Psychiatry and Neurosciences

Prof.(Special Appointment) Yasumasa Okamoto

【Research Keyword】
Major depression, neuroimaging, biomarker, machine learning, neurofeedback

【Recent highlights】
Recently, we reported the associations of physical activity amounts with pleasure and with behavioral characteristics in daily life by objectively measuring amounts of physical activity using an accelerometer and by assessing subjective pleasure based on reporting in an activity record. Our results revealed that the association between physical activity and pleasure can explain individual differences in avoidance behavior.

Profiles of Faculty and Research Scholars

【Education】
We deliver lectures and clinical practice to introduce knowledge about psychiatry including basic interview methods, classification of mental disorders, consultation-liaison psychiatry or mental disorders including affective disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety disorder, stress-related disorder, organic mental disorder or dementia.

【Research】
We are acquiring MRI and associated clinical data for mood disorders (depression, bipolar disorder), social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, healthy adults, and high-risk subthreshold depression longitudinally through multicenter joint research. 
By data analysis using AI technology, we propose a method for differentiating bipolar depression and unipolar depression, a method for predicting treatment responsiveness, and a biotype based on the brain circuit of 5 diseases that often coexist and overlap. We are also conducting research on neurofeedback therapy as a non-pharmacological treatment that efficiently regulates the brain circuit of depression and animal research on the mechanism of neural circuit abnormalities in depression with unfavorable childhood experiences.


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