Researchers now identify separate neural pathways in the mouse brain that are active during the social transfer of fear and pain, offering a new look at the neurobiological roots of empathy.

Marlene Cohen has been named the 2012 Grand Prize winner in the international competition for The Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology. She is being recognized for her outstanding research contributions into the neural basis of internal mental states.

“We‘ve known for a long time that our internal state, what’s going on inside our heads, affects everything about what we perceive and how we interact with the world,” said Cohen, an assistant professor in the