Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience
Stanford University
Bldg. 420, 470 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-2130

We seek to elucidate the neural basis of emotion (affective neuroscience), and explore implications for decision-making (neuroeconomics) and psychopathology (neurophenomics).

(Third-person): Brian Knutson is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Stanford University. His research focuses on the neural basis of emotional experience and expression. He investigates the topic with a number of methods including self-report, measurement of nonverbal behavior, comparative ethology, psychopharmacology, and neuroimaging. His long-term goal is to understand the neurochemical and neuroanatomical mechanisms responsible for emotional experience, and to explore the implications of these findings for the assessment and treatment of clinical disorders as well as for economic behavior. He received BAs in experimental psychology and comparative religion from Trinity University, a PhD in experimental psychology from Stanford University, and has conducted postdoctoral research in affective neuroscience at UC-San Francisco and at the National Institutes of Health. He is a fellow of the Academy for Behavioral Medicine Research and the Association for Psychological Science, and his research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and numerous private foundations.

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Research

Symbiotic Project on Affective Neuroscience (SPANlab)

NeuroChoice

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Writing

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Teaching

Winter 2024: Judgment and Decision Making

Spring 2023: Brain and Decision

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