| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
SUGISHITA Morihio University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Medicine, Professor, 大学院・医学系研究科, 教授 (10114513)
INOUE Tamon University of Tukuba, Professor Emeritus, 名誉教授 (10168453)
KIRYU Toru KIRYU,Toru, 大学院・自然科学研究科, 教授 (80115021)
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| Research Abstract |
The main objective of the "Center of Excellence (COE)" project launched by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Science, Sports, and Technology (MECSST) in the early 1990's was to provide focused support to super select research groups deemed capable of developing into world-class research centers (Science 269:474, 1995). Accordingly, the project leaders selected for COE projects were responsible not only for carrying out conventional research projects but also for establishing an institute under his/her guidance. This program "Neuroscience of Music" has successfully created such a world-class institute in the field of human brain science. Its major aim is the scientific description of the "human mind" based on various state-of-the-art, advanced technologies in non-invasive imaging. A representative hardware development is the unique 3.0T vertical human MRI system. Under a virtual reality environment, this system, which received the 2000 Technology Award from the Society of Ins
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trument and Control Engineering (SICE), is producing a large number of indispensable data as the only system in the world capable of providing brain functionality under "truly" physiological conditions. Representative examples of new algorithms developed by this project are axonal and neuronal imaging. With the higher resolution imaging method, this algorithm has provided significantly high anatomical resolution at the sub-micron level. The Independent component-Cross correlation-Sequential epoch (ICS) analysis method developed in this project, based on higher order statistics, has successfully increased the capability of non-invasive cortical analysis at a level equivalent to needle studies in non-human primate. "True" microscopy is now under development with the 7.0T human system. Real-time functional MRI is also near completion, making use of k-space statistics on supercomputers. A detailed description of the individual investigations is above the scope of this summary. In principle, studies are focused on the elucidation of brain functional organization of human-specific brain functions such as language, abstract thinking, or handedness. Efforts in search for the basic principal unit of higher brain function have forged the establishment of "self-organizing associative memory" concept, referred to as "Vortex Theory of the Brain", and evolved into the new project "Neuroscience of Water Molecule" the main objective of which is to scientifically prove this theory. Less
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