Brain and Mind Research Team
TEAM INTRODUCTION
Team Leader
Makiko YAMADA Ph.D.
Our team focuses on the elucidation of the neuromolecular mechanisms of cognitive biases associated with psychiatric disorders, such as depression, schizophrenia, and dissociative disorder. Brain and mind team engages in the following projects.
RESEARCH INTRODUCTION
Interdisciplinary research about human cognitive functions and neural mechanisms to understand the abnormal subjective experiences associated with psychiatric symptoms.
1. Quantification of cognitive biases associated with psychiatric symptoms
By employing interdisciplinary experimental approaches, using psychophysics and neuroimaging tools, 1) we quantify the cognitive biases, such as pessimistic biases observed in depression and confirmation biases in schizophrenia, and 2) investigate the neural mechanisms of cognitive biases in humans.
2. Cognitive neuroscientific evaluation of drug efficacy
We aim to establish a new scientific approach to evaluate drug efficacy objectively, using cognitive psychological methods and the functional network analyses. At the same time, we investigate the cognitive and neural mechanisms of placebo and nocebo effects.
3. Neuroscience of subjective experience and self-awareness
Here, we focus on the biological bases of the self-awareness, self-reference, meta-cognition, and embodiment to describe the nature of human being, by applying cognitive neuroscientific, theoretical, and computational approaches.
PNAS 2013
Sci Rep 2017
Nat Commun 2012
