In her research, dr Knapska tackles problems of great importance for contemporary societies: dysfunctions in processing of emotions or dysfunctions of interactions between individuals. Studying animals behavior and corresponding neural mechanisms of extinction and renewal of fear, dr Knapska showed that in situations corresponding to a low and a high level of fear different neurons, comprising different brain structures, are activated. This result paves the way to designing individual therapies of fear processing, therapies that operate at the level of single neurons. Using models put forth and designed by herself, dr Knapska also found that both learning fear and its extinction is determined by social interactions.