Prof. Dr. Philipp Kanske | Medicine | Research Excellence Award

Professor | TUD Dresden University of Technology | Germany

Prof. Dr. Philipp Kanske is an internationally recognized expert in cognitive and affective neuroscience whose work bridges psychology, social cognition, neuroimaging, and mental health research. His research centers on empathy, compassion, emotion regulation, personality functioning, and the neurobiological mechanisms that shape human social behavior across the lifespan. He investigates how individuals perceive and respond to others’ emotions, how empathic stress is transmitted within families, and how interventions such as meditation and compassion training can induce functional neural plasticity and improve emotional well-being, particularly in older adults. His interests extend to personality organization in both clinical and non-clinical populations, disease progression in bipolar disorder, white-matter microstructure, attachment dynamics in couples, value integration for self and others, and ritual-based methods for strengthening human–nature connectedness in the context of sustainability transformations. Prof. Kanske is skilled in a wide range of methodologies including experimental psychology, behavioral analysis, longitudinal study design, cognitive testing, psychoneuroendocrinology, structural and functional MRI, and advanced statistical modeling. His contributions to research transparency and reproducibility are reflected in his leadership in developing the PECANS methodological framework for cognitive and neuropsychological studies. Throughout his career, he has received multiple awards and honors (as listed in Scopus’s “Awarded Grants” section), recognizing his innovative contributions to social neuroscience, aging research, and clinical psychology. According to Scopus Preview, he has 7,136 citations, 163 documents, and an impressive h-index of 43, underscoring his global scientific influence and sustained scholarly productivity. Overall, Prof. Dr. Philipp Kanske’s work provides significant insights into how emotional, neural, and relational processes shape human behavior, offering important implications for mental health, interpersonal functioning, and societal well-being, and solidifying his role as a leading figure in modern neuroscience and psychology.

Profiles: Scopus | ORCID | Google Scholar

Featured Publications

1. Kanske, P., Heissler, J., Schönfelder, S., Bongers, A., & Wessa, M. (2011). How to regulate emotion? Neural networks for reappraisal and distraction. Cerebral Cortex, 21(6), 1379–138.
   Citations: 698

2. Schurz, M., Radua, J., Tholen, M. G., Maliske, L., Margulies, D. S., Mars, R. B., … Kanske, P. (2021). Toward a hierarchical model of social cognition: A neuroimaging meta-analysis and integrative review of empathy and theory of mind. Psychological Bulletin, 147(3), 293–. Citations: 648

3. Kanske, P., & Kotz, S. A. (2007). Concreteness in emotional words: ERP evidence from a hemifield study. Brain Research, 1148, 138–148. Citations: 630

4. Preckel, K., Kanske, P., & Singer, T. (2018). On the interaction of social affect and cognition: Empathy, compassion and theory of mind. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 19, 1–6.
   Citations: 554

5. Moshontz, H., Campbell, L., Ebersole, C. R., IJzerman, H., Urry, H. L., Forscher, P. S., … Kanske, P. (2018). The Psychological Science Accelerator: Advancing psychology through a distributed collaborative network. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 1(4), 501–515. Citations: 499

Prof. Dr. Philipp Kanske’s work advances global scientific understanding of empathy, compassion, and emotion regulation by uncovering the neural and psychological mechanisms that drive healthy social functioning. His research enables evidence-based mental-health interventions, strengthens human well-being across communities, and supports interdisciplinary innovation in neuroscience, clinical psychology, aging research, and societal resilience.