Emotion & empathy
How affective information shapes attention, choice, social connection, and care.
Affective neuroscience · Seoul
Mapping the emotional brain—from signals to social intelligence.
I am a Research Professor at Korea University investigating how emotion and empathy emerge across the brain, body, and our interactions with intelligent systems.
Emotion is both a biological signal and a social language.
§ 01 · About
An interdisciplinary view of how we feel, connect, and care.
My work brings together affective neuroscience, clinical research, engineering, and human–AI interaction. I use multimodal neuroimaging, psychophysiology, and non-invasive brain stimulation to study human emotion, empathy, and mood disorders.
Across these methods, one question stays central: how can individual biological signals help us understand—and build technologies that better support—social and emotional life?
- 2018—Now
- Research Professor
Korea University - 60+
- Peer-reviewed
publications - 3
- Current projects
as Principal Investigator - Seoul
- Republic
of Korea
§ 02 · Research
Four connected threads.
Studying affect across neural circuits, physiology, behaviour, and technology.
Neuroimaging & plasticity
Brain structure, connectivity, and change in empathy, mood, and clinical populations.
Neuromodulation & physiology
Vagal and electrical stimulation, autonomic regulation, EEG, and embodied signals.
Affective human–AI interaction
Emotion-aware robotics, digital mental health, and socially intelligent AI systems.
§ 03 · Selected publications
Recent work.
Association Between White Matter Tract Microstructure and Cognitive, Affective, and Somatic Empathy in Children
June Christoph Kang
Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation increases empathic choice toward outgroup negative emotions
June Christoph Kang
The Tachikoma Effect: Aggregation of Independent Agents Aligns LLM Collectives with Majority Human Moral Judgment
June Christoph Kang
Emotion Ontology from the Perspective of Developmental Robotics: A Review
June Christoph Kang
Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions in Digital Mental Health Care: A Framework for Psychiatric Conditions
June Christoph Kang
Diffusion indices alteration in major white matter tracts of children with tic disorder using TRACULA
Kang, Chi, Mok, Kim, Kim & Lee
§ 04 · Experience
Research, funding & teaching.
Current research
Socially Intelligent Edge Language Models
Principal Investigator · National IT Industry Promotion Agency
Empathic AI via Artificial Mirror Neuron Networks
Principal Investigator · National Research Foundation of Korea
Decision to Care
Principal Investigator · National Research Foundation of Korea
Academic appointments
Research Professor
Brain & Cognitive Engineering · Korea University
Lecturer in Neuroimaging
Data Science · Hanyang University
Lecturer in Social & Affective Neuroscience
Psychology · Yonsei University
Education
Ph.D. Biomedical Science
Korea University
M.A. Clinical Psychology
Korea University
B.A. Psychology
Korea University
§ 05 · Contact
Let’s explore what emotion can tell us.
Research collaborations and interdisciplinary conversations are always welcome.
cnsla@korea.ac.kr ↗