INTERACT with the team

The INTERACT project started in 2024 and is funded by Prof. Philipp Kanske's successful acquisition of a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant. The project aims to investigate the brain networks underlying social interaction. It not only entails exciting studies and innovative methods, but also some new faces. In addition to the postdocs Dr. Lara Maliske, Dr. Konrad Lehmann and Dr. Katharina Förster, three new doctoral students, Esther Preuschhof, Nick Michalek and Rita Hansl, joined the team in June. Moreover, the two doctoroal students Shuo Chen and Andrea Karaiskaki work in the project.

Together, the team will develop paradigms for the assessment of empathy and mentalizing using naturalisitc stimuli and real-life interaction. At the same time these constructs and their neural correlates will be investigated using various imaging techniques (fMRI, fNIRS) in single individuals and multiple people in parallel (hyperscanning). Additionally, participants' daily social contacts will be examined using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Finally, the results shall be integrated into a psychotherapeutic intervention to improve social functioning in clinical popultions. 

In the ERC database, you can find the project  here.