Jaak Panksepp, Ph.D. Professor and Baily Endowed Chair of Animal Well-Being Science, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University.
His scientific contributions include more than 400 papers devoted to the study of basic emotional and motivational processes of the mammalian brain. His recent work has focused primarily on the subcortical brain mechanisms of sadness (separation distress) and joy (play and animal laughter), work that has implications for the treatment of depression and ADHD. His work is informed by exploring the consequences of basic knowledge about emotional endophenotypes for better understanding of human mental health. His monograph Affective Neuroscience (Oxford, 1998) outlined ways to understand brain affective processes neuroscientifically;Textbook of Biological Psychiatry (Wiley, 2004) focused on how elucidation of emotional processes can facilitate psychiatric practice; and Archaeology of Mind (Norton, 2012) summarized how how such knowledge can inform psychotherapeutic practice.