Team

Atsushi Fujimoto, MD, PhD [Principal Investigator]

Bio: Atsushi learned the single-unit recording technique in non-human primates at Kyoto University (PhD adviser: Dr. Tadashi Ogawa), after graduating from a medical school. He also experienced the functional MRI in human participants (Dr. Hidehiko Takahashi, Kyoto Univ) and the application of chemogenetic tools to non-human primates (Dr. Takafumi Minamimoto, QST) as a postdoc in Japan, and later on interdisciplinary projects in non-human primates as an Instructor in the US (Dr. Peter Rudebeck, Mount Sinai). He joined the University of Minnesota as a faculty member in 2025. 
Research interest: Decision-making, interoception, addictive disorders.
Fun fact: His most important task this year is to obtain his driver's license in the US. 

Satoka Hashimoto Fujimoto, MD, PhD [Senior Researcher]

Bio: Satoka is a board-certified neurosurgeon with 10 years of clinical experience in Japan. In addition to her clinical research with epilepsy patients (PhD advisor: Dr. Taketoshi Maehara, Institute of Science Tokyo), she also experienced PET imaging and immunohistochemistry in epilepsy model rodents (Dr. Makoto Higuchi, QST). As a postdoc researcher co-supervised by Dr. Peter Rudebeck and Dr. Helen Mayberg at Mount Sinai, she studied the effect of deep brain stimulation on the brain in non-human primates. She joined the lab as a senior researcher in 2025 to further pursue translational research using non-human primates.
Research interest: Epilepsy, depression, neural plasticity.
Fun fact: Satoka is a swimmer.

Evelyn Miller, BA [Research Assistant]

Bio: Evelyn recently graduated from St Olaf College in Minnesota where she studied psychology and neuroscience. In her senior year she began a research project with a few classmates to investigate binge drinking and working memory in female adolescent mice. Outside the lab, Evelyn leads weekly sessions with clients in the adult rehabilitation mental health services program. Evelyn joined the Fujimoto lab in 2025 and is excited to be back in the collaborative research environment, exploring her interests and contributing to important research.
Research interests: Psychopathology, addiction, learning and memory
Fun Fact: Evelyn can play the trumpet and ride a unicycle

Serotonin and Dopamine [Lab Associates]

Bio: Since they were adopted by a neuroscientist couple at a cat cafe in NYC, they started to help their parents to launch a lab. 
Research interest: Serotonin's main interest is to establish a method to maximize the dry food by manipulating the mom's mind. Dopamine's work involves deliberately scratching Dad's face at 3 AM so that he wakes up and serves breakfast for them.
Fun fact: They have their Instagram account @neurocatsnyc