Dr. Fumihiro Kano
IMPRS Faculty
Main Focus
I am interested in the evolutionary origin of
social intelligence, and particularly the study of animal social cognition in
naturalistic situations. I study this mainly through observation of gaze, as
the direction of attention reveals a great deal of mental process in both human
and nonhuman animals. I am working with a range of phylogenetically closely and
more distantly related species; all species of great apes (including humans), and
recently monkeys (Japanese monkeys) and birds (pigeons and crows). In MPI-AB and CASCB, building on my experiences utilizing
cutting-edge sensor technologies to study animal cognition, my group will
develop new paradigms studying social interactions of both human and nonhuman
animals using the newly built motion-capture systems in combination with
gaze-tracking technologies.
Curriculum Vitae
I obtained my PhD at Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan. I did my post-doc at Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. I then became a project-specific assistant (later, associate) professor at Kumamoto Sanctuary, Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University. During this period, I was also a visiting researcher at University of Oxford. From 2021, I am a junior group leader at the Center for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior, University of Konstanz.