Scientific Research on
Innovative Areas FY2016-2020Brain and Individuality

Platform of our Individuality Research

Our innovative research will be undertaken through close collaboration among researchers in A01 humanities and social sciences, A02 biology, A03 mathematics and technology to understand emergence of individuality in humans and other animals based on diversity in cerebral nervous system growth and development and fluctuations due to intervention. By establishing models and frameworks common to humans and animals, it will be possible to perform animal-based research on problems such as intrapopulation maladaptation and transmission to the next generation, which have hitherto been difficult to research using human participants alone.

Research Group A01 will focus on individuality of humans throughout life, from infancy to elderly. This group explores the neural basis underlying the emergence of individuality, which appears in individual behavior, cognition, language function, personality, and so on. Not only neuroscience research, but also simulation modeling studies as well as behavioral studies on humans and other non-model animals will be devoted to achieve the goal.

Research Group A02 will examine, by using model animals, the effects of changes in genetic and environmental factors on brain activity and behavior during development, maturation and aging, and will elucidate molecular and neural bases for the establishment of individuality.

Research Group A03 will collaborate with A01 and A02 to develop tools and technologies for elucidation of the neural basis for individuality using multidisciplinary approaches. These include the tools for measuring cellular, neural, and behavioral individualities with high accuracy and precision as well as the development of mathematical models, statistical frameworks, and data-mining systems utilizing massive data collected.

We plan to promote these activities by establishing an international data-sharing platform. Because it is important for our society to handle scientific knowledge relating to individuality with solicitous caution, we intend to examine the ethical, society, and legal issues associated with the dissemination and utilization of scientific information regarding individuality and to provide a basis for the formation of a social consensus. We are planning to hold workshops for training cutting-edge technologies and retreat seminars for encouraging young researchers to interact with others in different research fields. We would like to raise our collaboration with unique ideas to perform interdisciplinary research on “individuality”.

Ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) are also critical in our research for public applications. We will organize outreach events to discuss on ELSI our research with public people. We hope our findings will bring a better society to accept the concept of “Individuality”.