Director, Deputy Director,
independent members & members on loan

Independent members

  • Prime Senior Researcher: Masataka Goto, Ph.D.
  • Chief Senior Researcher: Ryohei P. Hasegawa, Ph.D.
  • Chief Senior Researcher: Takanori Shibata, Ph.D.
  • Senior Researcher: Satoshi Hirano, Ph.D.
  • Senior Researcher: Norio Nakamura, Ph.D.

Members on loan

  • Hidehiko Komine, Ph.D.
  • Nana Itoh, Ph.D.
  • Yoshikazu Seki, Ph.D.
  • Hiroshi Endo, Ph.D.
  • Kosuke Kaida, Ph.D.
  • Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Ph.D.

Mental and Physical Functions Modeling Group

  • Leader: Kenta Kimura, Ph.D.
This figure shows establishing techniques to evaluate cognitive aging, techniques to predict emotional states and their application to design better products/services, and techniques to assess human-to -human cognitive interaction, by building the quantitative model of mental/physical fitness through analyzing the neuro-cognitive measures, physiological data, and behavioral data obtained in daily life, based on the data science technologies

Mental and Physical Functions Modeling Group (MPFMG) focuses on developing techniques to evaluate mental and physical fitness by integrating neurocognitive measures such as EEG/(f)MRI, physiological data from cardiovascular systems (EEG etc.), and behavioral data acquired in daily life with data science technologies. Our research area includes neuro-behavioral studies of cognitive aging, human emotional processing, and human-to-human communication. We also conduct research to apply our findings to improve quality-of-life of elderly people, to support better products and/or service design, and to understand human-to-human cognitive interaction.

Mathematical Neuroscience Research Group

  • Leader: Narihisa Matsumoto, Ph.D.
This figure shows the research flow of brain data, data analysis, neural network model, and brain-inspired artificial intelligence.

Brain can perform complex information processing tasks such as pattern recognition and learning more flexibly than existent technologies. The aims of this group are to elucidate the mechnisms underlying information processing in the brain by analyzing brain data with mathematical methods like machine learning or sparse modeling, and to develop a brain-inspired artificial intelligence. Furhermore, these methods and models are analyzed by mathematical methods to mesuare their performance limit and generalization performance.

Neurorehabilitation Research Group

  • Leader: Noriyuki Higo, Ph.D.
This figure shows the research concept of Neurorehabilitation Research Group. The cyclic cooperation among basic brain research using animal models and developments of both evaluation and intervention technologies contributes to the clinical applications.

Neurorehabilitation, which takes into account evidence of the brain's capacity for reorganization, has received attention to ensure maximal functional recovery from brain damage caused by stroke. We are developing innovative neurorehabilitation technologies on the basis of scientific evidences mainly obtained from basic brain research using animals. Our project has three main components: study of brain reorganization that underlies functional recovery after stroke, and development of devices to monitor brain activity during rehabilitative training, and development of intervention methods to promote brain reorganization.

Integrative Neuroscience Research Group

  • Leader: Yasuko Sugase-Miyamoto, Ph.D.
This figure shows neural circuits in the brain and the function of the circuits, for example cognition, learning, motor, and action. Neural circuits that transmit electrical signals and those that deliver chemical signals are illustrated.
Neural mechanisms underlying cognition and behavior
and their practical use

The brain is composed of highly structured neural circuits arranged both in parallel and hierarchical, and both electrical and chemical signals play critical roles in information processing within and across the circuits. Our group is working toward understanding the physiological, molecular biological and anatomical aspects of the brain function including cognition, learning, motor, and more complex behaviors such as social behavior. Our aim is to provide basic research findings and to innovate neuroscience methods for developing techniques that assist information processing and for advancing artificial intelligence technologies.

Physiological System Research Group

  • Leader: Jun Sugawara, Ph.D.
This figure is explained by the following text body.

The mission of research group is to develop technologies that can sustain and improve Quality-of-Life and Wellness of people, including children and older adults with various health conditions. To accomplish our goal, we accumulate and integrate deep knowledge of human's central (e.g., cognitive) and peripheral (e.g., autonomic, cardiorespiratory, physical, and sensory) functions, which consequently becomes the foundation of innovative technologies that we implement our discoveries to the society.

Behavior Information Design Group

  • Leader: Yukari Tanikawa, Ph.D.
This figure shows that safety and convenience improvement, design of information and environment, consideration for elderly and disabled, create database and standardization are conducted by the human property where visual and auditory information reflect walk, drive, gesture, service etc.

The Behavior Information Design Research Group will elucidate the dynamic sensory characteristics of the human beings and their effects on behavior. We aim to contribute to a society where various people, including the elderly and the disabled, can live safely, actively and happily.

Media Interaction Group

  • Leader: Masahiro Hamasaki, Ph.D.

The Media Interaction Group targets a variety of media content (music, video, text, user activities, physical devices, etc.) and conducts research on media interaction technologies that can enrich people's life. In particular, our group aims to promote content creation and utilization and enhance the creativity of the society by bridging the gap between creators and consumers. Toward this goal, we develop value-creation support technologies that facilitate content creation by complementing knowledge, experience, and technique of creators. We also develop value-enhancement support technologies that provide consumers with various means of appreciation, retrieval, recommendation, and browsing. These media technologies and interaction technologies demand a broad range of basic and applied research. We conduct research on music information processing, singing information processing, human-computer interaction, web services, signal processing, machine learning, retrieval and recommendation, computer graphics and animation, visualization and auralization, crowdsourcing, community analysis and support, large-scale data processing, etc.