Members, Umeda Lab, Department of Psychology, Keio University

Satoshi Umeda> Personal Details: Currently I have been involved in the cognitive neuroscientific studies of human emotion, memory, social interactions, future thinking, and self-awareness from various research methodologies including neuropsychology, functional neuroimaging, basic and clinical psychophysiology.

Elisa M. Gallego Hiroyasu (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Research Fellow PD): As humans, we are constantly navigating through time and adjusting our behavior based on temporal cues in our environment, whether we realize it or not. Therefore, my research interests lie in the neural mechanism of temporal cognition. More concretely, I am interested in investigating the roles of the basal ganglia and other brain areas involved in temporal processing, in order to gain a better understanding of how we perceive and interact with the temporal world around us.

Midori Shibata (Keio University KGRI Center for Future Symbiosis, Reseach Collaborator): My research interests include the neural mechanisms of language comprehension, especially non-literal language comprehension (humor, metaphor, irony and indirect speech acts). I'm also interested in how emotion affects language processing, and how language elicits the emotional response in our brain.

Koki Tsuji (Keio University KGRI Center for Future Symbiosis, Reseach Collaborator): I'm interested in how people generate, sustain, and change preferences, and how those preferences affect decision-making. I approach these interests with experimental psychology and neuroscience. Recent projects have focused on how social reputation and popularity with others have an effect on the preference for commodities.

Yuto Tanaka (Keio University KGRI Center for Future Symbiosis, Reseach Collaborator): My interest is how body and mind affect each other to make emotion and human behavior and its mechanism. Especially, I'm interested in how interoception forms, and I want to know whether there is factor that comes from outside the body that might affect the interoceptive awareness.

Naoki Ishikawa (Keio University KGRI Center for Future Symbiosis, Reseach Collaborator): I'm interested in the psychophysiological process of empathy. For it, clear signals such as explicit smiley facial expressions play essential roles. However, unclear subtle signals such as implicit micro-expressions or skin colours also function for realising empathetic reactions. Using both measurements, I focus on the study of the interaction between psychophysiological and subjective empathetic responses.

Mai Sakuragi (D2, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Research Fellow DC): I am interested in the role of interoception in unintentional thought switching. By examining the relationship between the two from psychophysiological and neuroscientific perspectives, I hope to find effective approaches to psychiatric and neurological disorders that cause abnormal thinking states.

Kurumi Echigo (D1): I am interested in the non-adaptive thoughts and associated physical reactions found in depression and anxiety disorders. I hope to investigate effective approaches to such thoughts with experimental psychology and psychophysiology.

Ayano Arima (M2): What is pain? I'm interested in chronic pain, especially nociplastic pain that cannot be fully explained by nociceptive or neuropathic mechanisms. I'd like to explore the mechanisms of pain and ways to deal with it from the perspectives of cognitive neuroscience and physiological psychology.

Yuka Tomura (M2): I am interested in future thinking in depression. People with depression show difficulties in imagining a positive future than healthy people. My interests include how they can imagine a positive future and how it motivates them to take actions. I address these questions from psychophysiology, neuroscience, and cognitive psychology perspectives.

Wenjun Zhu (M2): My research interest lies in the effect of emotion and interoception on creativity, especially when shifting away from an unsolved problem. Based on this, I aim to conduct research focusing on mind-wandering and default mode network, exploring the relationship between creativity and interoception.

Yiyang Shi (M1): I am interested in how the reconstruction of memory influences future thoughts and behaviors over the long term. Memory is a dynamic representation that can be reshaped by various cognitive factors such as emotional states, physiological conditions, and learning processes. In particular, I focus on the reconstruction of memory at the retrieval stage and explore the potential for positive interventions in memory content, aiming to contribute to the promotion of long-term psychological well-being.

Kyoko Wanatabe (M1): I am interested in empathy that occurs between humans with bodies. I explore how shared emotions or empathy itself can be attributed to the self and how we understand others. Especially by focusing on the role played by the state and reactions of the brain and body of oneself and others, I hope to precisely interpret the relationship between the mind and body in society.

Mayu Yamamoto (M1): My research particularly focuses on the mechanisms underlying dissociative disorders and emotional disorders related to traumatic memories, such as PTSD. To investigate beneficial ways to cope with traumatic memories, I am conducting research using experimental psychology and neurophysiological methods.

Yuichi Ito (Department of Psychological Sciences, Kwansei Gakuin University)