Research activity information

• Oct. 2022 Kobe University, President's award (financial contribution)


• Apr. 2016 Nanyang Associate Professorship, Nanyang assistant professorship

  Kitada Ryo


• 2015 The Japanese Psychological Association, JPA Awards for International Contributions to Psychology

  Kitada Ryo

• Functional relevance of the extrastriate body area for visual and haptic object recognition: a preregistered fMRI-guided TMS study

  Hicret Atilgan, Janice J X Koi, Ern Wong, Ilkka Laakso, Noora Matilainen, Achille Pasqualotto, Satoshi Tanaka, Annabel S H Chen, Ryo Kitada

  Abstract The extrastriate body area (EBA) is a region in the lateral occipito-temporal cortex which is sensitive to perceived body parts. Neuroimaging studies suggested that EBA is related to body and tool processing, regardless of the sensory modalities. However, how essential this region is for visual tool processing and non-visual object processing remains a matter of controversy. In this preregistered fMRI-guided repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) study, we examined the causal involvement of EBA in multisensory body and tool recognition. Participants used either vision or haptics to identify three object categories: hands, teapots (tools), and cars (control objects). Continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) was applied over left EBA, right EBA, or vertex (control site). Performance for visually perceived hands and teapots (relative to cars) was more strongly disrupted by cTBS over left EBA than over the vertex, whereas no such object-specific effect was observed in haptics. The simulation of the induced electric fields confirmed that the cTBS affected regions including EBA. These results indicate that the lateral occipito-temporal cortex is functionally relevant for visual hand and tool processing, while the rTMS over EBA may differently affect object recognition between the two sensory modalities.

  Oxford University Press ({OUP}), Apr. 2023, Cerebral Cortex Communications, English

  Scientific journal

  Link to Kobe Univ. Repository (Kernel)


• The Effect of Temperature on Tactile Softness Perception

  Zheng Yee Tan, Cameron Mavericks Choo, Youneng Lin, Hsin-Ni Ho, Ryo Kitada

  Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Jul. 2022, IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 1 - 8

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Japanese Sound-Symbolic Words for Representing the Hardness of an Object Are Judged Similarly by Japanese and English Speakers

  Li Shan Wong, Jinhwan Kwon, Zane Zheng, Suzy J. Styles, Maki Sakamoto, Ryo Kitada

  Contrary to the assumption of arbitrariness in modern linguistics, sound symbolism, which is the non-arbitrary relationship between sounds and meanings, exists. Sound symbolism, including the “Bouba–Kiki” effect, implies the universality of such relationships; individuals from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds can similarly relate sound-symbolic words to referents, although the extent of these similarities remains to be fully understood. Here, we examined if subjects from different countries could similarly infer the surface texture properties from words that sound-symbolically represent hardness in Japanese. We prepared Japanese sound-symbolic words of which novelty was manipulated by a genetic algorithm (GA). Japanese speakers in Japan and English speakers in both Singapore and the United States rated these words based on surface texture properties (hardness, warmness, and roughness), as well as familiarity. The results show that hardness-related words were rated as harder and rougher than softness-related words, regardless of novelty and countries. Multivariate analyses of the ratings classified the hardness-related words along the hardness-softness dimension at over 80% accuracy, regardless of country. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the number of speech sounds /g/ and /k/ predicted the ratings of the surface texture properties in non-Japanese countries, suggesting a systematic relationship between phonetic features of a word and perceptual quality represented by the word across culturally and linguistically diverse samples.

  Frontiers Media {SA}, Mar. 2022, Frontiers in Psychology, 13

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal

  Link to Kobe Univ. Repository (Kernel)


• Coexistence of sensory qualities and value representations in human orbitofrontal cortex.

  Takaaki Yoshimoto, Shuntaro Okazaki, Motofumi Sumiya, Haruka K Takahashi, Eri Nakagawa, Takahiko Koike, Ryo Kitada, Shiki Okamoto, Masanori Nakata, Toshihiko Yada, Hirotaka Kosaka, Norihiro Sadato, Junichi Chikazoe

  Despite the multiple regions and neural networks associated with value-based decision-making, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is possible a particularly important one. Although the role of the OFC in reinforcer devaluation tasks, which assess the ability to represent identity, sensory qualities, and subjective values of the expected outcomes, has been established, the specific aspect represented in this area remains unclear. In this study, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, wherein participants rated the palatability of 128 food items using photographs, we investigated whether the human OFC represents object identity, sensory qualities, or value. Employing many items helped us dissociate object identity from sensory qualities and values; the inferred sensory qualities of identical items were manipulated by a change in metabolic state. Moreover, value differences between items were analytically controlled by employing a technique similar to age adjustment. The palatability ratings for food items significantly decreased after a meal. Using representational similarity analysis, we confirmed that the OFC represents value. Moreover, identical items were represented similarly in the lateral OFC in a given metabolic state; however, these representations were altered post-feeding. Importantly, this change was not explained by subjective value, suggesting that the OFC represents sensory quality and value, but not object identity.

  Feb. 2022, Neuroscience research, English, International magazine

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Multisensory integration and its plasticity – How do innate and postnatal factors contribute to forming individual differences?

  Ryo Kitada, Norihiro Sadato

  Elsevier {BV}, Dec. 2021, Cortex, 145, A1 - A4, English

  [Invited]

  Scientific journal

  Link to Kobe Univ. Repository (Kernel)


• Importance of the early visual cortex and the lateral occipito-temporal cortex for the self-hand specific perspective process

  Yuko Okamoto, Ryo Kitada, Takanori Kochiyama, Motohide Miyahara, Hiroaki Naruse, Norihiro Sadato, Hidehiko Okazawa, Hirotaka Kosaka

  Elsevier {BV}, Dec. 2021, Neuroimage: Reports, 1(4) (4), 100046 - 100046, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Physical correlates of human-like softness elicit high tactile pleasantness.

  Ryo Kitada, Megan Ng, Zheng Yee Tan, Xue Er Lee, Takanori Kochiyama

  Touching an object can elicit affective sensations. Because these sensations are critical for social interaction, tactile preferences may be adapted to the characteristics of the human body. We have previously shown that compliance, a physical correlate of softness, increased the tactile pleasantness of a deformable surface. However, the extent to which object compliance similar to the human body elicits tactile pleasantness remains unknown. We addressed this question by using a wide range of compliances and by measuring the distribution of compliance of human body parts. The participants numerically estimated the perceived pleasantness or softness while pushing tactile stimuli with their right index fingers. The perceived softness monotonically increased with increasing compliance and then leveled off around the end of the stimulus range. By contrast, pleasantness showed an inverse U pattern as a function of compliance, reaching the maximum between 5 and 7 mm/N. This range of compliance was within that for both hand and arm. These results indicate that objects with similar compliance levels as those of human body parts yield the highest pleasantness when pushing them.

  Aug. 2021, Scientific reports, 11(1) (1), 16510 - 16510, English, International magazine

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal

  Link to Kobe Univ. Repository (Kernel)


• The extrastriate body area is involved in reciprocal imitation of hand gestures, vocalizations, and facial expressions: A univariate and multivariate fMRI study.

  Yuko Okamoto, Ryo Kitada, Hiroki C Tanabe, Akihiro T Sasaki, Takanori Kochiyama, Noriaki Yahata, Norihiro Sadato

  The extrastriate body area (EBA) in the lateral occipito-temporal cortex has an important role in reciprocal interaction, as it detects congruence between self and other's hand actions. However, it is unclear whether the EBA can detect congruence regardless of the type of action. In the present study, we examined the neural substrate underlying congruence detection of three types of actions: hand gestures, vocalizations, and facial expressions. A univariate analysis revealed a congruency effect, especially for imitating action, for all three types of actions in the EBA. A multi-voxel pattern analysis classifier in the EBA was able to distinguish between initiating interaction from responding to interaction in all experiments. Correspondingly, the congruency effect in the EBA revealed by univariate analysis was stronger for responding to than for initiating interaction. These findings suggest that the EBA might contribute to detect congruence regardless of the body part used (i.e. face or hand) and the type of action (i.e. gestural or vocal). Moreover, initiating and responding to interaction might be processed differently within the EBA. This study highlights the role of the EBA in comparing between self and other's actions beyond hand actions.Running head: Function of EBA in reciprocal imitation.

  Aug. 2021, Social neuroscience, 16(4) (4), 448 - 465, English, International magazine

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Brain networks underlying the processing of sound symbolism related to softness perception.

  Ryo Kitada, Jinhwan Kwon, Ryuichi Doizaki, Eri Nakagawa, Tsubasa Tanigawa, Hiroyuki Kajimoto, Norihiro Sadato, Maki Sakamoto

  Unlike the assumption of modern linguistics, there is non-arbitrary association between sound and meaning in sound symbolic words. Neuroimaging studies have suggested the unique contribution of the superior temporal sulcus to the processing of sound symbolism. However, because these findings are limited to the mapping between sound symbolism and visually presented objects, the processing of sound symbolic information may also involve the sensory-modality dependent mechanisms. Here, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment to test whether the brain regions engaged in the tactile processing of object properties are also involved in mapping sound symbolic information with tactually perceived object properties. Thirty-two healthy subjects conducted a matching task in which they judged the congruency between softness perceived by touch and softness associated with sound symbolic words. Congruency effect was observed in the orbitofrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, insula, medial superior frontal gyrus, cingulate gyrus, and cerebellum. This effect in the insula and medial superior frontal gyri was overlapped with softness-related activity that was separately measured in the same subjects in the tactile experiment. These results indicate that the insula and medial superior frontal gyrus play a role in processing sound symbolic information and relating it to the tactile softness information.

  Apr. 2021, Scientific reports, 11(1) (1), 7399 - 7399, English, International magazine

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal

  Link to Kobe Univ. Repository (Kernel)


• Tactile perception of pleasantness in relation to perceived softness.

  Achille Pasqualotto, Megan Ng, Zheng Yee Tan, Ryo Kitada

  The sense of touch allows us to infer objects' physical properties, while the same input also produces affective sensations. These affective sensations are important for interpersonal relationships and personal well-being, which raises the possibility that tactile preferences are adapted to the characteristics of the skin. Previous studies examined how physical properties such as surface roughness and temperature influence affective sensations; however, little is known about the effect of compliance (physical correlate of softness) on pleasantness. Thus, we investigated the psychophysical link between softness and pleasantness. Pieces of human skin-like rubber with different compliances were pressed against participants' fingers. Two groups of participants numerically estimated the perceived magnitude of either pleasantness or softness. The perceived magnitude of pleasantness and softness both increased monotonically as a function of increasing object compliance, levelling off at around the end of the stimulus range. However, inter-subject variability was greater for pleasantness than for perceived softness, whereas the slope of the linear function fit to the magnitude estimates was steeper for softness than for pleasantness. These results indicate that object compliance is a critical physical determinant for pleasantness, whereas the effect of compliance on pleasantness was more variable among individuals than the effect on softness was.

  Jul. 2020, Scientific reports, 10(1) (1), 11189 - 11189, English, International magazine

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• The effect of object compliance on the velvet hand illusion

  Pasqualotto A, Jia Yin C, Ohka M, Kitada R

  Movement of a grid of bars between the two hands creates the tactile illusion of a velvet-like material, namely, the velvet hand illusion (VHI). It was recently proposed that the VHI is caused by a masking effect; bar movement suppresses conscious perception of tactile inputs from the opposing hand. If this hypothesis sufficiently explains the VHI, the physical properties of the opposing hand should not affect the illusion. Another hypothesis suggests that the integration of inputs from the grid of bars and the hands plays a critical role in the VHI. To compare these two hypotheses, the VHI was elicited under two conditions; the grid of bars was between one hand and a soft texture or the grid of bars was between one hand and a hard texture. A hand was stimulated by moving bars while contacting the stationary texture held by the opposing hand. The grid of bars with the soft texture induced a stronger illusion and softer feeling than that with the hard texture. This result supports the integration hypothesis in which tactile inputs from both bars and textures attached to the opposing hand are integrated.

  Jul. 2020, IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 13(3) (3), 571 - 577, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Differences between children and adults in functional connectivity between the inferior frontal gyrus and extrastriate body area for gestural interaction.

