Karin Jensen

Karin Jensen

Professor
Telephone: +46852482775
Visiting address: Nobels väg 9, D3, 17165 Solna
Postal address: K8 Klinisk neurovetenskap, K8 Neuro Jensen, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • I am a clinical psychologist and neuroscientist specializing in the human perception of pain, placebo effects and long-term pain conditions. I lead an interdisciplinary research group at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience (CNS) at Karolinska Institutet.

    My scientific goal is to understand the cognitive mechanisms and brain pathways involved in the generation and regulation of pain in humans.

    Faculty positions


    2023 - now.....Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
    2019 - 2023...Associate Professor, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
    2014 - 2019....Assistant Professor, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
    2013 - 2017.....Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School / Mass General Hospital, Boston, USA

    Postdoctoral education


    2010 - 2013.....Postdoctoral fellow, Harvard Medical School / Mass General Hospital, Boston, USA



    Other merits

    2022 - now.....Deputy Head, Neuro Division, CNS, Karolinska Institutet

    2026 - now.....Chair, KI Pain Network

    2026 - now ....Board Member, Swedish Society for Neuroscience (SSFN)

    2015 - 2023....Board Member, International Society for Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies (SIPS)

    2022 - 2022...Visiting Professor, University of Oxford, UK
    2021 - 2026....Board Member, Strategic Research Area Neuro (StratNeuro)
    2019 - 2025....Pro Futura Fellow, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS), Sweden

    Education


    Doctoral education
    2005 - 2009...PhD Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden


    Basic education
    2000 - 2005...MSc Clinical Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

Research

  • To understand the cognitive mechanisms and brain pathways involved in the generation and regulation of pain in humans.

Teaching

  • Currently teaching

    Medical Program
    2021 - now....Cognitive Neuroscience, Basvetenskap 4, Modul 4, Karolinska Institutet

    PhD-course
    2022 - now....The Science of the Placebo Effect, Karolinska Institutet

Selected publications

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2026 - 31 December 2028
    Misinformed mindsets about stress and illness can lead to harmful behaviors like avoidance, conspiracy ideation, or vaccine hesitancy. This project will develop and test a novel Stress-Sickness Mindset (SSM) intervention to reframe acute stress and sickness responses (e.g., fatigue or fever) as adaptive signals of a healthy immune response. The SSM intervention (a ~45-minute online program) combines growth mindset principles with education about brain-immune interactoins, emphasizing the benefits of stress responses and illness symptoms to build resilience and immunity. We will conduct three studies to evaluate SSM effects versus a control intervention: (1) an experimental inflammatory challenge using a (bacterial) endotoxin model in 60 healthy volunteers, (2) a COVID-19 vaccination study in 120 participants, and (3) an application to 60 individuals who remain unvaccinated (to address vaccine hesitancy). Key outcomes include emotional responses (anxiety, stress, symptom appraisal), biological responses (inflammatory markers, cortisol, norepinephrine, antibody levels), and behavioral attitudes (mindset change, willingness to vaccinate). The project is interdisciplinary, bridging psychology with immunology and public health. If successful, it will show that shifting mindsets can improve physiological resilience to immune challenges and increase trust in vaccines, offering a scalable new tool to bolster public health.
  • Finding treatment targets through a new understanding of the link between neural plasticity and cognitive mechanisms in chronic pain
    Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2024 - 1 January 2027
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2024 - 31 December 2026
    Chronic pain is a major health problem, and many patients suffer from pain in absence of any clear tissue- or nerve damage. Instead, their pain can be caused by abnormal regulation of nociceptive signals – called nociplastic pain.  The purpose of this 4-year project is to determine the association between pain and cognitive factors in the development and maintenance of nociplastic pain in humans. The goal is to identify modifiable aspects of the pain-cognition interaction that can be applied in the clinic. We will perform longitudinal assessments of the interaction between chronic nociplastic pain and specific aspects of cognition, and its manifestations in the brain.During year 1 & 2, large-scale longitudinal data will be collected, measuring pain symptoms and cognition in patients with fibromyalgia pain and healthy controls. A subsample of patients will perform weekly fMRI scans (8 weeks) to determine neural fluctuations that correlate to pain and cognitive functioning. During year 3 & 4, in silico modelling will be applied to our fMRI data to extend the neuroimaging findings with computational modelling of treatment targets.This proposal will provide new knowledge about the significant variation and unpredictability that exists in the lived experience of pain. It will uncover shared mechanisms between pain, cognition and brain function over time and aim to identify targets for therapy and prevention of chronic pain.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2023 - 30 November 2026
    Suicide is the leading cause of death for ages 10-19 years in Sweden. The most reliable predictor of suicide is self-harm (including suicide attempts). Decades of research have failed to produce reliable assessments of risk factors for self-harm that could be applied with confidence in the clinic. Further, few evidence-based out-patient treatments for self-harm exist to date. Instead, involuntary care is increasingly used in this population, despite evidence indicating that it may worsen prognosis. Two studies will be conducted. Study 1 aims to identify clinically applicable risk factors of self-harm and Study 2 is a randomized clinical trial for youth who self-harm. Study 1 will for the first time assess youth at risk of self-harm prospectively (aged 12 to 14 years) at two timepoints: pre onset of self-harm and at follow-up. Participants will be assessed using a range of psychophysiological, cognitive, and psychosocial measures, with a particular focus on pain-sensitivity. Identified individuals with self-harm will be included in a parallel randomized controlled trial (total N=200) of a cognitive behavioral family treatment targeting risk factors for self-harm and suicide, compared to an active control group. By identifying clinically applicable risk factors and evaluating a potentially effective out-patient intervention, this project aims to reduce the need for involuntary care and prevent suicide in youth.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2021 - 30 November 2025
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2021 - 31 December 2023
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2020 - 31 December 2022
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2020 - 31 December 2022
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2017 - 31 December 2019
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2014 - 31 December 2017
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2011 - 31 December 2014

Employments

  • Professor, Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, 2023-

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2019
  • Degree Of Doctor Of Philosophy, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, 2009

Supervision

  • Supervision to doctoral degree

    • Moa Pontén, Testing the boundaries for expectation effects in health and disease, 2022

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