Håkan Fischer Professor in Human biological psychology

Contact

Name and title: Håkan FischerProfessor in Human biological psychology

Mail: hakan.fischer@psychology.su.se

Phone: +468162357

ORCID0000-0001-6710-1744 Länk till annan webbplats.

Workplace: Department of Psychology Länk till annan webbplats.

Visiting address Albanovägen 12

Postal address Psykologiska institutionen106 91 Stockholm

Research groups

Links

About me

Since 2011, I have been the Chair Professor of Human Biological Psychology and Head of the Division of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at the Department of Psychology, Stockholm university. I served as Head of the Department of Psychology from 2015 to 2021. I am also an Associate Professor (docent) at Karolinska Institutet (KI), affiliated with the Aging Research Center at KI and the Stockholm University Brain Imaging Centre (SUBIC). In addition, I am a faculty member at Digital Futures, an interdisciplinary research center at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Since September 2025 I am also guest professor at Linköping University.

I hold a Ph.D. in Psychology from Uppsala University, which I received in 1998. From 1999 to 2001, I was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. Afterward, I worked as a researcher at the Aging Research Center, KI, before joining the Department of Psychology at Stockholm university in 2011. I spent the academic year 2021–2022 on sabbatical at the University of Florida, Department of Psychology.

Current Positions and Roles

Head of the Division of Psychobiology and Epidemiology (formerly Biological Psychology), Department of Psychology, Stockholm university (2011–present)
Head of the Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Department of Psychology, Stockholm university (2024–present)
Member of the Swedish Research Council's Scientific Council for Humanities and Social Sciences (VR) (2023–present)
Guest Professor, Department of Behavioral Science and Learning (IBL), Division of Psychology, Linköping university (2025-09-01-)
Stockholm university's representative in the steering group for EBRAINS Sweden (2022–present)
Stockholm university's representative in the steering group for the collaboration between Stockholm Trio and the University of Tokyo, Japan (2022–present)
Member of the steering group for the collaboration between Stockholm university and RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden) (2019–present)
Representative in the Humanities area's research evaluation group, Stockholm university (2021–present)
Principal researcher in the spin-off company Empatik AI/Aiyo AB (2022–present)

Teaching

I am the course leader for the BSA course in Cognitive Neuroscience and the MSA course Emotion Psychology and Affective Neuroscience.

I regularly teach at both undergraduate and advanced levels, primarily in Biological Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, and Emotion Psychology, with a focus on the interaction between brain and behavior.

Currently, I am the main supervisor for one PhD student and a co-supervisor for four PhD students.

Research

My primary area of research is the examination of intra- and interindividual differences in affective, cognitive, social, and perceptual processing, and the relationship between these behaviors and brain function, with a specific focus on adult age differences. The goal is now to use single-subject small-N designs and variability to study the mechanisms behind these processes.

To study functional brain activation, I use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). To study brain structure, I use T1-weighted imaging, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and perfusion imaging. I collaborate both nationally and internationally with other researchers and am involved in ongoing projects in Sweden, Germany, and the USA.

I participate in nine ongoing financed research projects, two as the main applicant (totaling 6.9 million SEK) and seven as a co-applicant (totaling 24.8 million SEK).

Current Research Lines

Intra- and Interindividual Differences in Perception and Recognition of Socio-Emotional Information: Together with researchers at Stockholm university (SU), Karolinska Institutet (KI), and the University of Florida (UF), we study the ability to detect socio-emotional information.
Effect of Oxytocin on Socio-Emotional Information Processing: Investigating the neurobiological basis of oxytocin's effects on socio-emotional processing in younger and older adults, in collaboration with researchers at SU, KI, UF, and the University of Gothenburg.
Development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Interpersonal Communication: Collaborating with researchers at SU, UF, and the Department of Data and Systems Science, SU, to support the reading, interpreting, and predicting of interpersonal communication patterns.

Supervision and Funding

I am currently supervising six doctoral students. Since 2002, I have consistently received funding from various prestigious sources, including the Swedish Research Council, the Wallenberg Foundation (MMW and MAW), the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT), Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, and Konung Gustav V och Drottning Victorias Stiftelse.

Publications and Academic Contributions

My scientific work has resulted in 136 research articles published in or submitted to peer-reviewed journals. My research publications have been cited more than 12 200 times in international scientific journals and have an h-index (Google) of 54 and an i10-index of 117. I have also served on several mid-term and doctoral examination committees, evaluated research and appointments at various academic institutions, and acted as a reviewer for several international peer-reviewed journals.

Manuscripts Under Review and Under Revision

Gavalova G, Laukka, P, Högman, L., Källman, M.V., Kristiansson, M., Wallinius, M., Fischer, H & Johansson, A.G.M. (submitted). Emotion recognition misclassification patterns in individuals with psychotic spectrum disorders and history of interpersonal aggression.

Laukka, P., Manzouri, A., Månsson, K.N.T., Cortes, D.S. Döllinger, L., Högman, L., Hau, S., & Fischer H (submitted). Neural correlates of emotion recognition training: An fMRI study on visual, auditory and multimodal expressions.