  Yuko Okamoto, Ryo Kitada, Ayumi Seki, Hisakazu Yanaka, Takanori Kochiyama, Tatsuya Koeda

  Gestural interaction, where a person initiates interaction (initiator) and another person responds to it (follower), changes during development. The neural network comprising the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), inferior parietal lobule (IPL), and the lateral occipito-temporal cortex (LOTC) is relevant to gestural interaction. The LOTC includes the extrastriate body area (EBA). Activation of these brain regions depends on the initiating/following role in adults. We conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging study on 18 children and 18 adults, to elucidate developmental changes of the neural mechanism underlying gestural interaction. We manipulated the initiating/following role (initiating/following) and congruency (congruent/incongruent) of executed and observed actions. After analyzing regional brain activity, we assessed psycho-physiological interaction to examine functional connectivity. Activation in the IFG and connectivity between the IFG and EBA in the Initiating rather than Following condition, which might be associated with evaluating social relevance, was stronger in adults than in children. The increase of the incongruency effect in the following condition (relative to the initiating condition) in the bilateral IPL was significantly attenuated in children compared with adults. These results suggest that the fronto-parieto-temporal network, involved in gestural interactions, undergoes developmental changes.

  Jun. 2020, Social neuroscience, 15(3) (3), 311 - 323, English, International magazine

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Visual Body Part Representation in the Lateral Occipitotemporal Cortex in Children/Adolescents and Adults.

  Yuko Okamoto, Ryo Kitada, Takanori Kochiyama, Hiroaki Naruse, Kai Makita, Motohide Miyahara, Hidehiko Okazawa, Hirotaka Kosaka

  The lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC) that responds to human bodies and body parts has been implicated in social development and neurodevelopmental disorders like autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Neuroimaging studies using a representational similarity analysis (RSA) revealed that body representation in the LOTC of typically developing (TD) adults is categorized into 3 clusters: action effector body parts, noneffector body parts, and face parts. However, its organization of younger people (i.e., children and adolescents) and its association with individual traits remain unclear. In this functional MRI study, TD adults and children/adolescents observed photographs of hands, feet, arms, legs, chests, waists, upper/lower faces, the whole body, and chairs. The univariate analysis showed that fewer child/adolescent participants showed left LOTC activation in response to whole-body images (relative to those of chairs) than adult participants. Contrastingly, the RSA on both age groups revealed a comparable body representation with 3 clusters of body parts in the bilateral LOTC. Hence, this result indicates that, although response to whole-body images can differ, LOTC body part representations for children/ adolescents and adults are highly similar. Furthermore, sensory atypicality is associated with spatial LOTC organization, suggesting the importance of this region for understanding individual difference, which is frequently observed in ASD.

  Oxford University Press (OUP), 2020, Cerebral cortex communications, 1(1) (1), tgaa007, English, International magazine

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Controlled emotional tactile stimulation during functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography.

  Noriaki Kanayama, Masayuki Hara, Junji Watanabe, Ryo Kitada, Maki Sakamoto, Shigeto Yamawaki

  BACKGROUND: Tactile stimulation used to induce emotional responses is often not well-controlled. Replicating the same tactile stimulations across studies is difficult, compared to replicating visual and auditory modalities, which have standardized stimulus sets. Standardizing a stimulation method by replicating stimuli across studies is necessary to further elucidate emotional responses in neuroscience research using tactile stimulation. THE NEW METHOD: We developed a tactile stimulation device. The device's ultrasonic motor and optical force sensor have the following criteria: (1) controls the physical property of stimuli, pressure, and stroking speed; (2) measures actual touch timing; (3) is safe to use in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner; and (4) produces low noise in electroencephalography (EEG) and MRI. RESULTS: The noise level of the device's drive was sufficiently low. For the EEG experiment, we successfully used signal processing to diminish the commercial power supply noise. For functional MRI (fMRI) scans, we found <5% signal loss occurred during device rotation. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHOD(S): We found no previous report about the noise level of a tactile stimulation device used to induce emotional responses during EEG and fMRI recordings. The signal loss rate was comparable with that of other robotic devices used in MRI scanners. Emotional feelings induced by this stimulation method were comparable with those elicited in other sensory modalities. CONCLUSIONS: The developed device could be used for cognitive-affective neuroscience research when conducting EEG and fMRI scans. The device should aid in standardizing affective tactile stimulation for research in psychology and cognitive neuroscience.

  Nov. 2019, Journal of neuroscience methods, 327, 108393 - 108393, English, International magazine

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Brain networks underlying tactile softness perception: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

  Kitada R, Doizaki R, Kwon J, Nakagawa E, Kajimoto H, Sakamoto M, Sadato N

  Humans are adept at perceiving physical properties of an object through touch. Tangible object properties can be categorized into two types: macro-spatial properties, including shape and orientation; and material properties, such as roughness, softness, and temperature. Previous neuroimaging studies have shown that roughness and temperature are extracted at nodes of a network, such as that involving the parietal operculum and insula, which is different from the network engaged in processing macro-spatial properties. However, it is unclear whether other perceptual dimensions pertaining to material properties engage the same regions. Here, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study to test whether the parietal operculum and insula were involved in extracting tactually-perceived softness magnitude. Fifty-six healthy right-handed participants estimated perceived softness magnitude using their right middle finger. We presented three stimuli that had the same shape but different compliances. The force applied to the finger was manipulated at two levels. Classical mass-univariate analysis showed that activity in the parietal operculum, insula, and medial prefrontal cortex was positively associated with perceived softness magnitude, regardless of the applied force. Softness-related activity was stronger in the ventral striatum in the high-force condition than in the low-force condition. The multivariate voxel pattern analysis showed higher accuracy than chance levels and control regions in the parietal operculum/insula, postcentral gyrus, posterior parietal lobule, and middle occipital gyrus. These results indicate that a distributed set of the brain regions, including the parietal operculum and insula, is involved in representing perceived softness.

  Aug. 2019, NeuroImage, 197, 156 - 166, English, International magazine

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Emotional Tears Communicate Sadness but Not Excessive Emotions Without Other Contextual Knowledge

  Kenichi Ito, Chew Wei Ong, Ryo Kitada

  Frontiers Media SA, Apr. 2019, Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 878, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Cross-cultural similarity in relationship-specific social touching

  Juulia T. Suvilehto, Lauri Nummenmaa, Tokiko Harada, Robin I. M. Dunbar, Riitta Hari, Robert Turner, Norihiro Sadato, Ryo Kitada

  Many species use touching for reinforcing social structures, and particularly, non-human primates use social grooming for managing their social networks. However, it is still unclear how social touch contributes to the maintenance and reinforcement of human social networks. Human studies in Western cultures suggest that the body locations where touch is allowed are associated with the strength of the emotional bond between the person touched and the toucher. However, it is unknown to what extent this relationship is culturally universal and generalizes to non-Western cultures. Here, we compared relationship-specific, bodily touch allowance maps across one Western ( N = 386, UK) and one East Asian ( N = 255, Japan) country. In both cultures, the strength of the emotional bond was linearly associated with permissible touch area. However, Western participants experienced social touching as more pleasurable than Asian participants. These results indicate a similarity of emotional bonding via social touch between East Asian and Western cultures.

  The Royal Society, Apr. 2019, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 286(1901) (1901), 20190467 - 20190467

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Affective judgment of social touch on a hand modulated by hand embodiment

  Fahey S, Santana C, Kitada R, Zheng Z

  Social touch constitutes a critical component of human interactions. A gentle tap on the hand, for instance, can sometimes create emotional bonding and reduce interpersonal distance in social interactions. Evidence of tactile empathy suggests that touch can be experienced through both physical sensation and observation, yet vicarious perception of observed touch on an object as a function of the object’s conceptual representation (e.g., Is this object identified as mine? Does this object feel like part of me?) remains less explored. Here we examined the affective judgement of social touch when the illusory sense of ownership over a dummy hand was manipulated through the rubber-hand illusion. When the same social touch was performed on either the real or the dummy hand, we found a similar sense of perceived pleasantness between the felt and observed touch, but only when the dummy hand was embodied; when it was not, the perceived pleasantness of the observed touch was lesser (an “embodiment effect”; Experiment 1). In addition, we found that the embodiment effect associated with the observed touch was insensitive to the way in which embodiment was manipulated (Experiment 2), and that this effect was specific to social but not neutral touch (Experiment 3). Taken together, our findings suggest a role of embodiment in the affective component of observed social touch and contribute to our understanding of tactile empathy for objects.

  2019, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72(10) (10), 2408 - 2422, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Neural correlates underlying change in state self-esteem

  Hiroaki Kawamichi, Sho K. Sugawara, Yuki H. Hamano, Ryo Kitada, Eri Nakagawa, Takanori Kochiyama, Norihiro Sadato

  State self-esteem, the momentary feeling of self-worth, functions as a sociometer involved in maintenance of interpersonal relations. How others' appraisal is subjectively interpreted to change state self-esteem is unknown, and the neural underpinnings of this process remain to be elucidated. We hypothesized that changes in state self-esteem are represented by the mentalizing network, which is modulated by interactions with regions involved in the subjective interpretation of others' appraisal. To test this hypothesis, we conducted task-based and resting-state fMRI. Participants were repeatedly presented with their reputations, and then rated their pleasantness and reported their state selfesteem. To evaluate the individual sensitivity of the change in state self-esteem based on pleasantness (i.e., the subjective interpretation of reputation), we calculated evaluation sensitivity as the rate of change in state self-esteem per unit pleasantness. Evaluation sensitivity varied across participants, and was positively correlated with precuneus activity evoked by reputation rating. Resting-state fMRI revealed that evaluation sensitivity was positively correlated with functional connectivity of the precuneus with areas activated by negative reputation, but negatively correlated with areas activated by positive reputation. Thus, the precuneus, as the part of the mentalizing system, serves as a gateway for translating the subjective interpretation of reputation into state self-esteem.

  Nature Publishing Group, Dec. 2018, Scientific Reports, 8(1) (1), 1798, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Distinct sensitivities of the lateral prefrontal cortex and extrastriate body area to contingency between executed and observed actions

  Sasaki AT, Okamoto Y, Kochiyama T, Kitada R, Sadato N

  Corresponding, Aug. 2018, Cortex, 108, 234 - 251, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Brain networks underlying conscious tactile perception of textures as revealed using the velvet hand illusion.

  Rajaei N, Aoki N, Takahashi HK, Miyaoka T, Kochiyama T, Ohka M, Sadato N, Kitada R

  Aug. 2018, Human brain mapping

  [Refereed]


• Altered perspective-dependent brain activation while viewing hands and associated imitation difficulties in individuals with autism spectrum disorder

  Yuko Okamoto, Ryo Kitada, Motohide Miyahara, Takanori Kochiyama, Hiroaki Naruse, Norihiro Sadato, Hidehiko Okazawa, Hirotaka Kosaka

  Background: Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) appear to have a unique awareness of their own body, which may be associated with difficulties of gestural interaction. In typically developing (TD) individuals, the perception of body parts is processed in various brain regions. For instance, activation of the lateral occipito-temporal cortex (LOTC) is known to depend on perspective (i.e., first-or third-person perspective) and identity (i.e., own vs. another person's body). In the present study, we examined how perspective and identity affect brain activation in individuals with ASD, and how perspective-and identity-dependent brain activation is associated with gestural imitation abilities.Methods: Eighteen young adults with ASD and 18 TD individuals participated in an fMRI study in which the participants observed their own or another person's hands from the first-and third-person perspectives. We examined whether the brain activation associated with perspective and identity was altered in individuals with ASD. Furthermore, we identified the brain regions the activity of which correlated with gestural imitation difficulties in individuals with ASD.Results: In the TD group, the left LOTC was more strongly activated by viewing a hand from the third-person perspective compared with the first-person perspective. This perspective effect in the left LOTC was significantly attenuated in the ASD group. We also observed significant group differences in the perspective effect in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Correlation analysis revealed that the perspective effect in the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) and cerebellum was associated with the gestural imitation ability in individuals with ASD.Conclusions: Our study suggests that atypical visual self-body recognition in individuals with ASD is associated with an altered perspective effect in the LOTC and mPFC, which are thought to be involved in the physical and core selves, respectively. Furthermore, the gestural imitation difficulty in individuals with ASD might be associated with the altered activation in the IPL and cerebellum, but not in the LOTC. These findings shed light on common and divergent neural mechanisms underlying atypical visual self-body awareness and gestural interaction in ASD.

  ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2018, NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL, 19, 384 - 395, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Brain networks of social action-outcome contingency: The role of the ventral striatum in integrating signals from the sensory cortex and medial prefrontal cortex

  Motofumi Sumiya, Takahiko Koike, Shuntaro Okazaki, Ryo Kitada, Norihiro Sadato

  Social interactions can be facilitated by action-outcome contingency, in which self-actions result in relevant responses from others. Research has indicated that the striatal reward system plays a role in generating action-outcome contingency signals. However, the neural mechanisms wherein signals regarding self-action and others' responses are integrated to generate the contingency signal remain poorly understood. We conducted a functional MRI study to test the hypothesis that brain activity representing the self modulates connectivity between the striatal reward system and sensory regions involved in the processing of others' responses. We employed a contingency task in which participants made the listener laugh by telling jokes. Participants reported more pleasure when greater laughter followed their own jokes than those of another. Self-relevant listener's responses produced stronger activation in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Laughter was associated with activity in the auditory cortex. The ventral striatum exhibited stronger activation when participants made listeners laugh than when another did. In physio-physiological interaction analyses, the ventral striatum showed interaction effects for signals extracted from the mPFC and auditory cortex. These results support the hypothesis that the mPFC, which is implicated in self-related processing, gates sensory input associated with others' responses during value processing in the ventral striatum. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

  Corresponding, ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD, Oct. 2017, NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH, 123, 43 - 54, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• The Effect of Dual-Hemisphere Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Over the Parietal Operculum on Tactile Orientation Discrimination

  Shuhei Fujimoto, Satoshi Tanaka, Ilkka Laakso, Tomofumi Yamaguchi, Noriko Kon, Takeo Nakayama, Kunitsugu Kondo, Ryo Kitada

  The parietal operculum (PO) often shows ipsilateral activation during tactile object perception in neuroimaging experiments. However, the relative contribution of the PO to tactile judgment remains unclear. Here, we examined the effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over bilateral PO to test the relative contributions of the ipsilateral PO to tactile object processing. Ten healthy adults participated in this study, which had a double-blind, sham-controlled, cross-over design. Participants discriminated grating orientation during three tDCS and sham conditions. In the dual-hemisphere tDCS conditions, anodal and cathodal electrodes were placed over the left and right PO. In the uni-hemisphere tDCS condition, anodal and cathodal electrodes were applied over the left PO and contralateral orbit, respectively. In the tDCS and sham conditions, we applied 2 mA for 15 min and for 15 s, respectively. Computational models of electric fields (EFs) during tDCS indicated that the strongest electric fields were located in regions in and around the PO. Compared with the sham condition, dual-hemisphere tDCS improved the discrimination threshold of the index finger contralateral to the anodal electrode. Importantly, dual-hemisphere tDCS with the anodal electrode over the left PO yielded a decreased threshold in the right finger compared with the uni-hemisphere tDCS condition. These results suggest that the ipsilateral PO inhibits tactile processing of grating orientation, indicating interhemispheric inhibition (IHI) of the PO.

  FRONTIERS MEDIA SA, Sep. 2017, FRONTIERS IN BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE, 11, 173, English, No password

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal

  添付ファイルのURL


• Age-dependent atypicalities in body- and face-sensitive activation of the EBA and FFA in individuals with ASD

  Yuko Okamoto, Hirotaka Kosaka, Ryo Kitada, Ayumi Seki, Hiroki C. Tanabe, Masamichi J. Hayashi, Takanori Kochiyama, Daisuke N. Saito, Hisakazu T. Yanaka, Toshio Munesue, Makoto Ishitobi, Masao Omori, Yuji Wada, Hidehiko Okazawa, Tatsuya Koeda, Norihiro Sadato

  Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficuly in recognizing bodies and faces, which are more pronounced in children than adults. If such difficulties originate from dysfunction of the extrastriate body area (EBA) and the fusiform face area (FFA), activation in these regions might be more atypical in children than in adults. We preformed functional magnetic resonance imaging while children and adults with ASD and age-matched typically developed (TD) individuals observed face, body, car, and scene. To examine various aspects, we performed individual region of interest (ROI) analysis, as well as conventional random effect group analysis. At individual ROI analysis, we examined the ratio of participants showing a category-sensitive response, the size of regions, location and activation patterns among the four object categories. Adults with ASD showed no atypicalities in activation of the EBA and FFA, whereas children with ASD showed atypical activation in these regions. Specifically, a smaller percentage of children with ASD showed face-sensitive activation of the FFA than TD children. Moreover, the size of the EBA was smaller in children with ASD than in TD children. Our results revealed atypicalities in both the FFA and EBA in children with ASD but not in adults with ASD. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.

  ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD, Jun. 2017, NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH, 119, 38 - 52, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Brain networks involved in tactile speed classification of moving dot patterns: the effects of speed and dot periodicity

  Jiajia Yang, Ryo Kitada, Takanori Kochiyama, Yinghua Yu, Kai Makita, Yuta Araki, Jinglong Wu, Norihiro Sadato

  Humans are able to judge the speed of an object's motion by touch. Research has suggested that tactile judgment of speed is influenced by physical properties of the moving object, though the neural mechanisms underlying this process remain poorly understood. In the present study, functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to investigate brain networks that may be involved in tactile speed classification and how such networks may be affected by an object's texture. Participants were asked to classify the speed of 2-D raised dot patterns passing under their right middle finger. Activity in the parietal operculum, insula, and inferior and superior frontal gyri was positively related to the motion speed of dot patterns. Activity in the postcentral gyrus and superior parietal lobule was sensitive to dot periodicity. Psycho-physiological interaction (PPI) analysis revealed that dot periodicity modulated functional connectivity between the parietal operculum (related to speed) and postcentral gyrus (related to dot periodicity). These results suggest that texture-sensitive activity in the primary somatosensory cortex and superior parietal lobule influences brain networks associated with tactually-extracted motion speed. Such effects may be related to the influence of surface texture on tactile speed judgment.

  Corresponding, NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP, Feb. 2017, SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, 7, 40931, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• 触覚刺激時における第一次視覚野の活動と情報表現の解析

  野崎 恵, 中谷 駿, 衞藤 祥太, 高橋 陽香, 青木 直哉, 角谷 基文, 北田 亮, 定藤 規弘, 神谷 之康, 宮脇 陽一

  日本視覚学会, Jan. 2017, Vision, 29(1) (1), 34 - 34, Japanese

  [Refereed]


• Overstatement in happiness reporting with ordinal, bounded scale

  Saori C. Tanaka, Katsunori Yamada, Ryo Kitada, Satoshi Tanaka, Sho K. Sugawara, Fumio Ohtake, Norihiro Sadato

  There are various methods by which people can express subjective evaluations quantitatively. For example, happiness can be measured on a scale from 1 to 10, and has been suggested as a measure of economic policy. However, there is resistance to these types of measurement from economists, who often regard welfare to be a cardinal, unbounded quantity. It is unclear whether there are differences between subjective evaluation reported on ordinal, bounded scales and on cardinal, unbounded scales. To answer this question, we developed functional magnetic resonance imaging experimental tasks for reporting happiness from monetary gain and the perception of visual stimulus. Subjects tended to report higher values when they used ordinal scales instead of cardinal scales. There were differences in neural activation between ordinal and cardinal reporting scales. The posterior parietal area showed greater activation when subjects used an ordinal scale instead of a cardinal scale. Importantly, the striatum exhibited greater activation when asked to report happiness on an ordinal scale than when asked to report on a cardinal scale. The finding that ordinal (bounded) scales are associated with higher reported happiness and greater activation in the reward system shows that overstatement bias in happiness data must be considered.

  NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP, Feb. 2016, SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, 6, 21321, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• The brain network for haptic object recognition

  Ryo Kitada

  Humans can haptically identify common three-dimensional objects surprisingly well. What are the neural mechanisms underlying this ability? Previous neuroimaging studies have shown that haptic object recognition involves a distributed network of brain regions beyond the conventional somatosensory cortices. However, the relative contributions of these regions to haptic object recognition are not well understood. In this chapter, I discuss three key hypotheses concerning the brain network underlying haptic object processing and its interaction with visual object processing. The first is that the occipito-temporal cortex, which has been considered to be part of the conventional visual cortex, plays a critical role in the haptic identification of common objects. The second is that distinct brain regions are involved in the haptic processing of two types of feature used for object identification: macro-geometric (e.g., shape) and material (e.g., roughness) properties. The third is that different brain regions are also involved in the visuo-haptic interaction of macro-geometric and material properties. Finally, I discuss some issues that remain to be addressed in future studies.

  Springer Japan, Jan. 2016, Pervasive Haptics: Science, Design, and Application, 21 - 37, English

  [Refereed]

  In book


• The Supramodal Brain Network for the Recognition of Faces and Bodies: Is Visual Experience Necessary for the Development of High-Order Visual Cortices?

  Ryo Kitada

  The visual perception of faces and body parts provides a wealth of information that is used to understand others' behaviors. It is well known that distributed networks of brain regions underlie the perception of faces and body parts. Do such networks develop even in the absence of visual experience? I introduce here our recent studies suggesting that the cortical networks for the recognition of faces and body parts can partially develop even in the absence of early visual experience.

  SPRINGER-VERLAG SINGAPORE PTE LTD, 2016, ADVANCES IN COGNITIVE NEURODYNAMICS (V), 311 - 315, English

  [Refereed]

  International conference proceedings


• Brain networks of affective mentalizing revealed by the tear effect: The integrative role of the medial prefrontal cortex and precuneus

  Haruka K. Takahashi, Ryo Kitada, Akihiro T. Sasaki, Hiroaki Kawamichi, Shuntaro Okazaki, Takanori Kochiyama, Norihiro Sadato

  Affective mentalizing involves the integration of various social signals in order to infer the affective states of others. Previous neuroimaging studies have shown that the medial prefrontal cortex, the precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex, and the temporo-parietal junction constitute the core affective mentalizing network. However, the relative contributions of these regions to affective mentalizing remain unclear. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate which of these nodes are involved in the integration of two social signals: emotional tears and facial expressions. We assumed that this integration would produce a supra-additive effect, indicated by greater activity than the sum of the effects of the individual social signals. Female subjects rated the sadness of faces with either tears or tear-like circles, and either sad or neutral expressions. We observed the supra-additive effect in the medial prefrontal cortex and precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex but not in the temporo-parietal junction. These results indicate that the medial prefrontal cortex and precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex play an important role in integrating tears and facial expressions during affective mentalizing. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

  Corresponding, ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD, Dec. 2015, NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH, 101, 32 - 43, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Designing Haptic Assistive Technology for Individuals Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired

  Dianne T. V. Pawluk, Richard J. Adams, Ryo Kitada

  This paper considers issues relevant for the design and use of haptic technology for assistive devices for individuals who are blind or visually impaired in some of the major areas of importance: Braille reading, tactile graphics, orientation and mobility. We show that there is a wealth of behavioral research that is highly applicable to assistive technology design. In a few cases, conclusions from behavioral experiments have been directly applied to design with positive results. Differences in brain organization and performance capabilities between individuals who are "early blind" and "late blind" from using the same tactile/haptic accommodations, such as the use of Braille, suggest the importance of training and assessing these groups individually. Practical restrictions on device design, such as performance limitations of the technology and cost, raise questions as to which aspects of these restrictions are truly important to overcome to achieve high performance. In general, this raises the question of what it means to provide functional equivalence as opposed to sensory equivalence.

  IEEE COMPUTER SOC, Jul. 2015, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON HAPTICS, 8(3) (3), 258 - 278, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Interpersonal touch suppresses visual processing of aversive stimuli

  Hiroaki Kawamichi, Ryo Kitada, Kazufumi Yoshihara, Haruka K. Takahashi, Norihiro Sadato

  Social contact is essential for survival in human society. A previous study demonstrated that interpersonal contact alleviates pain-related distress by suppressing the activity of its underlying neural network. One explanation for this is that attention is shifted from the cause of distress to interpersonal contact. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a functional MRI (fMRI) study wherein eight pairs of close female friends rated the aversiveness of aversive and non-aversive visual stimuli under two conditions: joining hands either with a rubber model (rubber-hand condition) or with a close friend (humanhand condition). Subsequently, participants rated the overall comfortableness of each condition. The rating result after fMRI indicated that participants experienced greater comfortableness during the human-hand compared to the rubber-hand condition, whereas aversiveness ratings during fMRI were comparable across conditions. The fMRI results showed that the two conditions commonly produced aversive related activation in both sides of the visual cortex (including V1, V2, and V5). An interaction between aversiveness and hand type showed rubber-hand-specific activation for (aversive > non-aversive) in other visual areas (including Vi, V2, V3, and V4v). The effect of interpersonal contact on the processing of aversive stimuli was negatively correlated with the increment of attentional focus to aversiveness measured by a pain-catastrophizing scale. These results suggest that interpersonal touch suppresses the processing of aversive visual stimuli in the occipital cortex. This effect covaried with aversiveness-insensitivity, such that aversive-insensitive individuals might require a lesser degree of attentional capture to aversive-stimulus processing. As joining hands did not influence the subjective ratings of aversiveness, interpersonal touch may operate by redirecting excessive attention away from aversive characteristics of the stimuli.

