Kalliopi IoumpaArtScienceArt & ResearchCounselling & TherapyAgendaAbout


 
          
I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam within the interdisciplinary META-MUSEUM Horizon Europe project, studying the transformative impact of art and cultural heritage on human experience using neural, postural, and physiological measures through collaborations spanning different fields such as museum studies, cultural heritage and digital humanities.

To date, my scientific research has primarily focused on the relationship between empathy, affect, and prosocial behavior, learning under moral conflict, and the influence of authoritarian power on agency, responsibility, and empathy. Next to understanding these mechanisms at behavioral and neural levels, I am concerned with the role of art in promoting social cognition. I am invested in artistic research and have a special interest in the transfer of methods and practices between fields.


RESEARCH POSITIONS

Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Behavioral and Movement Sciences, Vrije University Amsterdam, Netherlands

Postdoctoral Researcher
Moral and Social Brain Lab, Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium


SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION

PhD
Social Brain Lab, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science, Netherlands
University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Master
MSc Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University of Nijmegen, Netherlands

Bachelor
BSc Molecular Biology and Genetics Democritus University of Thrace, Greece


ART EDUCATION

Bachelor
BA     Fine Arts and Design (Honors), Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Unstable Media Department, Amsterdam, Netherlands


PUBLICATIONS

Westerberg, J., Daemen, G., Feenstra, E., Gulbinaite, R., Ioumpa, K., Klink, P., Sheikh Abdirashid, S. (2025), Close Encounters with Art of Neuroscience, The Journal of Neuroscience, 45.9

Chen, J., Putkinen, V., Seppälä, K., Hirvonen, J., Ioumpa, K., Gazzola, V., Keysers, C. & Nummenmaa, L. (2024), Endogenous opioid receptor system mediates costly altruism in humans. Communications Biology, 7(1), 1401.

Ioumpa, K., Gallo, S., Keysers, C., & Gazzola, V. (2024). Neural mechanisms of costly helping in the general population and mirror-pain synesthetes. Scientific Reports, 14.

* first author equal contribution
Fornari, L.*, Ioumpa, K.*, Nostro, A. D., Evans, N. J., De Angelis, L., Speer, S. P., ... & Gazzola, V. (2023). Neuro-computational mechanisms and individual biases in action-outcome learning under moral conflict. Nature Communications, 14(1), 1218.

Sun, R., Balabanova, A., ..., Ioumpa, K., ..., Bajada, C. J., & Pavarini, G. (2023). Emotional experiences and psychological wellbeing in 51 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Emotion.

* first author equal contribution
Caspar, E. A.*, Ioumpa, K.*, Arnaldo, I., Di Angelis, L., Gazzola, V., & Keysers, C. (2022).

* first author equal contribution
Soyman, E.*, Bruls, R.*, Ioumpa, K.*, Müller-Pinzler, L., Gallo, S., Qin, C., ... & Gazzola, V. (2022). Intracranial human recordings reveal association between neural activity and perceived intensity for the pain of others in the insula. Elife, 11, e75197.

* first author equal contribution
Caspar, E. A.*, Ioumpa, K.*, Keysers, C., & Gazzola, V. (2020). Obeying orders reduces vicarious brain activation towards victims’ pain. NeuroImage, 222, 117251.

Ioumpa, K., Graham, S. A., Clausner, T., Fisher, S. E., Van Lier, R., & Van Leeuwen, T. M. (2019). Enhanced self reported affect and prosocial behaviour without differential physiological responses in mirror-sensory synaesthesia. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 374(1787), 20190395.


SELECTED MEDIA AND PUBLIC OUTREACH