Matthias Kirschner
Papers
1
Total Citations
8
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1
About
Matthias Kirschner is a leading researcher in the neurobiology of motivation and reward processing, with a particular focus on negative symptoms in schizophrenia. His work has significantly advanced our understanding of apathy—a debilitating symptom characterized by reduced goal-directed behavior—by dissociating it from diminished emotional expression. In his highly cited 2014 study, Kirschner demonstrated that apathy in schizophrenia is uniquely associated with a steeper discounting of monetary rewards by physical effort, revealing a specific deficit in effort-based decision-making. This finding has shaped how clinicians and neuroscientists conceptualize motivational impairments, linking them to dysfunction in frontostriatal circuits. With 8 citations, this seminal paper has influenced subsequent research on computational models of effort allocation and therapeutic interventions targeting apathy. Kirschner’s contributions are pivotal for developing targeted treatments that improve functional outcomes in patients, and his work continues to inspire new investigations into the neural mechanisms underlying motivation and reward.
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Top Papers
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