Christian Keysers

Christian Keysers is a French and German neuroscientist.[1]

Christian Keysers
Born
Christian Keysers

(1973-06-27) June 27, 1973
NationalityGerman and French
OccupationScientist
EmployerNetherlands Institute for Neuroscience

Education and career

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 the 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.[2] After that, he moved to the University of Parma where he was part of the team that discovered auditory mirror neurons[3][4] 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,[5] and that the insular cortex is active not only if people feel disgusted, but also if they see someone else being disgusted.[6] Together this indicated a general principle in which people process the actions, sensations and emotions of others by vicariously activating their own actions, sensations and emotions.[7] Jointly, this work laid the foundation of the neuroscientific investigation of empathy. In 2004, Keysers and collaborator Gazzola opened the Social Brain Lab at the University of Groningen where they provided evidence for abnormal activity in somatosensory, motor and limbic brain structures in patients with abnormal empathy [1][8] [9] and that rats experience distress when they witnessed another animal in distress. This showed that rats can experience emotional contagion, a predecessor of empathy[10]

In 2010, Keysers moved to the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN) where he is currently a department head and leads the Social Brain Lab together with neuroscientist Valeria Gazzola. He is also a full professor at the University of Amsterdam. His team uncovered a mechanism responsible for emotional contagion by showing that rats have neurons in the cingulate cortex, a region involved in nociception, that respond both when a rat experiences pain and when it witnesses another animal experience pain, providing the first systematic evidence for the presence of emotional mirror neurons in the mammalian brain. Deactivating this brain region greatly reduced emotional contagion.[11] The team also showed that rats are averse to harming other rats, and that this also depends on the same region of the cingulate cortex.[12]

He has recently published a book called 'The Empathic Brain'.[1]


Awards and grants

Christian Keysers has received the European Research Council consolidator grant, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Excellence Grant of the European Commission, and the VICI grant of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. He is a recipient of the Marie Curie Excellence Award and is a member of the Academia Europaea and a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science

References
  1. Keysers, Christian (2011-06-23). The Empathic Brain. Social Brain Press.
  2. Keysers, Christian; Xiao, D.K.; Foldiak, P.; Perrett, D.I. (2001). "The speed of sight". J Cogn Neurosci. 13 (1): 90–101. doi:10.1162/089892901564199. PMID 11224911.
  3. Keysers, Christian; Kohler, E.; Umilta, M.A.; Nanetti, L.; Fogassi, L.; Gallese, Vittorio (2003). "Audiovisual mirror neurons and action recognition". Exp Brain Res. 153 (4): 628–36. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.387.3307. doi:10.1007/s00221-003-1603-5. PMID 12937876.
  4. Kohler, E.; Keysers, Christian; Umilta, M.A.; Fogassi, L.; Gallese, Vittorio; Rizzolatti, G. (2002). "Hearing sounds, understanding actions: action representation in mirror neurons". Science. 297 (5582): 846–8. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.177.3161. doi:10.1126/science.1070311. PMID 12161656.
  5. Keysers, Christian; Wicker, Bruno; Gazzola, V.; Anton, J.L.; Fogassi, L.; Gallese, Vittorio (2004). "A touching sight: SII/PV activation during the observation and experience of touch". Neuron. 42 (2): 335–46. doi:10.1016/S0896-6273(04)00156-4. PMID 15091347.
  6. Wicker, Bruno; Keysers, Christian; Plailly, J.; Royet, J.P.; Gallese, V.; Rizzolatti, G. (2003). "Both of us disgusted in My insula: the common neural basis of seeing and feeling disgust". Neuron. 40 (3): 655–64. doi:10.1016/S0896-6273(03)00679-2. PMID 14642287.
  7. Keysers, Christian; Gazzola, Valeria (2006). Towards a unifying neural theory of social cognition. Progress in Brain Research. 156. pp. 379–401. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.132.4591. doi:10.1016/S0079-6123(06)56021-2. ISBN 9780444521828. ISSN 0079-6123. PMID 17015092.
  8. Bastiaansen, Jojanneke A.; Thioux, Marc; Nanetti, Luca; van der Gaag, Christiaan; Ketelaars, Cees; Minderaa, Ruud; Keysers, Christian (2011). "Age-Related Increase in Inferior Frontal Gyrus Activity and Social Functioning in Autism Spectrum Disorder". Biological Psychiatry. 69 (9): 832–838. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.11.007. ISSN 0006-3223. PMID 21310395.
  9. Meffert, H.; Gazzola, V.; den Boer, J. A.; Bartels, A. A. J.; Keysers, C. (2013). "Reduced spontaneous but relatively normal deliberate vicarious representations in psychopathy". Brain. 136 (8): 2550–2562. doi:10.1093/brain/awt190. ISSN 0006-8950. PMC 3722356. PMID 23884812.
  10. Atsak, Piray; Orre, Marie; Bakker, Petra; Cerliani, Leonardo; Roozendaal, Benno; Gazzola, Valeria; Moita, Marta; Keysers, Christian (2011). "Experience Modulates Vicarious Freezing in Rats: A Model for Empathy". PLoS ONE. 6 (7): e21855. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021855. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3135600. PMID 21765921.
  11. Carrillo M, Han Y, Migliorati F, Liu M, Gazzola V, Keysers C (2019). "Emotional Mirror Neurons in the Rat's Anterior Cingulate Cortex". Curr Biol. 29 (8): 1301-1312.e6. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2019.03.024. PMC 6488290. PMID 30982647.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. Hernandez-Lallement J, Attah AT, Soyman E, Pinhal CM, Gazzola V, Keysers C (2020). "Harm to Others Acts as a Negative Reinforcer in Rats". Curr Biol. 30 (6): 949-961.e7. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.01.017. PMID 32142701.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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