The Senate of the Leibniz Association has selected four new Leibniz Junior Research Groups for five-year funding. Among them is the research group "Cognition and Emotion" led by Dr. Sanja Bauer Mikulovic, which prevailed against strong competition and will receive approximately 1 million euros from 2023 for her project "Can we learn to be good?
The young neuroscientist and her team are studying innate and learned social behaviour in mice. Among other things, they are investigating which neuronal circuits control prosocial behaviour and how stress and fear influence it.
"It's the same with rodents as it is with us humans: Some just don't want to help others and be nice. We now want to find out why that is. And that's why I hope we identify the nerve cells that are responsible for why some animals behave well and want to help their fellows," says Sanja Bauer Mikulovic.
With the Junior Research Groups, the Leibniz Association promotes the early scientific independence of excellent young researchers, who are thus also accepted into the Leibniz Academy for Leaders.
- More informationen about the funding at Leibniz.
- More informationen about the Research Group „Cognition & Emotion“