Cognitive Neurotechnology Unit

News

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A new paper accepted to Perception (5 Sept 2026)

Congratulations to Shiyuan Wu and Yuya Kinzuka! This study asked how reduced visual acuity, blurred stimuli, and stimulus size affect the glare illusion and the pupillary response. Even without corrective lenses, and even under strong blur, observers still judged the glare stimulus as brighter. The rate of "brighter" responses went down, but the illusion itself did not disappear. The result shows that the glare illusion is robust under everyday viewing conditions.

Wu, S., Kinzuka, Y., Tamura, H., Nakauchi, S., & Minami, T. Modulation of glare illusion perception and pupillary responses with visual acuity and stimulus size. Perception, accepted.

A new paper accepted to Journal of Vision (30 Aug 2026)

Congratulations to Tomoya Okawa and Michael Martinsen (VPAC)! It is known that we see colour more easily in the lower visual field. This study asked whether the same up–down asymmetry also appears in central vision. Observers saw small stimuli in which only the upper or the lower half of a natural scene kept its colour, and judged whether the coloured region or the grey region looked larger. With a short presentation of 50 ms, the coloured region looked larger when the colour was in the lower half. This asymmetry disappeared when the pixels were shuffled so that the image could no longer be recognised as a scene. Central colour appearance therefore depends not only on retinal position, but also on the structure of the scene.

Okawa, T., Martinsen, M. M., Tamura, H., Nakauchi, S., Nascimento, S. M. C., & Minami, T. Vertical asymmetry in central colour evaluation: How spatial position and scene structure modulate the perceived size of coloured regions. Journal of Vision, accepted.

A new paper published in Journal of Vision (24 July 2026)

Congratulations to Dr. Hideki Tamura! This study asked how the pupillary response changes when observers judge the same object images either for glossiness or for attractiveness. Higher glossiness ratings went together with a stronger early constriction, close to the light reflex. Higher attractiveness ratings went together with a larger late dilation. The same stimulus can therefore produce a different time course of pupil response, depending on the task.

Tamura, H., Nakauchi, S., & Minami, T. (2026). Task-dependent pupillary responses to glossiness and attractiveness judgments. Journal of Vision, 26(9), 1. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.26.9.1

Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory) (26 June 2026)

Our project "Mechanisms of improved phonemic discrimination through the manipulation of pupil size" has been selected for a Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory), FY2026.

A new paper accepted to Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics (22 May 2026)

Congratulations to Shunsuke Terasawa, Yuya Kinzuka, and Fumiaki Sato! This study changed the clarity of objects made of dots, and asked how object recognition changes subjective duration. Stimuli that were easier to recognise were perceived as lasting longer. When observers could also name the object, the perceived duration became longer still.

Minami, T., Terasawa, S., Kinzuka, Y., Sato, F., & Nakauchi, S. (2026). Modulation of perceived time caused by stimulus clarity in object recognition. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 88, 148. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-026-03295-8

Dr. Hideki Tamura has been promoted (1 May 2026)

Dr. Hideki Tamura was promoted to Associate Professor in the field of Media and Robotics on 1 May. Congratulations! We will continue to work together on joint research.

New members (1 April 2026)

Six fourth-year undergraduate students joined our laboratory.

A new paper accepted to Vision Research (19 Nov 2025)

Congratulations to Moe Kudaka (VPAC) and Dr. Sachiyo Ueda (Tsuda University)! This study found an aftereffect for the variance of facial expressions in a crowd.

Kudaka, M., Ueda, S., Tamura, H., Minami, T., & Nakauchi, S. (2026). Variance aftereffects in the perception of facial expressions in crowds. Vision Research, 239, 108730. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2025.108730

A new paper accepted to International Journal of Social Robotics (17 Nov 2025)

Congratulations to Yuta Matsubara (VPAC) and Dr. Hideki Tamura! This study examined the relation between subjective emotion and physiological response when a person passes an autonomous mobile robot in virtual reality.

Matsubara, Y., Tamura, H., Minami, T., & Nakauchi, S. (2026). Subjective emotions and physiological responses during collision avoidance with a virtual autonomous mobile robot. International Journal of Social Robotics, 18, 5. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-025-01341-3

A new paper accepted to Consciousness and Cognition

Congratulations to Hirotaka Senda and Michael Martinsen (VPAC)! This study showed that the subjective brightness produced by the glare illusion can still be processed and discriminated without reaching conscious awareness.

