Our Team
Director
Director
Hakwan Lau, Ph.D.
【 CV 】【 Google Scholar 】【 Book 】【 Twitter 】
Before joining RIKEN CBS in 2021, Hakwan was a tenured full professor at UCLA. His previous research is summerized in his book. For latest news, including lab openings and new papers, please follow him on twitter.
Researchers
Researchers
Alexei Dawes, Ph.D.
【 Twitter 】【 Research Gate 】【 Google Scholar 】
Alexei is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Laboratory for Consciousness at RIKEN CBS. He is interested in mental imagery – the capacity for the human mind to internally simulate objects, scenes, and events in vivid sensory detail. A key focus of Alexei’s work is the overlap between mental imagery and other cognitive processes like perception and memory, as well as how our conscious subjective experience is shaped by mental imagery and metacognition. He also studies the ways in which mental imagery varies across individuals, including in those with aphantasia (the congenital absence of mental imagery) who are “blind in the mind’s eye”. Alexei approaches these research questions using a range of techniques including behavioural psychophysics, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In his other life, he enjoys bodysurfing, ceramics, reading, rock-climbing, and playing the piano.
Qi Lin, Ph.D.
【 Google Scholar 】
Qi is broadly interested in learning and memory, and how individual differences in these processes interact with other aspects of the mind. She recently completed her PhD in the Department of Psychology at Yale University, working primarily with Dr. Marvin Chun. Her doctoral research focused who remember better (individual differences), what gets remembered (memorability), and more importantly, why, using tools from psychophysics, computational modeling to neuroimaging. Before that, she received her B.A. from New York University, working in the laboratory of Dr. Elizabeth Phelps and spent a year as a lab manager in the laboratory of Dr. Daniela Schiller, studying the malleability of emotional memory.
Collaborators
Collaborators
Ka-Yuet Liu, Ph.D.
【 Bio 】
I am an Associate Professor at UCLA Department of Sociology and a Senior Scientist at Riken Center for Brain Science's Laboratory for Neural Stem Cell Research. My research interests include network analysis and neurodevelopmental disorders.
Pui Chuen, Tam
My research interest is in promotion and persuasion of prosocial behaviour and health behaviour (especially blood donation). I am interested in cross-cultural differences as well. I also participated in political science research on historical injustice, apology, and intergroup forgiveness using new research method; social psychological research on how ownership effect could mitigate pain.MPhil in Psychology, Nagoya University
Technical Staff
Technical Staff
Administrative Staff
Administrative Staff
Hiroyo Yamaguchi