Christian Keysers researches how the brain allows us to perceive the inner lives of others. In particular, he investigates the neural basis of empathy. He does this by exploring how people’s own actions, feelings and emotions are influenced by those of others. To do this, he combines methods including ultra-high field fMRI and single cell recordings. His appointment at the UvA will help bundle efforts to use the new Spinoza Centre of Neuroimaging and the 7T MRI scanner located there for research into the human brain.

Keysers has been head of the Social Brain Lab at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), since 2010. He was previously a professor at the NeuroImaging Center (NIC) at the University Medical Center Groningen. He has been awarded a number of research grants including an ERC consolidator grant, a Marie Curie Excellence grant, and a Vidi grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).