India Morrison

Research

The Morrison Lab

The Morrison Lab: Embodied Brain Lab investigates emotional and social aspects of both touch and pain, and how these influence - and are influenced by - behavior.

Publications

2026

Arnas Tamasauskas, Irene Perini, Jan Minde, Simon S. Keller, Nicholas Fallon, Bernhard Frank, India Morrison, Andrew Marshall (2026)

White matter differences in motor and affective-motivational networks of pain-indifferent carriers of the R221W mutation NEUROBIOLOGY OF PAIN, Vol. 20, Article 100211 (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ynpai.2026.100211

2025

Madeleine R. Jones, Aurelia Daniels, Kajsa Igelström, Juulia Suvilehto, India Morrison (2025)

Tingle-Eliciting Audiovisual Properties of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) Videos Multisensory Research, Vol. 38, p. 427-452 (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22134808-bja10159

Marta Vigier, Andreas. R. Schwerdtfeger, India Morrison (2025)

Heart rate increases during social isolation: Matter of depressive mood and self-reported infection symptoms Biological Psychology, Vol. 197, Article 109041 (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109041

Madeleine Jones, Connor James Haggarty, Gavin N. Petrie, Abigail R. Lunge, India Morrison, Matthew N. Hill, Markus Heilig, Leah Mayo (2025)

Endocannabinoid contributions to the perception of socially relevant, affective touch in humans Neuropsychopharmacology, Vol. 50, p. 849-855 (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41386-025-02053-y

2024

Hanna Molla, Giovanni Novembre, Anya Bershad, Linda Handlin, Irene Perini, Harriet de Wit, India Morrison (2024)

MDMA modulates human sensorimotor cortical pathways during gentle touch Imaging Neuroscience, Vol. 2, Article imag_a_00316 (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1162/imag_a_00316

News

The Morrison Lab: The Embodied Brain Lab.

The brain reacts differently to touch depending on context

The touch of another person may increase levels of the “feelgood” hormone oxytocin. But the context really matters. The situation impacts oxytocin levels not only in the moment, but also later, as is shown in a new study.

The award winner: “A window to the secret processes in the brain”

India Morrison, senior associate professor in cognitive neuroscience, has won the Onkel Adam Award for her outstanding research at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. One of her research areas is how touch and pain affect our behaviour.

SEK 35 million for research at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Four LiU researchers will receive a total of SEK 18 million in project grants from the Swedish Research Council within humanities and social sciences. A further SEK 17 million has been awarded to a research environment in migration and integration.

The Olausson Lab

Human touch is a powerful way of evoking emotions. What is the functional significance of the system for ultrafast nociceptors that we recently discovered? How does the nervous system distinguish social and self-touch? Our lab is looking for answers.

Image of molecules that will take you to WCMM's homepage.

Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine at LiU

WCMM at LiU focuses on the medicine-technology interface, and build upon our existing strengths in research within medical technology, materials science and bioengineering.

Organisation

A researcher is looking at encased samples in a lab.

Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience - CSAN

Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience (CSAN) integrates knowledge and methodology from different areas of basic and clinical neuroscience.

Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences (BKV)

What characterizes the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences (BKV) is the wide breadth of research and education. BKV is one of the largest departments at LiU with affiliation mainly to the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.