ISODA, Masaki
Profile
After five years of
clinical training as a neurologist, I turned my career into
basic research work in the field of neuroscience. My goal in
research is to uncover the neuronal basis of higher brain
functions, with particular emphasis on cognition, emotion, and
action. For this purpose, I have carried out a series of
experiments by largely using a single-cell recording technique
combined with electrical microstimulation and anatomical
investigations in macaque monkeys. My early work with Dr. Jun
Tanji at Tohoku University centered on cortical mechanisms of
the sequential control of multiple actions and prefrontal
mechanisms of the categorization of behavioral sequences. I then
studied cortico-basal ganglia mechanisms of switching from
automatic to controlled behavior with Dr. Okihide Hikosaka at
the National Eye Institute. After coming back to Japan, I
started a challenging project investigating the neural basis of
social brain functions in physiology and disease. Since then,
social neuroscience research using macaques has brought me a
great deal of excitement and I therefore keep extending my ideas
along these lines. Currently, I am studying neuronal mechanisms
of reward value processing in social contexts. In parallel with
these studies, I have investigated cerebro-basal
ganglia-cerebellar mechanisms underlying tic disorders using a
nonhuman primate model of Tourette syndrome. All of my studies
provide important insights into how mental activities in
physiology and diseases are mediated by an ensemble of neuronal
activities in local and global brain networks.
Selected publications
・Yoshida K,
Go Y, Kushima I, Toyoda A, Fujiyama A, Imai H, Saito N, Iriki A,
Ozaki N & Isoda M (2016) Single-neuron and genetic
correlates of autistic behavior in macaque. Science
Advances 2: e1600558.
・Yoshida K,
Saito N, Iriki A & Isoda M (2012) Social error monitoring
in macaque frontal cortex. Nature Neuroscience 15:
1307-1312.
・Yoshida K,
Saito N, Iriki A & Isoda M (2011) Representation of
others’ action by neurons in monkey medial frontal cortex.
Current Biology 21: 249-253.
・Isoda M
& Hikosaka O (2007) Switching from automatic to controlled
action by monkey medial frontal cortex. Nature
Neuroscience 10: 240-248.
・Shima K,
Isoda M, Mushiake H & Tanji J (2007) Categorization of
behavioral sequences in the prefrontal cortex. Nature
445: 315-318.