  Corresponding, FRONTIERS MEDIA SA, Apr. 2015, FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE, 9, 164, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Role of the precuneus in the detection of incongruency between tactile and visual texture information: A functional MRI study

  Ryo Kitada, Akihiro T. Sasaki, Yuko Okamoto, Takanori Kochiyama, Norihiro Sadato

  Visual clues as to the physical substance of manufactured objects can be misleading. For example, a plastic ring can appear to be made of gold. However, we can avoid misidentifying an object's substance by comparing visual and tactile information. As compared to the spatial properties of an object (e.g., orientation), however, little information regarding physical object properties (material properties) is shared between vision and touch. How can such different kinds of information be compared in the brain? One possibility is that the visuo-tactile comparison of material information is mediated by associations that are previously learned between the two modalities. Previous studies suggest that a cortical network involving the medial temporal lobe and precuneus plays a critical role in the retrieval of information from long-term memory. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test whether these brain regions are involved in the visuo-tactile comparison of material properties. The stimuli consisted of surfaces in which an oriented plastic bar was placed on a background texture. Twenty-two healthy participants determined whether the orientations of visually- and tactually-presented bar stimuli were congruent in the orientation conditions, and whether visually- and tactually-presented background textures were congruent in the texture conditions. The texture conditions revealed greater activation of the fusiform gyrus, medial temporal lobe and lateral prefrontal cortex compared with the orientation conditions. In the texture conditions, the precuneus showed greater response to incongruent stimuli than to congruent stimuli. This incongruency effect was greater for the texture conditions than for the orientation conditions. These results suggest that the precuneus is involved in detecting incongruency between tactile and visual texture information in concert with the medial temporal lobe, which is tightly linked with long-term memory. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, Nov. 2014, NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA, 64, 252 - 262, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Attenuation of the contingency detection effect in the extrastriate body area in autism spectrum disorder

  Yuko Okamoto, Ryo Kitada, Hiroki C. Tanabe, Masamichi J. Hayashi, Takanori Kochiyama, Toshio Munesue, Makoto Ishitobi, Daisuke N. Saito, Hisakazu T. Yanaka, Masao Omori, Yuji Wada, Hidehiko Okazawa, Akihiro T. Sasaki, Tomoyo Morita, Shoji Itakura, Hirotaka Kosaka, Norihiro Sadato

  Detection of the contingency between one's own behavior and consequent social events is important for normal social development, and impaired contingency detection may be a cause of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To depict the neural underpinnings of this contingency effect, 19 adults with ASD and 22 control participants underwent functional MRI while imitating another's actions and their actions being imitated by the other. As the extrastriate body area (EBA) receives efference copies of one's own movements, we predicted that the EBA would show an atypical response during contingency detection in ASD. We manipulated two factors: the congruency of the executed and observed actions, and the order of action execution and observation. Both groups showed the congruency effect in the bilateral EBA during imitation. When action preceded observation, the left EBA of the control group showed the congruency effect, representing the response to being imitated, indicating contingency detection. The ASD group showed a reduced contingency effect in the left EBA. These results indicate that the function of the EBA in the contingency detection is altered in ASD. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.

  ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD, Oct. 2014, NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH, 87, 66 - 76, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• The Brain Network Underlying the Recognition of Hand Gestures in the Blind: The Supramodal Role of the Extrastriate Body Area

  Ryo Kitada, Kazufumi Yoshihara, Akihiro T. Sasaki, Maho Hashiguchi, Takanori Kochiyama, Norihiro Sadato

  The visual perception of others' body parts is critical for understanding and imitating their behavior. The visual cortex in humans includes the extrastriate body area (EBA), which is a large portion of the occipitotemporal cortex that is selectively responsive to visually perceived body parts. Previous neuroimaging studies showed that the EBA not only receives sensory inputs regarding others' body information but also receives kinesthetic feedback regarding one's own actions. This finding raised the possibility that the EBA could be formed via nonvisual sensory modalities. However, the effect of visual deprivation on the formation of the EBA has remained largely unknown. Here, we used fMRI to investigate the effect of vision loss on the development of the EBA. Blind and sighted human subjects performed equally well in a haptic-identification task involving three categories of objects (hand shapes, toy cars, and teapots). The superior part (i.e., the middle temporal gyrus and angular gyrus) of the EBA and the supramarginal gyrus showed greater sensitivity to recognized hand shapes than to inanimate objects, regardless of the sensory modality and visual experience. Unlike the superior part of the EBA, the sensitivity of the inferior part (i.e., the inferior temporal sulcus and middle occipital gyrus) depended on visual experience. However, this vision-dependent sensitivity explained minor individual differences in hand-recognition performance. These results indicate that nonvisual modalities drive the development of the cortical network underlying the recognition of hand gestures with a node in the visual cortex.

  SOC NEUROSCIENCE, Jul. 2014, JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, 34(30) (30), 10096 - 10108, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• From gestures to words: Spontaneous verbal labeling of complex sequential hand movements reduces fMRI activation of the imitation-related regions

  Motohide Miyahara, Ryo Kitada, Akihiro T. Sasaki, Yuko Okamoto, Hiroki C. Tanabe, Norihiro Sadato

  The association of verbal labels with visuo-spatial patterns and sequences detectably alters neuronal activity in the brain in ways that have yet to be fully characterized. This study investigated the neural substrates involved in the effect of spontaneous verbal labeling on memorizing increasingly complex sequences of hand movements. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test our hypothesis that when verbal labels were employed, neuronal activity in imitation-related regions, such as the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), would be reduced, whereas without verbal labels, neuronal activation would increase. Sixteen healthy adults satisfactorily performed an immediate imitation task involving six levels of increasing complexity. After the fMRI experiment, participants reported at which complexity level they had formed verbal labels. Based on the self-report, we categorized the task blocks at each complexity level as either with verbal labeling (VL+) or without (VL-). Compared with VL+, the VL- condition activated the left IFG, bilateral middle frontal gyri, left precentral gyrus, and the right angular gyrus, whereas the opposite contrast revealed no significant brain activation. Verbal labeling seems to serve as an efficient heuristic that reduces the cost of cortical activation in the imitation-related regions. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.

  ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD, Mar. 2013, NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH, 75(3) (3), 228 - 238, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Early visual experience and the recognition of basic facial expressions: involvement of the middle temporal and inferior frontal gyri during haptic identification by the early blind

  Ryo Kitada, Yuko Okamoto, Akihiro T. Sasaki, Takanori Kochiyama, Motohide Miyahara, Susan J. Lederman, Norihiro Sadato

  Face perception is critical for social communication. Given its fundamental importance in the course of evolution, the innate neural mechanisms can anticipate the computations necessary for representing faces. However, the effect of visual deprivation on the formation of neural mechanisms that underlie face perception is largely unknown. We previously showed that sighted individuals can recognize basic facial expressions by haptics surprisingly well. Moreover, the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) in the sighted subjects are involved in haptic and visual recognition of facial expressions. Here, we conducted both psychophysical and functional magnetic-resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments to determine the nature of the neural representation that subserves the recognition of basic facial expressions in early blind individuals. In a psychophysical experiment, both early blind and sighted subjects haptically identified basic facial expressions at levels well above chance. In the subsequent fMRI experiment, both groups haptically identified facial expressions and shoe types (control). The sighted subjects then completed the same task visually. Within brain regions activated by the visual and haptic identification of facial expressions (relative to that of shoes) in the sighted group, corresponding haptic identification in the early blind activated regions in the inferior frontal and middle temporal gyri. These results suggest that the neural system that underlies the recognition of basic facial expressions develops supramodally even in the absence of early visual experience.

  FRONTIERS MEDIA SA, Jan. 2013, FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE, 7(7) (7), English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Tactile perception of nonpainful unpleasantness in relation to perceived roughness: Effects of inter-element spacing and speed of relative motion of rigid 2-D raised-dot patterns at two body loci

  Ryo Kitada, Norihiro Sadato, Susan J. Lederman

  Rigid surfaces consisting of spatially jittered 2-D raised-dot patterns with different inter-element spacings were moved back and forth across the skin at three different speeds (10-fold range). Within each psychophysical experiment, participants numerically estimated the perceived magnitude of either unpleasantness (nonpainful) or roughness of 2-D raised-dot surfaces applied to two stationary body sites (experiment I: fingers; experiment 2: forearm). The psychophysical functions for the two types of perceptual judgment were highly similar at both body loci; more specifically, the perceived magnitude of unpleasantness and roughness both increased monotonically as a power function of increasing inter-element spacing, with the rate of growth declining at the upper end of the continuum. These results suggest that inter-element spacing is a critical determinant of the perceived magnitude of unpleasantness (nonpainful), as well as of roughness. Each perceptual judgment also increased as a function of increasing relative speed at both body loci. However, the magnitude of this effect was significantly greater for perceived unpleasantness than for perceived roughness; conversely, the speed effect was significantly greater on the forearm than on the fingers. Several possible explanations for these findings are considered.

  PION LTD, 2012, PERCEPTION, 41(2) (2), 204 - 220, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Figure/Ground Segmentation via a Haptic Glance: Attributing Initial Finger Contacts to Objects or Their Supporting Surfaces

  Dianne Pawluk, Ryo Kitada, Aneta Abramowicz, Cheryl Hamilton, Susan J. Lederman

  The current study addresses the well-known "figure/ground" problem in human perception, a fundamental topic that has received surprisingly little attention from touch scientists to date. Our approach is grounded in, and directly guided by, current knowledge concerning the nature of haptic processing. Given inherent figure/ground ambiguity in natural scenes and limited sensory inputs from first contact (a "haptic glance"), we consider first whether people are even capable of differentiating figure from ground (Experiments 1 and 2). Participants were required to estimate the strength of their subjective impression that they were feeling an object (i.e., figure) as opposed to just the supporting structure (i.e., ground). Second, we propose a tripartite factor classification scheme to further assess the influence of kinetic, geometric (Experiments 1 and 2), and material (Experiment 2) factors on haptic figure/ground segmentation, complemented by more open-ended subjective responses obtained at the end of the experiment. Collectively, the results indicate that under certain conditions it is possible to segment figure from ground via a single haptic glance with a reasonable degree of certainty, and that all three factor classes influence the estimated likelihood that brief, spatially distributed fingertip contacts represent contact with an object and/or its background supporting structure.

  IEEE COMPUTER SOC, Jan. 2011, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON HAPTICS, 4(1) (1), 2 - 13, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Brain networks involved in haptic and visual identification of facial expressions of emotion: An fMRI study

  Ryo Kitada, Ingrid S. Johnsrude, Takanori Kochiyama, Susan J. Lederman

  Previous neurophysiological and neuroimaging Studies have shown that a cortical network involving the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), inferior parietal lobe (IPL) and cortical areas in and around the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) region is employed in action understanding by vision and audition. However, the brain regions that are involved in action understanding by touch are unknown. Lederman et al. (2007) recently demonstrated that humans can haptically recognize facial expressions of emotion (FEE) surprisingly well. Here, we report a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in which we test the hypothesis that the IFG, IPL and pSTS regions are involved in haptic, as well as visual, FEE identification. Twenty subjects haptically or visually identified facemasks with three different FEEs (disgust, neutral and happiness) and casts of shoes (shoes) of three different types. The left posterior middle temporal gyrus, IPL, IFG and bilateral precentral gyrus were activated by FEE identification relative to that of shoes, regardless of sensory modality. By contrast, all inferomedial part of the left superior parietal lobule was activated by haptic, but not Visual, FEE identification. Other brain regions, including the lingual gyrus and superior frontal gyrus, were activated by visual identification of FEEs, relative to haptic identification of FEEs. These results Suggest that haptic and visual FEE identification rely on distinct but overlapping neural Substrates including the IFG, IPL and pSTS region. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE, Jan. 2010, NEUROIMAGE, 49(2) (2), 1677 - 1689, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Representing human hands haptically or visually from first-person versus third-person perspectives

  Ryo Kitada, H. Chris Dijkerman, Grace Soo, Susan J. Lederman

  Humans can recognise human body parts haptically as well as visually. We employed a mental-rotation task to determine whether participants could adopt a third-person perspective when judging the laterality of life-like human hands. Female participants adopted either a first-person or a third-person perspective using vision (experiment 1) or haptics (experiment 2), with hands presented at various orientations within a horizontal plane. In the first-person perspective task, most participants responded more slowly as hand orientation increasingly deviated from the participant's upright orientation, regardless of modality. In the visual third-person perspective task, most participants responded more slowly as hand orientation increasingly deviated from the experimenter's upright orientation; in contrast, less than half of the participants produced this same inverted U-shaped response-time function haptically. In experiment 3, participants were explicitly instructed to adopt a third-person perspective haptically by mentally rotating the rubber hand to the experimenter's upright orientation. Most participants produced an inverted U-shaped function. Collectively, these results suggest that humans can accurately assume a third-person perspective when hands are explored haptically or visually. With less explicit instructions, however, the canonical orientation for hand representation may be more strongly influenced haptically than visually by body-based heuristics, and less easily modified by perspective instructions.

