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.

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