Dr. Matthias Gruber is a cognitive neuroscientist whose research focuses on understanding how curiosity shapes learning and memory. He is an Associate Professor (Reader) at the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), where he leads the Motivation and Memory Lab. He has established an international reputation for his work on the neural mechanisms of curiosity-based learning, demonstrating how states of curiosity engage dopaminergic–hippocampal circuits to enhance memory encoding. His work bridges psychological theory and neuroscience, integrating experimental and neuroimaging approaches to explain how curiosity motivates information seeking and supports memory formation. As a Mercator Fellow of the RTG 2906 Curiosity, he brings this expertise to the group's interdisciplinary work on the biological, neuropsychological, and computational foundations of curiosity.

His recent research is driven by a central question: how does curiosity-based learning develop across childhood and adolescence, and how does brain maturation shape it? In collaboration with international partners through an Open Research Area grant, this work seeks to characterize the neural systems underlying these changes, with a focus on the maturation of brain networks supporting motivation, learning, and self-evaluation. Alongside this, Dr. Gruber currently investigates the role of agency and metacognition in curiosity-driven learning, and is particularly interested in translating these findings into naturalistic and applied settings — including formal education and everyday information seeking.