  PION LTD, 2010, PERCEPTION, 39(2) (2), 236 - 254, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Haptic face processing and its relation to vision

  Susan J. Lederman, Roberta L. Klatzky, Ryo Kitada

  In this chapter, we address the nature of haptic face perception. People can perform this task well above chance with relatively little training. We concentrate on how the haptic system processes and represents facial identity and emotional expressions both functionally and neurally. With respect to face processes, we consider issues that pertain to configural vs. feature-based processing, to visual mediation vs. multisensory processing, and to intersensory transfer. With respect to face representations, we consider the role of orientation, the relative importance of different facial regions to haptic face perception, and the theoretical approaches that have been applied to the study of human facial emotions. Additionally, we address what is known about the corresponding neural mechanisms that subserve haptic face perception. We also relate this relatively new sub-area of haptic perception to the more extensive literature on visual face processing.

  Springer New York, 2010, Multisensory Object Perception in the Primate Brain, 273 - 300, English

  [Refereed]

  In book


• Haptic figure-ground differentation via a haptic glance

  Dianne Pawluk, Ryo Kitada, Aneta Abramowicz, Cheryl Hamilton, Susan J. Lederman

  This study begins to address the nature of human haptic perceptual organization by examining "figure/ground" segmentation from a haptic perspective (i.e., differentiating an object from its supporting surface). The experiment focuses on the perception of the presence of an object via brief contact (i.e., a haptic glance) when both kinetic properties and geometric properties are manipulated. The results suggest that contact with objects that are moveable (cf. fixed) and tall (cf. short) greatly increases the perceived probability that an object is present. The effect of kinetics is further heightened when moveable objects have convexly curved bases. ©2010 IEEE.

  2010, 2010 IEEE Haptics Symposium, HAPTICS 2010, 63 - 66, English

  [Refereed]

  International conference proceedings


• Functional Specialization and Convergence in the Occipito-temporal Cortex Supporting Haptic and Visual Identification of Human Faces and Body Parts: An fMRI Study

  Ryo Kitada, Ingrid S. Johnsrude, Takanori Kochiyama, Susan J. Lederman

  Humans can recognize common objects by touch extremely well whenever vision is unavailable. Despite its importance to a thorough understanding of human object recognition, the neuroscientific study of this topic has been relatively neglected. To date, the few published studies have addressed the haptic recognition of nonbiological objects. We now focus on haptic recognition of the human body, a particularly salient object category for touch. Neuroimaging studies demonstrate that regions of the occipito-temporal cortex are specialized for visual perception of faces (fusiform face area, FFA) and other body parts (extrastriate body area, EBA). Are the same category-sensitive regions activated when these components of the body are recognized haptically? Here, we use fMRI to compare brain organization for haptic and visual recognition of human body parts. Sixteen subjects identified exemplars of faces, hands, feet, and nonbiological control objects using vision and haptics separately. We identified two discrete regions within the fusiform gyrus (FFA and the haptic face region) that were each sensitive to both haptically and visually presented faces; however, these two regions differed significantly in their response patterns. Similarly, two regions within the lateral occipito-temporal area (EBA and the haptic body region) were each sensitive to body parts in both modalities, although the response patterns differed. Thus, although the fusiform gyrus and the lateral occipito-temporal cortex appear to exhibitmodality-independent, category-sensitive activity, our results also indicate a degree of functional specialization related to sensory modality within these structures.

  M I T PRESS, Oct. 2009, JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE, 21(10) (10), 2027 - 2045, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Haptic face processing

  Susan J. Lederman, Andrea Kilgour, Ryo Kitada, Roberta L. Klatzky, Cheryl Hamilton

  We present an overview of a new multidisciplinary research program that focuses on haptic processing of human facial identity and facial expressions of emotion. A series of perceptual and neuroscience experiments with live faces and/or rigid three-dimensional facemasks is Outlined. To date, several converging methodologies have been adopted: behavioural experimental studies with neurologically intact participants, neuropsychological behavioural research with prosopagnosic individuals, and neuroimaging studies using fMRI techniques. in each case, we have asked what would happen if the hands were substituted for the eyes. We confirm that humans can haptically determine both identity and facial expressions of emotion in facial displays at levels well above chance. Clearly, face processing is a bimodal phenomenon. The processes and representations that underlie such patterns of behaviour are also considered.

  CANADIAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC, Sep. 2007, CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY-REVUE CANADIENNE DE PSYCHOLOGIE EXPERIMENTALE, 61(3) (3), 230 - 241, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Haptic recognition of static and dynamic expressions of emotion in the live face

  S. J. Lederman, R. L. Klatzky, A. Abramowicz, K. Salsman, R. Kitada, C. Hamilton

  If humans can detect the wealth of tactile and haptic information potentially available in live facial expressions of emotion (FEEs), they should be capable of haptically recognizing the six universal expressions of emotion (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise) at levels well above chance. We tested this hypothesis in the experiments reported here. With minimal training, subjects' overall mean accuracy was 51% for static FEEs (Experiment 1) and 74% for dynamic FEEs (Experiment 2). All FEEs except static fear were successfully recognized above the chance level of 16.7%. Complementing these findings, overall confidence and information transmission were higher for dynamic than for corresponding static faces. Our performance measures (accuracy and confidence ratings, plus response latency in Experiment 2 only) confirmed that happiness, sadness, and surprise were all highly recognizable, and anger, disgust, and fear less so.

  BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, Feb. 2007, PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE, 18(2) (2), 158 - 164, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Haptic roughness perception of linear gratings via bare finger or rigid probe

  Michael A. Lawrence, Ryo Kitada, Roberta L. Klatzky, Susan J. Lederman

  The magnitude of perceived roughness was haptically estimated as subjects freely explored linear gratings with either the bare finger or a rigid stylus-shaped probe. A considerably expanded range of ridge and groove width was investigated, relative to the extant literature. The four experiments collectively indicate that, for both finger and probe-end effectors, the variance in the estimates of perceived roughness was predominantly predicted by a single parameter: groove width. The functions relating perceived roughness to groove width increased over a narrow band relative to the full range of values, then flattened. These data have archival values for models of roughness perception involving both direct and indirect touch.

  PION LTD, 2007, PERCEPTION, 36(4) (4), 547 - 557, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Multisensory activation of the intraparietal area when classifying grating orientation: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

  Ryo Kitada, Tomonori Kito, Daisuke N. Saito, Takanori Kochiyama, Michikazu Matsumura, Norihiro Sadato, Susan J. Lederman

  Humans can judge grating orientation by touch. Previous studies indicate that the extrastriate cortex is involved in tactile orientation judgments, suggesting that this area is related to visual imagery. However, it has been unclear which neural mechanisms are crucial for the tactile processing of orientation, because visual imagery is not always required for tactile spatial tasks. We expect that such neural mechanisms involve multisensory areas, because our perception of space is highly integrated across modalities. The current study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging during the classification of grating orientations to evaluate the neural substrates responsible for the multisensory spatial processing of orientation. We hypothesized that a region within the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) would be engaged in orientation processing, regardless of the sensory modality. Sixteen human subjects classified the orientations of passively touched gratings and performed two control tasks with both the right and left hands. Tactile orientation classification activated regions around the right postcentral sulcus and IPS, regardless of the hand used, when contrasted with roughness classification of the same stimuli. Right-lateralized activation was confirmed in these regions by evaluating the hemispheric effects of tactile spatial processing with both hands. In contrast, visual orientation classification activated the left middle occipital gyrus when contrasted with color classification of the same stimuli. Furthermore, visual orientation classification activated a part of the right IPS that was also activated by the tactile orientation task. Thus, we suggest that a part of the right IPS is engaged in the multisensory spatial processing of grating orientation.

  Lead, SOC NEUROSCIENCE, Jul. 2006, JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, 26(28) (28), 7491 - 7501, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Haptic face identification activates ventral occipital and temporal areas: An fMRI study

  AR Kilgour, R Kitada, P Servos, TW James, SJ Lederman

  Many studies in visual face recognition have supported a special role for the right fusiform gyrus. Despite the fact that faces can also be recognized haptically, little is known about the neural correlates of haptic face recognition. In the current fMRI study, neurologically intact participants were intensively trained to identify specific facemasks (molded from live faces) and specific control objects. When these stimuli were presented in the scanner, facemasks activated left fusiform, and right hippocampal/parahippocampal areas (and other regions) more than control objects, whereas the latter produced no activity greater than the facemasks. We conclude that these ventral occipital and temporal areas may play an important role in the haptic identification of faces at the subordinate level. We further speculate that left fusiform gyrus may be recruited more for facemasks than for control objects because of the increased need for sequential processing by the haptic system. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE, Dec. 2005, BRAIN AND COGNITION, 59(3) (3), 246 - 257, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Tactile estimation of the roughness of gratings yields a graded response in the human brain: an fMRI study

  R Kitada, T Hashimoto, T Kochiyama, T Kito, T Okada, M Matsumura, SJ Lederman, N Sadato

  Human subjects can tactually estimate the magnitude of surface roughness. Although many psychophysical and neurophysiological experiments have elucidated the peripheral neural mechanisms that underlie tactile roughness estimation, the associated cortical mechanisms are not well understood. To identify the brain regions responsible for the tactile estimation of surface roughness, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We utilized a combination of categorical (subtraction) and parametric factorial approaches wherein roughness was varied during both the task and its control. Fourteen human subjects performed a tactile roughness-estimation task and received the identical tactile stimulation without estimation (no-estimation task). The bilateral parietal operculum (PO), insula and right lateral prefrontal cortex showed roughness-related activation. The bilateral PO and insula showed activation during the no-estimation task, and hence might represent the sensory-based processing during roughness estimation. By contrast, the right prefrontal cortex is more related to the cognitive processing, as there was activation during the estimation task compared with the no-estimation task, but little activation was observed during the no-estimation task in comparison with rest. The lateral prefrontal area might play an important cognitive role in tactile estimation of surface roughness, whereas the PO and insula might be involved in the sensory processing that is important for estimating surface roughness. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  Lead, ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE, Mar. 2005, NEUROIMAGE, 25(1) (1), 90 - 100, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Moving tactile stimuli of fingers are integrated in the intraparietal and inferior parietal cortices

  R Ktiada, T Kochiyama, T Hashimoto, E Naito, M Matsumura

  When two cylinders are passively moved in-phase on the volar surface of the right second and third fingers, human subjects estimate the stimuli to originate from one object, whereas two separate objects are estimated for out-of-phase stimuli. While five blindfolded subjects performed this estimation task, brain activity was measured by fMRI. The in-phase stimuli activated the left intraparietal and inferior parietal areas significantly more than did out-of-phase stimuli. These parietal regions may play important roles in the integration of moving tactile stimuli that are independently provided on plural fingers, from which subjects internally construct a single object.

  Lead, LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS, Apr. 2003, NEUROREPORT, 14(5) (5), 719 - 724, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Internally simulated movement sensations during motor imagery activate cortical motor areas and the cerebellum

  E Naito, T Kochiyama, R Kitada, S Nakamura, M Matsumura, Y Yonekura, N Sadato

  It has been proposed that motor imagery contains an element of sensory experiences (kinesthetic sensations), which is a substitute for the sensory feedback that would normally arise from the overt action. No evidence has been provided about whether kinesthetic sensation is centrally simulated during motor imagery. We psychophysically tested whether motor imagery of palmar flexion or dorsiflexion of the right wrist would influence the sensation of illusory palmar flexion elicited by tendon vibration. We also tested whether motor imagery of wrist movement shared the same neural substrates involving the illusory sensation elicited by the peripheral stimuli. Regional cerebral blood flow was measured with H-2 O-15 and positron emission tomography in 10 right-handed subjects. The right tendon of the wrist extensor was vibrated at 83 Hz ("illusion") or at 12.5 Hz with no illusion ("vibration"). Subjects imagined doing wrist movements of alternating palmar and dorsiflexion at the same speed with the experienced illusory movements ("imagery"). A "rest" condition with eyes closed was included. We identified common active fields between the contrasts of imagery versus rest and illusion versus vibration. Motor imagery of palmar flexion psychophysically enhanced the experienced illusory angles of plamar flexion, whereas dorsiflexion imagery reduced it in the absence of overt movement. Motor imagery and the illusory sensation commonly activated the contralateral cingulate motor areas, supplementary motor area, dorsal premotor cortex, and ipsilateral cerebellum. We conclude that kinesthetic sensation associated with imagined movement is internally simulated during motor imagery by recruiting multiple motor areas.

