Prof. Ewelina Knapska, head of the Laboratory of Emotions Neurobiology at the Nencki Institute PAS, has been honored with the prestigious Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science in the area of life and earth sciences for 2025.

The FNP Awards are granted to outstanding scholars for their exceptional achievements and scientific discoveries. Prof. Ewelina Knapska was honored for her discovery of the neural mechanisms of intraspecies and interspecies transmission of emotions - research that opens up new perspectives in understanding the fundamental processes underlying social interactions.

Prof. Knapska is a pioneer in studying the neural mechanisms of emotional communication. Her research has brought a new perspective to understanding the origins of empathy. It was previously believed that the ability to recognize the emotions of others evolved primarily in the context of parental care. However, the findings of Prof. Knapska’s team suggest that parental care may not have been the main driving force behind the evolution of such behaviors. Importantly, emotional transmission can occur not only between individuals of the same species but also across different species, indicating that it plays a vital informational role - helping organisms survive by signaling potential threats.

Together with her team, Prof. Knapska has also discovered that a key element of processes taking place in the amygdala is the enzyme MMP-9 - a protein that affects neurons’ ability to form and modify connections between them. When normal activity of this enzyme is restored in mice showing depression-like symptoms, their ability to learn through reward motivation also returns. This finding may prove significant for the development of new therapies for motivation-related disorders such as depression.

Prof. Ewelina Knapska's research opens up new horizons in the neuroscience of emotions, a field that attempts to answer questions about how our brain understands and responds to the emotions of others, and how various brain disorders and diseases affect the transmission of emotions. 

News from the Foundation for Polish Science: https://www.fnp.org.pl/en/component/fnp_programs/program/nagroda-fnp/laureaci/7727

Press Release (in Polish): https://nencki.edu.pl/pl/polski-nobel-dla-prof-eweliny-knapskiej-z-instytutu-nenckiego/