Updated on 2023/12/10

写真a

 
HIRAI Masahiro
 
Organization
Graduate School of Informatics Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences 2 Associate professor
Graduate School
Graduate School of Informatics
Undergraduate School
School of Informatics Department of Human and Social Informatics
Title
Associate professor

Degree 1

  1. 博士(学術) ( 2005.3   東京大学 ) 

Research Interests 16

  1. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

  2. モーションキャプチャ

  3. Atypical Development

  4. Typical Development

  5. Cross-cultural comparison

  6. cross-syndrome comparison

  7. Social-Cognitive Development

  8. Embodied Cognition

  9. Cognitive Science

  10. Experimental Psychology

  11. 他者行為知覚

  12. 顔認知

  13. 眼球運動計測

  14. 感情

  15. 心理物理実験

  16. 神経多様性

Research Areas 6

  1. Humanities & Social Sciences / Cognitive science

  2. Humanities & Social Sciences / Experimental psychology

  3. Life Science / Neuroscience-general

  4. Informatics / Perceptual information processing

  5. Humanities & Social Sciences / Childhood and nursery/pre-school education

  6. Life Science / Cognitive and brain science

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Current Research Project and SDGs 3

  1. 非定型発達児における認知・学習メカニズムの解明

  2. 社会的学習メカニズムの解明

  3. Social Cognitive Development in Individuals with Atypical Development

Research History 9

  1. 国立大学法人東海国立機構 名古屋大学大学院   情報学研究科   准教授

    2020.4

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    Country:Japan

  2. Birkbeck College, University of London   Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development   Visiting Researcher

    2017.4 - 2018.3

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    Country:Japan

  3. Jichi Medical University

    2015.7 - 2020.3

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    Country:Japan

  4. Jichi Medical University   Associate professor

    2013.4 - 2020.3

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    Country:Japan

  5. Central European University, HUNGARY   The Cognitive Development Center

    2012.9 - 2012.10

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    Country:Japan

  6. Institute for Developmental Research, Aichi Human Service Center   Researcher

    2011.5 - 2013.3

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    Country:Japan

  7. Queen's University, CANADA   Department of Psychology

    2009.4 - 2011.4

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    Country:Japan

  8. National Institutes of Natural Sciences

    2006.4 - 2009.3

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    Country:Japan

  9. 東京大学21世紀COE「心とことば-進化認知科学的展開」   研究拠点形成研究員

    2005.4 - 2006.3

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    Country:Japan

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Professional Memberships 8

  1. 日本心理学会

    2012.4

  2. 日本小児神経学

    2011.9

  3. 日本臨床神経生理学会

    2010.6

  4. 日本認知科学会

    2004.7

  5. 日本神経科学学会

    2003.12

  6. 日本視覚学会

    2003.3

  7. 日本赤ちゃん学会

    2003.3

  8. 日本基礎心理学会

    2002.8

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Committee Memberships 7

  1. Scientific Reports   Editorial Board  

    2023.9   

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    Committee type:Other

  2.   日本心理学会 国際賞選考委員  

    2023.11   

  3.   Scientific Reports Editorial Boards Member  

    2023.9   

  4.   世界で活躍できる研究者戦略育成事業 学術メンター  

    2023.5   

  5. 社団法人日本心理学会   機関誌等編集委員会委員  

    2021.11   

  6. 計測自動制御学会   システム情報部門自律分散システム部会運営委員  

    2017.1 - 2019.3   

  7. 31st Intertntional Congress of Psychology (ICP2016)   プログラム委員  

    2015.12 - 2016.7   

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Awards 8

  1. 日本心理学会学術大会優秀発表賞

    2022.10   公益社団法人日本心理学会   子どもの読書頻度は感情語の習得に関係するか?

    杉山恵里奈, 成松宏美, 平井真洋, 小林哲生

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    Award type:Award from Japanese society, conference, symposium, etc. 