  SOC NEUROSCIENCE, May 2002, JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, 22(9) (9), 3683 - 3691, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal


• Perceptual changes in illusory wrist flexion angles resulting from motor imagery of the same wrist movements

  R Kitada, E Naito, M Matsumura

  Recent neuroimaging studies have suggested that similar cortical motor areas are recruited both by kinesthetic sensations elicited by tendon vibration and by voluntarily imaging one's own movements of the same joints. Little is known, however, as to whether kinesthetic motor imagery interacts with kinesthetic illusion. We examined such interaction by behavioral analysis in which 19 subjects imagined wrist flexion or extension, with or without illusory flexion induced by tendon vibration. Electromyograms were also recorded to monitor the peripheral modulations caused by the interaction. The kinesthetic motor imagery had a psychophysical effect on kinesthetic illusion in the absence of overt movement. It was confirmed that the subjects could imagine wrist movements without facilitating muscle activities in the absence of vibration stimuli. The electromyogram activity of the vibrated extensor muscles was significantly higher than that of non-vibrated flexor muscles. Motor imagery of wrist extension, when illusory flexion was experienced, reduced the angle of illusory flexion while enhancing extensor muscle activities in comparison with the control. On the other hand, flexion motor imagery increased the angle of illusory flexion with or without enhancement of flexor muscle activities. Our results indicate that motor imagery interacts with kinesthetic illusion with or without enhancement of activities of the related muscles. This suggests (1) that common neural substrates shared by imagery and by illusion exist and (2) that different physiological mechanisms contribute to the enhancement of muscle activities of vibrated muscles and their antagonists. (C) 2002 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

  Lead, PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2002, NEUROSCIENCE, 109(4) (4), 701 - 707, English

  [Refereed]

  Scientific journal

• 認知神経科学者の海外サバイバル—特集 グローバルな研究者像を探る

  北田 亮

  東京 : 日本バーチャルリアリティ学会, Sep. 2023, 日本バーチャルリアリティ学会誌 = Journal of the Virtual Reality Society of Japan / 日本バーチャルリアリティ学会 編, 28(3) (3), 17 - 20, Japanese


• 自閉スペクトラム症者と定型発達者における身体部位表象

  栗原勇人, 栗原勇人, 小坂浩隆, SCHUSTER Bianca, 北田亮, 河内山隆紀, 岡沢秀彦, 大須理英子, 岡本悠子

  2023, 日本ヒト脳機能マッピング学会プログラム・抄録集, 25th


• ASDの非定型的な触覚の特徴と社会性の関連

  福岡彩加, 北田亮, 牧田快, 牧野拓也, 小坂浩隆

  2023, 日本精神神経学会総会プログラム・抄録集, 119th


• 触覚刺激弁別課題時における複数脳領域における活動と情報表現の相互作用

  佐藤海渡, 野崎恵, 中谷駿, 高橋陽香, 角谷基文, 北田亮, 定藤規弘, 定藤規弘, 神谷之康, 神谷之康, 宮脇陽一

  2022, 日本神経化学会大会抄録集(Web), 65th


• Brain mechanisms underlying haptic recognition of familiar objects

  北田 亮

  日本基礎心理学会, Sep. 2016, 基礎心理学研究 = The Japanese journal of psychonomic science, 35(1) (1), 68 - 71, Japanese


• Brain mechanisms underlying haptic recognition of familiar objects

  北田亮

  <p>Among our senses, there has been considerable interest in the neural mechanisms underlying visual object recognition. By contrast, relatively little is known about the mechanisms underlying the haptic object perception. Here, I review the previous findings of our neuroimaging experiments on haptic object perception and propose the framework of haptic object recognition in terms of hierarchical and parallel distributed processing. I argue that different brain regions beyond the conventional somatosensory cortex are assigned to processing of different object properties, whereas such separately processed object information may be integrated with another cortical network including a node in the high-order visual cortex. Finally, I also discuss critical questions to be addressed for validating and extending this framework.</p>

  日本基礎心理学会, Sep. 2016, 基礎心理学研究, 35(1) (1), 68 - 71, Japanese


• 触覚と特別支援教育(1)―触図認知と触覚教材・教具作り―

  和氣典二, 渡辺哲也, 北田亮, 大内進, 和氣典二

  Aug. 2016, 日本特殊教育学会大会発表論文集(CD-ROM), 54th, ROMBUNNO.JISHUSHIMPOJIUMU6, Japanese


• 自閉スペクトラム症における顔認知・身体認知に関与する視覚領域の発達遅延

  岡本悠子, 小坂浩隆, 北田亮, 関あゆみ, 田邊宏樹, 林正道, 河内山隆紀, 齋藤大輔, 谷中久和, 棟居俊夫, 石飛信, 大森晶夫, 和田有司, 岡沢秀彦, 小枝達也, 定藤規弘

  2016, 日本ヒト脳機能マッピング学会プログラム・抄録集, 18th, 55, Japanese


• 触覚刺激時におけるヒト視覚野の活動と触覚情報表現

  中谷駿, 高橋陽香, 高橋陽香, 青木直哉, 青木直哉, 北田亮, 北田亮, 定藤規弘, 定藤規弘, 神谷之康, 神谷之康, 宮脇陽一

  02 Sep. 2015, 日本神経回路学会全国大会講演論文集, 25th, 6 - 7, Japanese


• 触覚による物体認識の脳内ネットワーク

  北田亮

  Aug. 2015, 日本心理学会大会発表論文集, 79th, ITL(4), Japanese


• Dual-hemisphere direct current stimulation over the secondary somatosensory cortex improves spatial tactile acuity in human.

  Fujimoto S, Yamaguchi T, Kon N, Osu R, Otaka Y, Kondo K, Kitada R, Tanaka S

  Sep. 2014, Neuroscience 2014,, Yokoyama, Japan.


• Neural substrates of contingency detection for self and other in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: an fMRI study

  Sasaki A, Kosaka, H, Saito DN, Inohara, K, Jung, M, Kitada R, Okazawa H, Sadato N

  Mar. 2014, International Workshop on Molecular Functional Imaging for Brain and Gynecologic Oncology


• 失認―What’s new?触覚認知 触覚認知の心理学

  北田亮

  01 Feb. 2014, Clin Neurosci, 32(2) (2), 183 - 186, Japanese

  [Invited]


• 他者の動作理解に関わる神経基盤の形成に視覚脱失が与える影響

  北田亮

  2014, 日本ヒト脳機能マッピング学会プログラム・抄録集, 16th, 30, Japanese


• Properties of visual cortex in blind individuals

  北田亮

  01 Aug. 2012, Clin Neurosci, 30(8) (8), 953 - 954, Japanese

  [Invited]


• Parietal cortex plays a role in translating cardinal utility into ordinal utility.

  Yamada K, Tanaka, SC, Kitada R, Tanaka S, Sugawara SK, Sadato N, Otake F

  2012, Society for Neuroscience 42st Annual Meeting,, New Orleans, USA,


• Cognitive Brain Mechanisms Underlying Haptic Social Communication

  KITADA RYO

  The Robotics Society of Japan, 2012, 日本ロボット学会誌, 30(5) (5), 466-468 (J-STAGE) - 468, Japanese

  [Invited]


• fMRIを用いた手つなぎ時の脳活動計測

  川道拓東, 北田亮, 吉原一文, 佐々木章宏, 高橋陽香, 高橋陽香, 定藤規弘

  認知神経科学会, Sep. 2011, 認知神経科学, 13(2) (2), 176 - 176, Japanese


• The EBA dysfunction in the ASD; as a "comparator" of self and other's action during reciprocal imitation

  Yuko Okamoto, Hirotaka Kosaka, Ryo Kitada, Hiroki C. Tanabe, Toshio Munesue, Makoto Ishitobi, Masamichi J. Hayashi, Daisuke N. Saito, Hisakazu T. Yanaka, Takanori Kochiyama, Masao Omori, Yuji Wada, Hidehiko Okazawa, Norihiro Sadato

  ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD, 2011, NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH, 71, E386 - E387, English

  Summary international conference


• Like-me: The role of extrastriate body area for recognition of being imitated

  Yuko Okamoto, Ryo Kitada, Akihiro Sasaki, Tomoyo Morita, Shoji Itakura, Takanori Kochiyama, Hiroki C. Tanabe, Norihiro Sadato

  ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD, 2009, NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH, 65, S195 - S195, English

  Summary international conference


• Brain networks involved in haptic and visual identification of facial expressions of emotion: An fMRI study

  Ryo Kitada, Ingrid Johnsrude, Takanori Kochiyama, Susan Lederman

  ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD, 2009, NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH, 65, S178 - S178, English

  Summary international conference


• Research on the central control of oral and maxillofacial region. The research of the cerebral control of micturition using MEG.

  AOYAGI TEIICHIRO, HAYAKAWA KUNIHIRO, MIYAJI KEISUKE, ISHIKAWA HIROMICHI, HATA MAKOTO, NAITO EIICHI, KOCHIYAMA TAKANORI, KITADA RYO

  2004, 口腔・顎顔面の中枢制御に関する研究 平成11-15年度, 495(1),495-502, Japanese


• 5.MEGを用いた排尿機能の脳内制御の研究

  青柳貞一郎, 畠亮, 早川邦弘, 宮地系典, 石川博通, 内藤栄一, 河内山隆紀, 北田亮

  30 Jan. 2003, 齒科學報, 103(1) (1), 10 - 11, Japanese


• 3B05 MEGを用いた排尿機能の脳内制御の研究

  青柳貞一郎, 早川邦弘, 宮地系典, 石川博通, 畠亮, 河内山隆紀, 北田亮, 内藤栄一

  30 Jan. 2003, 齒科學報, 103(1) (1), 41 - 41, Japanese


• MEGを用いた排尿機能の脳内制御の研究

  青柳貞一郎, 早川邦弘, 宮地系典, 石川博通, 畠亮, 河内山隆紀, 北田亮, 内藤栄一

  30 Jan. 2003, 歯科学報, 103(1) (1), 41 - 11, Japanese


• 反応課題中のTMSによる運動誘発電位の解析 1 GO/NO‐GO課題中の主動筋における選択的抑制

  橋本敏宏, 武井智彦, 河内山隆紀, 北田亮, 大内田裕, 内藤栄一, 松村道一

  07 Jul. 2002, 日本神経科学大会プログラム・抄録集, 25th, 203, Japanese


• 複数の指の動的触覚刺激統合に関するfMRI研究

  北田亮, 河内山隆紀, 橋本敏宏, 内藤栄一, 松村道一

  07 Jul. 2002, 日本神経科学大会プログラム・抄録集, 25th, 161, Japanese


• 視覚による「主観の誘導」が与える行動学的影響

  富田広美, 河内山隆紀, 守田知代, 北田亮, 松村道一

  07 Jul. 2002, 日本神経科学大会プログラム・抄録集, 25th, 259, Japanese


• 脳磁図計(MEG)による外陰部刺激誘発磁場の測定

  青柳貞一郎, 早川邦弘, 宮地系典, 石川博通, 畠亮, 河内山隆紀, 北田亮, 内藤栄一

  医学図書出版(株), 15 May 2002, 泌尿器外科, 15(臨増) (臨増), 531 - 531, Japanese


• Internally simulated movement sensations activate cortical motor areas and the cerebellum during motor imagery

  KITADA AKIRA, NAITO EIICHI, KOCHIYAMA TAKANORI, NAKAMURA SATOSHI, MATSUMURA MICHIKAZU, YONEKURA YOSHIHARU, SADATO NORIHIRO

  26 Sep. 2001, 日本神経科学大会プログラム・抄録集, 24th, 259, Japanese


• Internally simulated movement sensations activate cortical motor areas and the cerebellum during motor imagery

  KITADA RYO, NAITO EIICHI, KAWACHIYAMA TAKANORI, NAKAMURA SATOSHI, MATSUMURA MICHIKAZU, YONEKURA YOSHIHARU, SADAFUJI NORIHIRO

  01 Sep. 2001, 神経化学, 40(2/3) (2/3), 315, Japanese


• 運動イメージの運動錯覚への影響,またはInfluences of motor imagery on kinesthetic illusion

  北田亮, 内藤栄一, 松村道一

  04 Sep. 2000, 日本神経科学大会プログラム・抄録集, 23rd, 316, Japanese

• Pervasive haptics

  Kitada Ryo

  Joint work, THE BRAIN NETWORK FOR HAPTIC OBJECT RECOGNITION, Springer Japan, 2016


• 心理学研究法 第１巻 知覚

  北田 亮

  Contributor, 誠信書房, 2011


• Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology (4th edition)

  Kitada R, Pawluk D

  Contributor, John Wiley & Sons, 2010


• Multsensory Object Perception in the Primate Brain

  Lederman SJ, Klatzky RL, Kitada R

  Contributor, Springer Verlag, 2010


• 触覚認識メカニズムと触覚センサ・触覚ディスプレイ技術

  北田 亮

  Contributor, サイエンス&テクノロジー, 2010


• 脳百話―動きの仕組みを解き明かす

  北田 亮

  Contributor, 市村出版, 2003

• Brain networks associated with interpersonal static touch: The effects of body part and social closeness

