"Curiosity has its own reason for existence" by Albert Einstein
Thank you for visiting my website. I am Hiro Taiyo Hamada, Ph.D.
I started working in Araya Inc. in Tokyo from August 2019.
E-mail: hamada_h[at]araya.org
Research Areas: Systems Neuroscience; Cognitive Neuroscience
Topics: Serotonin, Brain-wide computation, Animal model of depression, Curiosity, Consciousness,
You can also check my blog posts which are tips on my research in English and in Japanese.
"transfer 05" by Sakuho Ito, Artist
NEWS
2022/08/09 My first and corresponding paper "Optogenetic activation of dorsal raphe serotonin neurons induces a brain-wide response in reward network" is out on bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.07.503074
2022/07/29 My co-authored paper "Tob1 is a key effector in hippocampal-mediated acute stress response." is published in Translational Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022-02078-7
2022/03/29 My co-authored paper "Functions of consciousness: conceptual clarification" is published in Neuroscience of Consciousness.
2022/03/23 Best presentation award 1st place for "AI agents for facilitating social interactions and wellbeing" at AAAI 2022 Spring Symposia.
2022/03/15 "AI agents for facilitating social interactions and wellbeing" is now published on arXiv.
2022/01/11 Our symposium paper for the spring AAAI symposium "AI agents for facilitating social interactions and wellbeing" has been accepted.
2021/10/01 Our tutorial paper "Gray Matter Analysis of MRI Images: Introduction to Current Research Practice" is out on Encyclopedia of Behavioral Neuroscience, 2nd edition. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819641-0.00163-8
2021/04/01 We won a KAKENHI grant on epistemic investigation of Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research C, Dr. Niikawa.
Introduction:
I currently work at Araya Inc. studying neural mechanism of curiosity. I received a Ph.D at Neural Computation Unit at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) under supervision with Prof. Kenji Doya. My speciality is to analyze neural imaging data to observe dynamical association between neural activity and behavioral performance with statistics and machine learning. My interest is how the brain represent the world and realize intelligence. From a phenomenological viewpoint, how my experience is associated with the world. I decided to work in Araya Inc. as a researcher for a new adventure with CEO Dr. Ryota Kanai (former Reader in Sussex University).
My current projects are:
Neural structural/functional correlates of curiosity
Dynamical brain states of an animal model of major depression
Optogenetic interrogation of brain-wide dynamics by serotonergic system
Research Topics
Neural functional correlates of depression and its neuromodulator
Brain attractor patterns in resting-state brain dynamics
Neurophenomenological training for conscious experience
Curiosity and exploratory behaviors
Research field
Systems Neuroscience
Cognitive Neuroscience
Neuro-phenomenology
Positive Psychology