Håkan Fischer
PhD, Professor of Biological Psychology
Since February 1, 2011, I am new professor of Biological Psychology here at the Department of Psychology. I started doing affective brain imaging research in 1993 and received my Ph.D. from Uppsala University in 1998. Between 1999 and 2001 I undertook post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. After that I got a four year position as researcher (forskarassistent) from the Swedish Research Council at Aging Research Center (ARC), Karolinska Institutet. I then continued to work there as senior researcher, and from 2010 as vice head of ARC.
I am currently supervising two doctoral students and co-supervising three others. I am also external mentor for two PhD students at the Karolinska Institute. Since 2002 I have regularly received funding as principal investigator, primarily from the Swedish Research Council, but also from STINT, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, and Konung Gustav V:s och Drottning Victorias Stiftelse.
My scientific work has resulted in around 50 research articles published in or submitted to peer-reviewed journals. I have also served on numerous half-time and doctoral dissertation examination committees, and as reviewer for a number of international peer-reviewed journals.
Teaching
I am currently responible for the bi-annual 5 week course Biological Psychology and for the post-graduate course Social Neuroscience.
Research
My primary area of research is emotion processing and brain function, with a specific focus on aging, personality and gender differences. In relation to this I am also interested in how aging affects the neurobiological underpinnings of cognitive processes with a special focus on different types of memory.
Another line of research is the investigation of the neural basis of emotional processes in psychiatric criminal offenders which I am working on in collaboration with the Division of Forensic Psychiatry at Karolinska Institutet-Huddinge.
I use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET) and event related potentials (ERP) to study brain function and structural MRI to study brain structure (DTI and perfusion). I collaborate both nationally and internationally with other researchers and is involved in ongoing projects in Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, Canada and USA.
Selected publications
- 1. Gavazzeni, J., Andersson, T., Bäckman, L., Wiens, S., & Fischer, H. (2012, April 16). Age, Gender, and Arousal in Recognition of Negative and Neutral Pictures 1 Year Later. Psychology and Aging. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0027946.
- 2. Johnell, K., & Fischer, H. (2011). Dopaminergic and serotonergic drug use: A nationwide register-based study of over 1 300 000 older people. PLoS One, 6(8):e23750. Epub 2011 Aug 15. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0023750
- 3. Fischer, H., Nyberg, L., Karlsson, S., Karlsson, P., Brehmer, Y., Rieckmann, A., MacDonald, S.W., Farde, L., & Bäckman, L. (2010). Simulating Neurocognitive Aging: Effects of a Dopaminergic Antagonist on Brain Activity During Working Memory. Biological Psychiatry, 67, 575-580.
- 4. Fischer, H., Nyberg, L., & Bäckman, L. (2010). Age-related differences in brain regions supporting successful encoding of emotional faces. Cortex, 46, 490-497.
- 5. Fischer, H., Sandblom, J., Nyberg, L., Herlitz, A., & Bäckman, L. (2007). Brain activation while forming memories of fearful and neutral faces in women and men, Emotion, 4, 767-773.
- 6. Fischer, H., Fransson, P., Wright, C.I., & Bäckman, L. (2004). Enhanced occipital and anterior cingulate activation in men but not in women during exposure to aversive same-sex faces. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 4, 326-334.
