties of sex hormones
  • Hemispheric asymmetries and interhemispheric interaction
  • Spatial attention and spatial cognition
  • Social cognition
  • Emotional face recognition

Publications

Book review

Chapter in book

Edited book

Journal Article

Supervision students