  Ryo Kitada, Hiroaki Kawamichi, Yuki H. Hamano, Eri Nakagawa, Sho K. Sugawara, Norihiro Sadato

  Annual Meeting of Organization for Human Brain Mapping, Jun. 2024, English

  Poster presentation


• 触質感と感情の関係性 -社会的触覚の側面から-

  北田 亮

  日本生理心理学会, May 2024, Japanese

  [Invited]

  Invited oral presentation


• ソーシャルタッチの 心理物理学的性質と神経基盤

  北田 亮

  日本臨床神経生理学会, Nov. 2023, Japanese

  [Invited]

  Public discourse


• 触感の神経メカニズム

  北田 亮

  計測自動制御学会SI部門触覚部会 触覚講習会, Nov. 2023, Japanese

  [Invited]

  Public discourse


• 触覚の脳科学

  北田 亮

  応用脳科学アカデミー, Oct. 2023, Japanese

  [Invited]

  Public discourse


• Social touch and haptically perceived material properties

  Ryo KITADA

  Symposium at the 97th annual convention of the Japanese Psychology Association, Sep. 2023, Japanese

  Public symposium


• Theta-burst stimulation-induced cortical plasticity in younger and older adults: a TMS-EEG study

  Goodwill AM, Lim W, Bashir S, Kitada R, Cheng W, SH Annabel Ch

  Annual Meeting of Organization for Human Brain Mapping, Jul. 2023, English

  Poster presentation


• Cognitive neuroscience research on haptics and its applications

  Ryo KITADA

  The Japanese Society for Cognitive Psychology, Oct. 2022, Japanese

  [Invited]

  Nominated symposium


• Cognitive Neuroscience Research on Social Touching

  自閉スペクトラム症国際シンポジウム, Feb. 2022, Japanese

  [Invited]

  Nominated symposium


• Social touching and brain networks

  Ryo Kitada

  触覚講習会(日本VR学会ハプティクス研究会主催), Dec. 2021, Japanese

  [Invited]

  Public discourse


• Survival of Cognitive Neuroscientists -Cognitive Neuroscience Research at a foreign university

  Ryo Kitada

  The 26th Annual Conference of the Virtual Reality Society of Japan, Sep. 2021, Japanese

  [Invited]

  Nominated symposium


• Research environment of foreign universities from the example of Singapore

  Ryo Kitada

  The 85th Congress of the Japanese Psychological Association, Sep. 2021, Japanese

  [Invited]

  Nominated symposium


• Functional relevance of the lateral occipito-temporal cortex in body recognition

  Ryo Kitada

  Imperial college-LKC neuroscience workshop, May 2021, English

  [Invited]

  Invited oral presentation


• Interpersonal tactile communication - from social networks to neural substrates

  The 14th Human Brain Science Seminar, 2021, English

  [Invited]

  Public discourse


• Brain networks in multisensory perception from touch to social cognition

  Cognitive Behavior-Brain Science Lectures (心の未来センター, 京都大学), Japanese

  [Invited]

  Public discourse


• Tactile perception of pleasantness in relation to perceived softness.

  Pasqualotto A, Ng MHS, Kitada R

  IEEE World Haptics Conference (Tokyo, Japan)., Jul. 2019, English

  Poster presentation


• The impact of blindness on the brain network underlying social cognition

  Cognitive Behavioral Psychology 2019, Feb. 2019, English

  [Invited]

  Keynote oral presentation


• The role of the extrastriate body area in social cognition: from body recognition to contingency detection

  The Annual meeting at the Japan Neuroscience Society, Jul. 2018, English

  Public symposium


• Brain network underlying tactile estimation of object stiffness - an fMRI study

  Kitada R, Doizaki R, Kwon J, Nakagawa E, Kajimoto H, Sakamoto M, Sadato N

  the Annual meeting of Human Brain Mapping 2018, Jul. 2018, English

  Poster presentation


• The effect of congenital blindness on body-sensitivity in the lateral occipito-temporal cortex

  the Annual meeting of Human Brain Mapping 2018, Jun. 2018, English

  Nominated symposium


• 触覚によるテクスチャに関わる脳内ネットワーク

  電気通信大学脳科学ライフサポート研究センター, Mar. 2018, Japanese

  Public discourse


• Abstractness of value representation in orbitofrontal cortex

  Yoshimoto T, Chikazoe J, Okazaki S, Sumiya M, Takahashi HK, Nakagawa E, Koike T, Kitada R, Okamoto S, Nakata M, Kosaka H, Yada T, Sadato N

  The 47th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Nov. 2017, English

  Poster presentation


• 触れることと物を知ること－脳はどのように触覚情報から物体を認知するのか

  2016年度日本リハビリテーション医学会市民公開講座 「動く・感じる～知っておきたい脳の働き～」, Nov. 2016, Japanese

  [Invited]

  Public discourse


• 触覚による物体の認識に関する脳内ネットワーク

  日本機械学会 講習会 「触覚技術の基礎と応用―ヒトの触覚理解を通して触覚技術の実現と価値を考える―」, Nov. 2016, Japanese

  [Invited]

  Public discourse


• ベルベット錯触の神経基盤.

  公益財団 中山隼雄科学技術文化財団第23回研究成果発表会, Sep. 2016

  [Invited]

  Public discourse


• Brain networks for haptic object recognition

  The 2nd International Workshop on Neuroimaging and Human Connectomics, Sep. 2016, English

  Nominated symposium


• Brain mechanisms underlying haptic recognition of familiar Objects

  Kitada Ryo

  Japanese Psychonomic Society Forum, Mar. 2016, English

  [Invited]

  Public discourse


• The effect of visual deprivation on brain networks underlying the recognition of face and body parts

  5th NIPS-CIN Joint Symposium, Nov. 2015, English

  Nominated symposium


• The supra-modal brain network for the recognition of faces and bodies: is visual experience necessary for the development of high-order visual cortices?

  The 5th International Conference on Cognitive Neurodynamics (ICCN), 2015, English

  [Invited]

  Public symposium


• 他者の動作理解に関わる神経基盤の形成に視覚脱失が与える影響

  北田 亮

  第16回ヒト脳機能マッピング学会（仙台）, Mar. 2014, Japanese, Domestic conference

  Nominated symposium


• ヒトの触覚に関する脳の解剖的・機能的構造

  北田 亮

  触覚講習会 (東京), Nov. 2013, Japanese, Domestic conference

  [Invited]

  Public discourse


• Neural representation underlying the recognition of facial and bodily expressions in the early blind

  Kitada Ryo

  Blind Brain Workshop (Pisa, Italy), Oct. 2013, English, International conference

  [Invited]

  Nominated symposium


• 触覚コミュニケーションの認知脳科学的メカニズム

  北田 亮

  名工大・生理研連携シンポジウム＆ワークショップ「触感の解析と理解」（名古屋、愛知）, Mar. 2013, Japanese, Domestic conference

  [Invited]

  Public symposium


• 触覚と脳が作る素材感

  北田 亮

  応用脳科学アカデミー （東京）．, Feb. 2013, Japanese, Domestic conference

  [Invited]

  Public discourse


• Neural Substrates Underlying Haptic Recognition of Face and Bodyparts

  Kitada Ryo

  Tactile Research Group Meeting, a Sattelite Meeting of Psychonomics Society (Minneapolis, MN, US), Nov. 2012, English, International conference

  [Invited]

  Nominated symposium


• 触覚の物体認知に関わる脳内メカニズム.快適性を考えるシンポジウム 日本繊維製品消費科学会（京都）

  北田 亮

  快適性を考えるシンポジウム 日本繊維製品消費科学会（京都）, Oct. 2012, Japanese, Domestic conference

  [Invited]

  Nominated symposium


• Neural substrates of haptic object perception.

  Kitada Ryo

  International Seminar on Time Series Modeling of Neuroscience Data (Okazaki, Japan)., Feb. 2012, English, International conference

  [Invited]

  Nominated symposium


• fMRIを用いた触覚研究 -触覚コミュニケーションを例として-

  北田 亮

  日本心理学会ワークショップ, Sep. 2011, Japanese, Domestic conference

  [Invited]

  Nominated symposium


• 触覚による顔認知の神経基盤

  北田 亮

  日本認知科学会「パターン認識と知覚モデル(P&P)」研究分科会, Mar. 2011, Japanese, Domestic conference

  [Invited]

  Nominated symposium


• 触覚による顔認知の神経基盤

  北田 亮

  日本動物心理学会自由集会, Aug. 2010, Japanese, Domestic conference

  [Invited]

  Nominated symposium

• Organization for Human Brain Mapping


• SOCIETY FOR NEUROSCIENCE


• JAPANESE COGNITIVE SCIENCE SOCIETY


• THE JAPANESE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION


• THE JAPAN NEUROSCIENCE SOCIETY

• 内受容感覚の順応が環境音の生起する情動に与える影響の検討 ◆

  HBF 公益財団法人放送文化基金, 助成（技術開発）, Apr. 2024 - Mar. 2025, Principal investigator


• ムーンショット目標9 こころの安らぎや活力の増大/ 篠田PM 子どものこころを支援する触覚パートナー/研究開発項目2. 触覚刺激が感情に及ぼす効果の評価

  国立研究開発法人科学技術振興機構 ムーンショット型研究開発事業, Dec. 2023 - Mar. 2025, Principal investigator


• The relationship between touch and social cognition in autism spectrum disorder

  北田 亮

  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research (Home-Returning Researcher Development Research), Kobe University, Apr. 2021 - Mar. 2025

  本研究計画は、自閉スペクトラム者が触れ合いを嫌う原因を認知神経科学的に調べ、その影響を社会的認知能力と社会的ネットワークの点から明らかにすることを目的としている。初年度の成果は以下の３点である。(1)コロナ禍の影響により対面実験が難しいため、オンラインで可能な社会ネットワーク実験の準備を行い、データ採集用プログラム及び解析プログラムを開発した。さらに定型発達者を対象とした先行研究結果(Suvilehto et al., 2019)が再現できたため、ASDを対象とした実験を開始した。(2)柔らかさと心地よさに関する心理物理学実験の成果を論文として発表した。具体的には、定型発達者が最も心地よいと報告した物理的な柔らかさ(柔性)は平均として5-7mm/N(1cm2あたり)であり、これは人肌を1N-2Nで押したときの柔性と一致することを明らかにした (Kitada et al., 2021 Scientific Reports) 。この結果は、「触れ合いは快感情を引き起こすことで、親類を含む他者との紐帯を強め、社会的ネットワークを形成する一因になる」とする仮説を支持する。その一方で定型発達者内での自閉症傾向（Autistic Quotient(AQ)の得点）との相関は観察されなかった。参加者のAQ得点のばらつきが十分大きくないことが理由である可能性もあるため、自閉スペクトラム者を対象とした研究を行う。(3)素材の柔らかさ・硬さの回答で日本人は音象徴語を用いるが、定型発達者を対象とした実験で、硬さ・柔らかさに関する日本語の音象徴語は英語圏の人でも偶然の確率より高く知覚できることが分かった(Wong et al., 2021 Frontiers in Psychology)。


• Assessing causality of the association between exercise and neurocognitive gains

  Annabel S H Chen, Masato Kawabata, Ryo Kitada

  MInistry of Education (MOE) Singapore, Academic Research Fund Tier 2 Grant, Jan. 2020 - Jan. 2023, Coinvestigator


• Touch and Blindness: cognitive brain researches on multisensory perception and the effect of visual deprivation on them

  Kitada Ryo

  Nanyang Technological University, NAP startup, Jan. 2017 - Jan. 2020, Principal investigator

  Competitive research funding


• Innovative rehabilitation through kinesthetic illusion

  Ohka Masahiro, MIYAOKA Tetsu, KITADA Ryo, SAITO Hirofumi

  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Challenging Research (Exploratory), Challenging Research (Exploratory), Nagoya University, 30 Jun. 2017 - 31 Mar. 2019

  In order to develop a new rehabilitation equipment, we investigated a wearable kinesthetic illusion device and illusion inducing behavior for stimulating multiple tendons to obtain the following achievements. 1) The wearable kinesthetic illusion device was composed of a miniature voice coil motor and a wrist supporter, and we developed a new control method for the device. 2) If we evaluated the wearable kinesthetic device, we elucidated that it had same inducing capability as the conventional desktop type. 3) When we determined the optimal stimulation spot of the extensor carpi ulnaris muscle inducing flexion directional illusion, the best spot was the connecting point of muscle and tendon. 4) When power assist and vibration stimulus were simultaneously applied to the wrist, discrete variation in wrist angle increased the kinesthetic illusion.