  2. 日本心理学会第14回国際賞奨励賞

    2019.4   日本心理学会  

    平井真洋

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    Award type:International academic award (Japan or overseas) 

  3. 発達科学研究教育奨励賞

    2014.9   財団法人 発達科学教育センター  

    平井真洋

  4. BIOMAG 2008 YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD

    2008.8   International Conference on Biomagnetism  

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    Award type:Award from international society, conference, symposium, etc.  Country:Japan

  5. 第23回日本生体磁気学会U35若手研究者奨励賞

    2008.6   日本生体磁気学会  

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    Award type:Award from Japanese society, conference, symposium, etc.  Country:Japan

  6. 第22回日本生体磁気学会U35若手研究者奨励賞

    2007.6   日本生体磁気学会  

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    Award type:Award from Japanese society, conference, symposium, etc.  Country:Japan

  7. 優秀発表賞 日本基礎心理学会第24回大会

    2005.12   日本基礎心理学会  

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    Award type:Award from Japanese society, conference, symposium, etc.  Country:Japan

  8. 優秀発表賞 日本基礎心理学会第21回大会

    2002.11   日本基礎心理学会  

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    Award type:Award from Japanese society, conference, symposium, etc.  Country:Japan

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Papers 54

  1. Development of emotion comprehension in children with autism spectrum disorder and Williams syndrome,

    Ikeda, A, Hakuno, Y, Asada, K, Ikeda, T, Yamagata, T, Hirai, M

    Autism Research     2023.11

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    Authorship:Last author  

  2. Autistic traits associated with dichotomic thinking mediated by intolerance of uncertainty

    Noi Suzuki, Masahiro Hirai

    Scientific Reports   Vol. 13 ( 1 )   2023.8

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    Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:Springer Science and Business Media LLC  

    Abstract

    A recent cognitive model suggests that autistic individuals may experience dichotomous thinking patterns mediated by intolerance of uncertainty; however, empirical evidence to support this model is lacking. This study aimed to identify the relationships between autistic traits, intolerance of uncertainty, and dichotomous thinking using the Autism Spectrum Quotient, Short Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale, and the Dichotomous Thinking Inventory. We collected data from non-clinical university students (N = 151; pilot study) and general adults (N = 500; main study) and analyzed the results using structural equation modeling. Both studies showed a significant indirect effect of autistic traits on dichotomous thinking mediated by intolerance of uncertainty. Moreover, the results indicated that intolerance of uncertainty was significantly and positively associated with Autism Spectrum Quotient and Dichotomous Thinking Inventory scores. Conversely, there was a significant negative direct association between Autism Spectrum Quotient and Dichotomous Thinking Inventory scores. This is the first study to demonstrate that autistic traits can result in dichotomous thinking through intolerance of uncertainty. These findings provide insight into the cognitive patterns of autistic individuals.

    DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-41164-8

    Other Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-41164-8

  3. Comparison of the Social Responsiveness Scale-2 among Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Williams Syndrome in Japan Reviewed

    Masahiro Hirai, Kosuke Asada, Takeo Kato, Takahiro Ikeda, Yoko Hakuno, Ayaka Ikeda, Kanae Matsushima, Tomonari Awaya, Shin Okazaki, Toshihiro Kato, Yasuko Funabiki, Toshiya Murai, Toshio Heike, Masatoshi Hagiwara, Takanori Yamagata, Kiyotaka Tomiwa, Ryo Kimura

    Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders     2022.9

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    Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:Springer Science and Business Media LLC  

    DOI: 10.1007/s10803-022-05740-7

    Other Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-022-05740-7/fulltext.html

  4. Electrophysiological Evidence of Global Structure-from-Motion Processing of Biological Motion in 6-Month-Old Infants Reviewed

    Hirai, M, Hakuno, Y

    Neuropsychologia   Vol. 176 ( 6 ) page: 108229   2022.6

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author   Language:English  

    DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108229.

