The Neurobiology of Empathy
ERC Starting Grant for Sanja Bauer Mikulovic
Europe's highest research funding. It is for daring ideas.
Sanja Bauer Mikulovic receives an ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council. The award is considered the most prestigious funding instrument for young top researchers in Europe—only around 12 percent of applications are successful.
The ERC is now providing around €1.5 million in funding for Sanja Bauer Mikulovic's project, which, although daring, has enormous potential for new discoveries. For Sanja Bauer Mikulovic, this means five years of freedom to pursue her specific research question.
The research question
Why do some people help others while others do not?
Why do some people show empathy, while others lack it, even in extreme situations?'
Bauer Mikulovic's hypothesis is that: A lack of empathy could be a neurobiologically solvable problem.
'Liberation cells' in the brain
Her team was yet able to demonstrate, through experiments, that mice help fellow mice in distress. This activates special nerve cells in the hippocampus, which Mikulovic calls 'liberation cells'. The more often help is provided, the stronger these cells become interconnected, making help more likely.
However, around five percent of the animals never help. This finding is reminiscent of the proportion of people whose capacity for empathy is impaired.
The aims of the ERC project
With this funding, Bauer Mikulovic intends to systematically investigate:
which circuits in the brain control empathy,
how cognitive and emotional areas work together,
what role neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, and oxytocin play,
how empathy is altered in mouse models for autism and psychopathy,
and whether it can be strengthened through targeted interventions in nerve cells or neurotransmitters.
“I am fascinated by the question of why we help each other — and why some people show no empathy. If we understand the circuits in the brain, we can find ways to specifically strengthen compassion.”
— Sanja Bauer Mikulovic
About the person
Sanja Bauer Mikulovic is a neuroscientist with an international and interdisciplinary background. Born and raised in Serbia, she studied biomedical engineering in Vienna, subsequently earning her doctorate in neuroscience at Uppsala University in Sweden. It was there that she began researching the role of the hippocampus in memory and emotion. She then undertook postdoctoral research at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Bonn.
Since 2021, she has led the Cognition & Emotion research group at LIN in Magdeburg, investigating the connection between thinking and feeling. Combining state-of-the-art methods of imaging, electrophysiology, and behavioural research, her work has already attracted international attention.
She has received several awards for her research, including the Leibniz Best Minds Award. In 2023, she was also appointed to the Young Academy of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Alongside her research, she is dedicated to supporting young scientists.
The ERC Starting Grant
The European Research Council's Starting Grant is widely regarded as the ultimate recognition of excellence in research in Europe. It is aimed at exceptional young scientists venturing into independence in their field. Funding is awarded to visionary projects with the potential to break new ground. This year, nearly 4,000 applications were received from across Europe, of which only around 12% were approved. Sanja Bauer Mikulovic is now among this select group of award winners. For her, the grant means around €1.5 million in funding over five years.
Media service
↗ Picture download available: Sanja Bauer Mikulovic at her lab © Tobias Kruse/OSTKREUZ
↗ Picture download available: Portrait Sanja Bauer Mikulovic © Tobias Kruse/OSTKREUZ
↗ Press release from the European Research Council
↗ Statistics on the ERC Starting Grant
Contact:
Ulrike Papajewski
presse@lin-magdeburg.de
+49 391- 6263 92381