• Tactile stimulation device to control emotional response in psychological and neuroscience research

  KANAYAMA NORIAKI, Hara Masayuki, Watanabe Junji, Kitada Ryo

  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research, Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research, 01 Apr. 2016 - 31 Mar. 2019

  In this study, we have aimed to develop a tactile stimulation device, which induces emotional response, because we did not have such a standardized system for tactile emotion study in psychology and cognitive neuroscience research. Also we have tried to compare the emotional response elicited by the tactile stimulation using developed device to visual and auditory stimuli which elicit emotional response. As a result, we have successfully developed a tactile stimulation device and stimulation method.


• 触覚の質感を表現するオノマトペの神経基盤

  北田 亮

  日本学術振興会, 科学研究費助成事業 新学術領域研究(研究領域提案型), 新学術領域研究(研究領域提案型), 生理学研究所, 01 Apr. 2016 - 31 Mar. 2018

  本研究課題の目標は、 触覚で得た素材感とオノマトペの結びつきに関する神経基盤を明らかにすることである。本年度の目標どおり機能的磁気共鳴画像法(fMRI)を用いて①触覚による素材の柔らかさ強度に対応する神経基盤の同定（実験1）②柔らかさ強度を表現するオノマトペを表象する神経基盤の同定(実験2) ③触覚の神経基盤とオノマトペを表象する神経基盤の間の相互作用の同定(実験3)の３実験を完了させた。①に関する神経基盤の同定はほぼ完了し、②③の結果については現在解析を進めているところである。来年度から海外へ転出するが、それ以降も継続して結果をまとめる予定である。
  さらに質感に関する研究として、触覚による物体の動き知覚に関する論文を発表した。私たちが触覚から質感を抽出するには、自分の肌か物体が動いていることが重要である。例えば粗さは手の動きの速度に関わらず同じように知覚されることが知られており、この速度に対する粗さの恒常性がどのようにして生じるのかについてはよく分かっていなかった。そもそも粗さ知覚の神経基盤はある程度調べられているものの、触覚の速度知覚に関する神経基盤は、これまで安静条件に対する比較として調べられてきたため、詳しいことがわかっていなかった。この点に取り組むためfMRIによる実験を行い、①二次体性感覚野が速度に相関した活動を示すこと②触覚の速度知覚は動く物体のテクスチャによって変わること ③さらにテクスチャ処理に関わる部位である一次体性感覚野が、速度に関する二次体性感覚野に機能的結合を通じて影響を与えること、を発見した。これらの結果は触覚による速度知覚を理解するための知見を提供する。


• A Study to Elucidate Control Method of Illusionary Hand Movement Based on Fusion Effects of Kinesthetic and Rubber-Hand Illusions

  Ohka Masahiro, MIYAOKA Tetsu, KITADA Ryo, SAITO Hirofumi

  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B), Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B), Nagoya University, 01 Apr. 2014 - 31 Mar. 2018

  In order to develop a new rehabilitation system, we elucidate mechanism and controllability of fusion effect of kinesthetic illusion (KI) and rubber-hand illusion (RHI). The former KI is an illusion of limb movement caused by vibration stimulus applied for muscle spindles; the latter RHI is an illusion of limb movement caused by visual stimulus of hand movement movie overlapped on human subject’s hand. In this study, we developed a new equipment generation both of KI and RHI to elucidate the fusion effect. Furthermore, we performed a series of psychophysical experiments to observe that the effect of KI was reinforced by RHI.


• A study of controlling virtual reality using tactile illusion and pseudo-haptics

  OHKA Masahiro, MIYAOKA Tetsu, KITADA Ryo, SAITO Hirofumi

  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research, Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research, Nagoya University, 01 Apr. 2015 - 31 Mar. 2017

  In this study, we are attempting to obtain scientific findings, which are available for new haptic devices using pseudo-haptics and velvet hand illusion (VHI). Due to this, we will develop three haptic devices to investigate brain activity invoked by virtual reality (VR) using brain machine interfaces (BMI) such as ElectroEncephaloGram(EEG), Near InfraRed Spectroscopy(NIRS), and HemoencEphaloGraphy (HEG). Our achievements are summarized as follows: 1) compressible force for the tactile pad of the manipulator typed haptic device should be controlled within the range between 1 and 2 N to obtain virtual hardness introduced by pseudo-haptics; 2) the alpha-wave amplitude decreased when searching and extract contour of virtual object through the tactile mouse for fingertips; 3) virtual smooth surface presentation is possible using VHI even if the tactile mouse presenting convex-and-concave pattern is applied as the haptic device.


• A classification of tactile illusions and information processing mechanisms of the illusions

  Miyaoka Tetsu, OHKA Masahiro, KITADA Ryo

  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research, Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research, Shizuoka Institute of Science and Technology, 01 Apr. 2013 - 31 Mar. 2016

  We performed psychophysical experiments for three typical examples of tactile illusions (a velvet hand illusion: VHI, a fishbone tactile illusion: FTI, and a lattice tactile illusion: LTI) and brain functional imaging experiments for the VHI. We supposed that virtual surfaces were produced in an observer's brain when suitable tactile stimuli were presented to observers. The observers feel tactile illusions when virtual-stimulus-surface characteristics do not match with the surface characteristics which the observers expected. We estimated that subjective frictions of the virtual surfaces were important to understand the tactile illusions. We need to pay attention that the subjective frictions are produced by the activities of nervous system and are different from the physical frictions.


• The effect of visual deprivation on the development of the ability to understand others and form social ties

  Kitada Ryo

  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B), Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B), National Institute for Physiological Sciences, 01 Apr. 2013 - 31 Mar. 2016, Principal investigator

  How visual experience in early life affects the development of the ability to understand other’s behavior? In the field of developmental psychology, vision is considered to be critical. By contrast, I showed that born blind individuals can recognize simple hand actions. Moreover, the common brain regions underlying the recognition of hand shapes are activated between vision and touch. Activation of such regions were observed in both blind and sighted individuals. These results indicate that the brain networks for the recognition of other’s actions can partially develop even in the absence of early visual experience.

  Competitive research funding


• スキンシップが惹起する情動の脳認知科学的メカニズム

  北田 亮

  日本学術振興会, 科学研究費助成事業 新学術領域研究(研究領域提案型), 新学術領域研究(研究領域提案型), 生理学研究所, 01 Apr. 2013 - 31 Mar. 2015, Principal investigator

  本研究の目的はスキンシップの重要性を念頭に「脳はどのように触覚で素材を理解して、情動を惹起するのか」について脳認知科学的に明らかにすることである。成果は主に次の2点からなる。
  (1)昨年度は機能的磁気共鳴画像法(fMRI)を用いた実験により、側頭葉内側部など長期記憶に関わる神経基盤が素材情報の視触覚比較に関与することを明らかにした。本年度はこの成果を国内外の研究集会(Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting・多感覚研究会・質感脳情報学研究集会「触覚サテライトミーティング」で発表し、専門誌（Neuropsychologia）に発表した。
  (2)さらに本年度は他者との接触がどのように不快情報の処理を抑制するのかに関するfMRI研究を遂行した。この研究では健常被験者が、ゴムでできた偽者の手および友人の手に触れながら、不快および不快でない（中性）画像を観察し、その不快度を評定した。不快画像の条件では中性画像の条件に比べて、後頭－側頭領域にわたる視覚野が強く活動した。しかしこの活動の一部は、偽者の手の条件でのみ観察され、友人の手の条件では観察されなかった。すなわち友人の手と接触しているときは、不快刺激に対する視覚野の活動の一部が抑制されることが明らかになった。ただし不快度の評定は親友の手と偽物の手の間に違いがないことから、不快刺激の処理に本質的に不要な活動が減弱されたと解釈した。この成果は論文としてまとめ、Frontiers in Human Neuroscience誌に採択された。

  Competitive research funding


• 触覚による表情模倣の神経基盤－晴眼者と視覚障害者の比較

  北田 亮

  日本学術振興会, 科学研究費助成事業 新学術領域研究(研究領域提案型), 新学術領域研究(研究領域提案型), 生理学研究所, 01 Apr. 2011 - 31 Mar. 2013, Principal investigator

  本年度の研究実績は次の3点からなる。 ①視覚障害者の顔表情の認識に関わる神経基盤の同定を完了し、論文として海外科学雑誌に発表した(Kitada et al., 2013 Frontiers in Human Neuroscience)。
  ②Extrastriate body area(EBA)は視覚野にある領域で、他のカテゴリの画像に比べて身体部位の画像に対して強く反応する領域である。我々はEBAが動作模倣における他者と自己の動作の一致性に重要であることを発見した。現在、自閉症群との比較の結果をまとめ、論文として投稿する準備を行っている(Okamoto et al., under review; Yahata et al., in preparation)。
  ③EBAが果たして視覚障害者でも存在するかどうかを明らかにするため、視覚障害者と晴眼者を対象にfMRI実験を実施した。まず晴眼者では触覚を用いようと視覚を用いようと、他のカテゴリの物体に比べ、身体部位に対して反応特異性を示すことを明らかにした。現在、視覚障害者の活動パターンに関して、詳細な解析を実施している。

  Competitive research funding


• Crossmodal neural mechanisms underlying material perception

  KITADA Ryo

  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B), Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B), National Institute for Physiological Sciences, 2011 - 2012, Principal investigator

  I conducted the following two studies on tactile material perception. (1) We compared the psychophysical patterns of roughness perception and unpleasantness. The psychophysical functions were between the two percepts were highly similar, whereas the constancy of roughness to motion was greater than that of unpleasantness. (2) We investigated brain activity during detecting congruency/incongruency of materials presented visually and haptically. We found that neural substrates revealing the congruency/incongruency effect during perception of materials were different from those during perception of spatial properties of an object (e.g., orientation).

  Competitive research funding


• 触覚による顔認知の神経基盤-晴眼者と視覚障害者の比較

  北田 亮

  日本学術振興会, 科学研究費助成事業 新学術領域研究(研究領域提案型), 新学術領域研究(研究領域提案型), 生理学研究所, 2009 - 2010, Principal investigator

  他者に理解しやす顔表情の表出は円滑なコミュニケーションに重要な役割を果たす。 しかし視覚障害者が表出した顔表情は、晴眼者の表情に比べて認識することが難しいとされている。晴眼者は顔を触るだけで個人や表情を識別できるので、触覚を用いた顔表情の学習によって、より認識しやすい顔表情の表出ができる可能性がある。しかし触覚による顔の認識を支える神経基盤についてはよく分かっていない。例えば視覚による顔の認識には、後頭葉・側頭葉の特異的なシステムの役割が重要であるが、このシステムが多感覚的な顔認識に関わるかどうかはよく分かっていない。さらに視覚障害者で顔認識に関わるこのシステムが発達し、維持されているかどうかも不明である。本研究は顔認知に関わる神経基盤の多感覚性と可塑性について明らかにしようとするものである。 平成21年度は顔認知に関する神経基盤の多感覚性を明らかにした(Kitada, et al., 2010 NeuroImage)。そこで平成22年度は顔認知に関わる神経基盤の可塑性について検討した。視覚障害者を対象に心理物理学実験を行い、視覚障害者でも識別できることを明らかにした。さらに機能的磁場共鳴法(fMRI)を用いて、顔表情の識別に関わる脳活動を先天的な視覚障害者(先天盲)と晴眼者で比較した。その結果、晴眼者の視覚と触覚による顔表情の識別に関わる大脳皮質領域(紡錘状回・中側頭回・下側前頭前野)は、先天盲による顔表情の識別でも活動することを明らかにした。この結果は視覚経験に依存せず、顔表情の認識に関わる神経基盤が発達および維持されることを示している。

  Competitive research funding

• 偉人にチャレンジ

  NHK (BS プレミアム）, Jun. 2022

  Media report


• Why skin hunger is 2021’s most pressing issue

  Other than myself, VOGUE, VOGUE, Feb. 2021, https://vogue.sg/why-skin-hunger-is-2021s-most-pressing-issue/

  Paper


• NA

  NHK, 38301904, 24 Jul. 2016

  Media report


• Schnalzend zum Ziel

  Other than myself, wissenschaft.de, bild der wissenschaft, Dec. 2015, page 26

  Paper


• 生命38億年スペシャル 最新脳科学ミステリー“人間とは何だ…！？”

  12 Feb. 2014

  Media report


• 脳科学のフロンティア 岡崎・自然科学研究機構 （下） 社会脳と電脳

  中日新聞, 09 Feb. 2013

  Paper


• あさイチ 人生を変える！ほめパワー

  NHK, 01 Nov. 2010

  Media report