Professorial Faculty
Technical University of Munich

Prof. Dr. Markus Ploner

Professorship

Human Pain Research

School

TUM School of Medicine and Health

Contact Details

Business card at TUMonline

Academic Career and Research Areas

Professor Markus Ploner investigates how the human brain generates the experience of pain. His interdisciplinary research group employs methods such as electroencephalography (EEG) and non-invasive brain stimulation to understand how the brain processes pain in healthy individuals and in people with chronic pain. The aim is to develop new approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain. His research is guided by the principles of open, reproducible science and actively involves people with chronic pain in the research process.

Professor Ploner studied medicine in Cologne and Vienna and received his doctorate from the University of Cologne. He began his research career at the University Hospital Düsseldorf, where he also completed his specialist training in neurology. In 2007/2008, he conducted research at the University of Oxford as a Feodor Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Since then, he has been working at the Department of Neurology at TUM. In 2014, he was appointed Professor of Human Pain Research, and in 2024, he became Head of the Center for Interdisciplinary Pain Medicine at the TUM University Hospital.

    Awards

    • Global Peer Review Award, Web of Science/publons.com (2019)
    • Richard Jung Award, German Society for Clinical Neurophysiology and Functional Imaging (2018)
    • Heisenberg Professorship, German Research Foundation DFG (2014-2019)
    • Research award for pain research, German Society for the Study of Pain (2011)
    • EFIC Grünenthal Grant, European Association for the Study of Pain (2007)

    Key Publications (all publications)

    Hohn VD, Tiemann L, Bott FS, May ES, Fritzen C, Nickel MM, Gil Ávila C, Ploner M. Neurofeedback and attention modulate somatosensory alpha oscillations but not pain perception. PLoS Biol. 2025; 23(1):e3002972. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002972. 

    Abstract

    Gil Ávila C, Bott FS, Tiemann L, Hohn VD, May ES, Nickel MM, Zebhauser PT, Gross J, Ploner M. DISCOVER-EEG: an open, fully automated EEG pipeline for biomarker discovery in clinical neuroscience. Sci Data. 2023;10(1):613. doi: 10.1038/s41597-023-02525-0.

    Abstract

    Bott FS, Nickel MM, Hohn VD, May ES, Gil Ávila C, Tiemann L, Gross J, Ploner M. Local brain oscillations and interregional connectivity differentially serve sensory and expectation effects on pain. Sci Adv. 2023;9(16):eadd7572. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.add7572. 

    Abstract

    Ploner M, Buyx A, Gempt J, Gjorgijeva J, Müller R, Priller J, Rückert D, Wolfrum B, Jacob S. Reengineering neurotechnology: placing patients first. Nat Ment Health. 2023; 1:5-7. doi: 10.1038/s44220-022-00011-x.

    Abstract

    Nickel MM, Tiemann L, Hohn VD, May ES, Gil Avila C, Eippert F, Ploner M. Temporal-spectral signaling of sensory information and expectations in the cerebral processing of pain. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2022; 119:e2116616119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2116616119.

    Abstract

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