Christian Keysers
| Christian Keysers | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
Christian Keysers June 27, 1973 |
| Nationality | German and French |
| Occupation | Scientist |
| Employer | Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience |
Christian Keysers is a French and German neuroscientist.
He finished his school education at the European School, Munich and studied psychology and biology at the University of Konstanz, the Ruhr University Bochum, University of Massachusetts Boston, the Shepens eye research Institute of the Harvard Medical School as well as with Marvin Minsky at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then started his research career at the University of St Andrews by investigating cells in the Temporal cortex with David Perrett, and described cells that respond when the monkey views particular faces in a way that correlates with conscious perception. After that, he moved to the University of Parma where he was part of the team that discovered auditory mirror neurons in the frontal cortex of the macaque monkey. He then expanded the notion of mirror neurons to emotions and sensations, by showing that your somatosensory cortex is active not only when you are being touched, but also if you see someone else being touched, and that your insular cortex is active not only if you feel disgusted, but also if you see someone else being disgusted. More recently, he has looked at the neural basis of abnormal empathy in schizophrenia, autism and psychopathy. Currently, Keysers is a full Professor for the Social Brain at the Brain and Cognition program of the University of Amsterdam and he co-leads the Social Brain Lab of the prestigious Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He has recently published a book called 'The Empathic Brain' which won the Independent Publisher Book Award for best science book 2012 and explains his research to a wider public.
He is married to Neuroscientist Valeria Gazzola, and is a long-standing friend of the German writer Bas Kast.
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