Senda, H., Martinsen, M. M., Tamura, H., Nakauchi, S., & Minami, T. (2025). Illusory brightness under unconscious processing: Evidence from continuous flash suppression. Consciousness and Cognition, 136, 103943. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2025.103943

A new paper accepted to International Journal of Social Robotics

Congratulations to Taiki Konno (VPAC), Kaede Ito, and Dr. Hideki Tamura! This study clarified how people behave, and how comfortable they feel, when they hand a load to an autonomous wheeled robot.

Tamura, H., Konno, T., Ito, K., Matsubara, Y., Martinsen, M. M., Nakauchi, S., & Minami, T. (2025). Human behavior and comfort during load carrying to autonomous mobile robot. International Journal of Social Robotics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-025-01329-z

A new paper accepted to Journal of Vision

Congratulations to Miku Shibusawa (VPAC) and Yuya Hasegawa! By comparing dynamic and static changes of facial colour, this study showed a terminal colour dominance effect in the recognition of facial expressions.

Shibusawa, M., Hasegawa, Y., Tamura, H., Nakauchi, S., & Minami, T. (2025). Dynamic vs. static facial color changes: Evidence for terminal color dominance in expression recognition. Journal of Vision, 25(12), 8. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.25.12.8

Yuya Hasegawa received a student award from IEICE Tokai Section

Yuya Hasegawa received the Student Research Encouragement Award (FY2024) from the Tokai Section of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, for his work on the interaction between visual cues and face perception. Congratulations!

A new paper published in International Journal of Affective Engineering

Congratulations to Yugo Kobayashi! This study showed that approach or avoidance behaviour towards a face in virtual reality modulates the recognition of facial expressions.

Kobayashi, Y., Tamura, H., Nakauchi, S., & Minami, T. (2025). Facial expression recognition is modulated by approach-avoidance behavior. International Journal of Affective Engineering, 24(3), 253-266.

A new paper accepted to PLOS ONE

Congratulations to Tatsuto Yamauchi (VPAC) and Dr. Hideki Tamura! When a walking person and an autonomous wheeled robot pass each other, the robot can estimate from the person's waist angle which side the person will step to. Using this estimate, the robot can avoid the person in a way that feels comfortable.

Yamauchi, T., Tamura, H., Minami, T., & Nakauchi, S. (2025). Waist rotation angle as indicator of probable human collision-avoidance direction for autonomous mobile robots. PLOS ONE, 20(5), e0323632. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0323632

New members

Six fourth-year undergraduate students joined our laboratory (twelve together with VPAC), and two new master's students also joined.

Dr. Hideki Tamura received the Special Award for Public Relations

Dr. Hideki Tamura received the Special Award for Public Relations from our university, for his active communication of research results and his contribution to the public relations and branding of the university. Congratulations!

A new paper accepted to Scientific Reports (31 Jan 2025)

Congratulations to Yuma Taniyama (VPAC) and Yuji Nihei (VPAC)! Using P3 asymmetry, this study tested whether our preference for original paintings comes from the fluent processing of their colour composition. The original composition was processed more fluently than colour-rotated versions.

Taniyama, Y., Nihei, Y., Minami, T., & Nakauchi, S. (2025). Natural color composition induces oddball P3 asymmetry associated with processing fluency. Scientific Reports, 15(1), 4878.

A new paper accepted to Journal of the Optical Society of America A

Congratulations to Yuya Hasegawa (D1) and Dr. Hideki Tamura! This study showed that bright high-spatial-frequency components of the skin work as a cue for perceived dryness.

Hasegawa, Y., Tamura, H., Kanematsu, T., Yamada, Y., Ishiguro, Y., Nakauchi, S., & Minami, T. (2025). Visual cues for moisture perception of facial skin: A pilot study on the effects of enhancing high-spatial-frequency components of skin lightness to decrease perceived moisture levels in young Asian observers. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 42(5), B23-B33.

Yugo Kobayashi was selected as a JSPS Research Fellow (DC2)

Yugo Kobayashi (D2) was selected as a Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (DC2). Congratulations!

A new paper accepted to Journal of Vision

Congratulations to Michael Martinsen and Kairi Yoshino! This study showed that ambiguous stimuli with high face-likeness are processed unconsciously as faces, and break through perceptual suppression faster.

