Dr Maria Herrojo Ruiz

Staff details

Position

Reader

María is interested in computational approaches to motor learning and decision making.

María is a Reader at the Department of Psychology, where she also co-directs the MSc in Computational Cognitive Neuroscience.
Her research examines the neural processes underlying motor learning and decision-making, employing advanced methodological and computational techniques. Bridging her background in Theoretical Physics with a PhD in Neuroscience, she investigates decision-making and motor learning in both mental health and neurological conditions. Her long-standing research in the neuroscience of musical performance has evolved to focus on performance anxiety, where she now applies computational psychiatry methods to gain deeper insights into this phenomenon. She has received various awards, including the Susanne Klein-Vogelbach Prize for research in human movement (2014). María is also dedicated to public engagement, contributing to a variety of international media, including regular radio collaborations with Spanish RTVE.es, BBC Radio 3 & 4 and the Conversation.

Academic qualifications

Doctorate (Dr. rer. nat, PhD) in Neuroscience, Centre for Systems Neuroscience. Hanover (Germany) 2009
Advanced Studies Diploma (MPhil.) in Physics of Complex Systems, Department of Fundamental Physics, Faculty of Science, UNED. Madrid (Spain) 2005
MSc. degree in Physics (Theoretical Physics), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Madrid (Spain). 2001

Teaching and supervision

MSc in Computational Cognitive Neuroscience

Research interests

María's main themes of research relate to the areas of motor, clinical and computational cognitive neuroscience. She is a member of our Cognition and Neuroscience Group and our Science of the Creative and Performing Arts Group.
Key areas of interest are listed below.
Additional details can be found at http://maria-herrojoruiz.net/

Motor Learning
Music Performance
Anxiety
Computational Modelling
Decision Making
Movement Disorders
Psychiatric conditions

Featured publications

2024: Action sequence learning, habits, and automaticity in obsessive-compulsive disorder

2023: Anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex oscillations underlie learning alterations in trait anxiety in humans

2023: Modulation of Motor Vigor by Expectation of Reward Probability Trial-by-Trial Is Preserved in Healthy Ageing and Parkinson's Disease Patients

2022: State anxiety alters the neural oscillatory correlates of predictions and prediction errors during reward-based learning

2021: State anxiety biases estimates of uncertainty during reward learning in volatile environments

Grants and awards

2014: Susanne Klein-Vogelbach-Preis for the research of human movement

2009: Award from the International Society for Performance Science

Publications and research outputs

Article

Lai, Giuseppe; Landi, David; Vidaurre, Carmen; Bhattacharya, Joydeep and Herrojo Ruiz, Maria. 2024. Cardiac cycle modulates alpha and beta suppression during motor imagery. Cerebral Cortex, 34, bhae442. ISSN 1047-3211

Kopytin, Grigory; Ivanova, Marina; Herrojo Ruiz, Maria and Shestakova, Anna. 2024. Evaluating the Influence of Musical and Monetary Rewards on Decision Making through Computational Modelling. Behavioral Sciences, 14(2), 124. ISSN 2076-328X

Banca, Paula; Herrojo Ruiz, Maria; Gonzalez-Zalba, Miguel Fernando; Biria, Marjan; Marzuki, Aleya A.; Piercy, Thomas; Sule, Akeem; Fineberg, Naomi Anne and Robbins, Trevor William. 2023. Action-sequence learning, habits and automaticity in obsessive-compulsive disorder. eLife, 12, RP87346. ISSN 2050-084X

Conference or Workshop Item

Vidaurre, Carmen; Nikulin, Vadim and Herrojo Ruiz, Maria. 2021. 'Optimized alpha band patterns correlated with trait anxiety'. In: 2021 IEEE 34th International Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS). Aveiro, Portugal 7-9 June 2021.

Professional projects

María received funding from the Ernst Schering Stiftung and the Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience in Tübingen, Germany, to co-organise with Prof. Boris Kleber the “International Symposium on Music performance: Art and Neuroscience in Dialogue” in April 2016 in Tübingen, which involved international musicians, academics and members of the general public. Together with Dr. Anna Sadnicka and Dr. Katja Kornisheva, María received funding from Guarantors of Brain to host a symposium for the general public in 2023 on "Public Understanding of Neurology".

Media engagements

2019: BBC Radio 3 - David Baddiel is on a quest to like classical music
Interview with David Baddiel on neuroscience and music

2019: What happens to our brains when we hear music we hate?
Join David Baddiel and friends on a journey though history, music and emotion by searching BBC Sounds for "My Trouble with Classical Music"

2018: Spanish Radio and Television Corporation (RTVE) - Longitud de Onda
Monthly collaboration 2016-2019 to talk about music and neuroscience

2017: The Anthill - The Conversation
Podcast on music and Parkinson's Disease