Martinsen, M. M., Yoshino, K., Kinzuka, Y., Sato, F., Tamura, H., Minami, T., & Nakauchi, S. (2024). Facial ambiguity and perception: How face-likeness affects breaking time in continuous flash suppression. Journal of Vision, 24(9), 18.

A new paper published in Journal of Vision

Congratulations to Yuya Hasegawa and Dr. Hideki Tamura! This psychophysical study showed that angry faces are remembered as more reddish.

Hasegawa, Y., Tamura, H., Nakauchi, S., & Minami, T. (2024). Facial expressions affect the memory of facial colors. Journal of Vision, 24(5), 14. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.24.5.14

Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A): Qualia Structure Science

Our project "Glare perception and physiological responses: A multifaceted approach to qualia structure science" has been selected for a Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A), "Qualia Structure Science".

A new paper accepted to Vision Research

Congratulations to Dr. Hideki Tamura!

Tamura, H., Nakauchi, S., & Minami, T. (2024). Glossiness perception and its pupillary response. Vision Research, 219, 108393. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2024.108393

Awards for our students

• Yugo Kobayashi received the FY2023 Student Award of our university. Congratulations!

• Yuya Hasegawa received the Best Presentation Award at the FY2023 research meeting of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Congratulations!

• Yugo Kobayashi and Yuma Taniyama (VPAC) received the Paper Award of the Japan Society of Kansei Engineering, for "Effects of the strength of face pareidolia on brain activity" (Transactions of JSKE, 2022, 21(1), 33-39). Congratulations!

Grant-in-Aid for Fostering Joint International Research

Our project has been selected for a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research, Fostering Joint International Research).

A new paper accepted to Cognition and Emotion

Congratulations to Nam Nguyen (VPAC) and Dr. Hideki Tamura!

Nguyen, N., Tamura, H., Minami, T., & Nakauchi, S. (2023). The effect of facial colour on implicit facial expressions. Cognition and Emotion, 37(7), 1290-1297.

A new paper published in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

Congratulations to Yuma Taniyama (VPAC)!

Taniyama, Y., Suzuki, Y., Kondo, T., Minami, T., & Nakauchi, S. (2023). Pupil dilation is driven by perceptions of naturalness of color composition in paintings. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 19(4), 866-877. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000580

A new paper accepted to Behavioral sciences

Istiqomah N*, Kinzuka Y, Minami T, Nakauchi S. Brightness Perception in World-Centered Coordinates Assessed by Pupillometry. Behav. Sci. 2023, 13(1), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs13010060

A new paper accepted to Heliyon

Istiqomah N, Suzuki Y*, Kinzuka Y, Minami T, Nakauchi S. Anisotropy in the peripheral visual field based on pupil response to the glare illusion. Heliyon 2022:e09772. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09772.

A new paper accepted to PLOS ONE

Kinzuka Y*, Sato F, Minami T*, Nakauchi S. The effect of red/blue color stimuli on temporal perception under different pupillary responses induced by different equiluminant methods, PLOS ONE, accepted.

A new paper accepted to Scientific Reports

Sato F, Shiomoto R, Nakauchi S, Minami T* Backward and forward neck tilt affects perceptual bias when interpreting ambiguous figures, Scientific Reports, accepted.

A new paper accepted to Scientific Reports

Nakakoga S., Shimizu K., Muramatsu J., Kitagawa T., Nakauchi S., Minami T.* Pupillary response reflects attentional modulation to sound after emotional arousal. Scientific Reports. accepted.

A new paper accepted to Psychophysiology

Kinzuka, Y., Sato, F., Minami, T.*, Nakauchi, S., Effect of glare illusion-induced perceptual brightness on temporal perception. Psychophysiology. accepted.

A new paper accepted to PLOS ONE

Minami T*, Azuma K, Nakauchi S (2020) Steady-state visually evoked potential is modulated by the difference of recognition condition. PLoS ONE 15(7): e0235309.

A new paper accepted to Scientific reports

Kinzuka Y., Minami T.*, Nakauchi S. Pupil dilation reflects English /l//r/ discrimination ability for Japanese learners of English: a pilot study. Scientific reports. accepted.

A new paper accepted to PLOS ONE

Nakakoga S, Higashi H., Muramatsu j.,  Nakauchi S, Minami T*. Asymmetrical characteristics of emotional responses to pictures and sounds: evidence from pupillometry . PLOS ONE. accepted.