  5. Visual perspective-taking ability in 7- and 12-month-old infants Reviewed

    Ikeda, A, Kanakogi, Y, Hirai, M

    PLoS ONE     2022.1

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    Authorship:Last author, Corresponding author  

  6. Developmental changes to the neural mechanisms underlying level-2 visual perspective-taking: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study Reviewed

    Hirai, M, Sakurada, T, Ikeda, T, Monden, Y, Shimoizumi, H, Yamagata, T

    Developmental Psychobiology     2021.11

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author  

  7. Greater reliance on proprioceptive information during a reaching task with perspective manipulation among children with autism spectrum disorders Reviewed

    Hirai, M, Sakurada, T, Izawa, J, Ikeda, T, Monden, Y, Shimoizumi, H, Yamagata, T

        2021.8

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author   Language:English  

  8. Observing inefficient action can induce infant preference and learning Reviewed

    Hirai M, Kanakogi Y, Ikeda A

        page: e13152   2021.7

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)  

  9. Does culture shape face perception in autism? Cross‐cultural evidence of the own‐race advantage from the UK and Japan Reviewed International coauthorship

    Mary Hanley, Deborah M. Riby, Michael‐John Derges, Anna Douligeri, Zackary Philyaw, Takahiro Ikeda, Yukifumi Monden, Hideo Shimoizumi, Takanori Yamagata, Masahiro Hirai

    Developmental Science   Vol. 23 ( 5 )   2020.9

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    Authorship:Last author   Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:Wiley  

    DOI: 10.1111/desc.12942

    PubMed

    Other Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/desc.12942

  10. The two-process theory of biological motion processing Reviewed International coauthorship

    Masahiro Hirai, Atsushi Senju

    Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews   Vol. 111   page: 114 - 124   2020.4

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author   Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:Elsevier BV  

    DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.01.010

    PubMed

  11. Developmental changes in orienting towards faces: A behavioral and eye-tracking study Reviewed

    Masahiro Hirai, Yukako Muramatsu, Miho Nakamura

    International Journal of Behavioral Development   Vol. 44 ( 2 ) page: 157 - 165   2020.3

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author   Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:SAGE Publications  

    Previous studies show that newborn infants and adults orient their attention preferentially toward human faces. However, the developmental changes of visual attention captured by face stimuli remain unclear, especially when an explicit top-down process is involved. We capitalized on a visual search paradigm to assess how the relative strength of visual attention captured by a non-target face stimulus and explicit attentional control on a target stimulus evolve as search progresses and how this process changes during development. Ninety children aged 5–14 years searched for a target within an array of distractors, which occasionally contained an upright face. To assess the precise picture of developmental changes, we measured: (1) manual responses, such as reaction time and accuracy; and (2) eye movements such as the location of the first fixation, which reflect the attentional profile at the initial stage, and looking times, which reflect the attentional profile at the later period of searching. Both reaction time and accuracy were affected by the presence of the target-unrelated face, though the interference effect was observed consistently across ages. However, developmental changes were captured by the first fixation proportion, suggesting that initial attention was preferentially directed towards the target-unrelated face before 6.9 years of age. Furthermore, prior to 12.8 years of age, the first fixation towards face stimuli was significantly more frequent than for object stimuli. In contrast, the looking time proportion for the face stimuli was significantly higher than that for the objects across all ages. These findings suggest that developmental changes do not influence the later search periods during a trial, but that they influence the initial orienting indexed by the first fixation. Moreover, the manual responses are tightly linked to eye movement behaviors.

    DOI: 10.1177/0165025419844031

    Other Link: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0165025419844031

  12. Role of the Embodied Cognition Process in Perspective‐Taking Ability During Childhood Reviewed

    Masahiro Hirai, Yukako Muramatsu, Miho Nakamura

    Child Development   Vol. 91 ( 1 ) page: 214 - 235   2020.1

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author   Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:Wiley  

    DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13172

    Other Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/cdev.13172

  13. Prefrontal activity predicts individual differences in optimal attentional strategy for preventing motor performance decline: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study. Reviewed International journal

    Takeshi Sakurada, Aya Goto, Masayuki Tetsuka, Takeshi Nakajima, Mitsuya Morita, Shin-Ichiroh Yamamoto, Masahiro Hirai, Kensuke Kawai

    Neurophotonics   Vol. 6 ( 2 ) page: 025012 - 025012   2019.4

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    Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)  

    Directing attention to movement outcomes (external focus; EF), not body movements (internal focus; IF), is a better cognitive strategy for motor performance. However, EF is not effective in some healthy individuals or stroke patients. We aimed to identify the neurological basis reflecting the individual optimal attentional strategy using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Sixty-four participants (23 healthy young, 23 healthy elderly, and 18 acute stroke) performed a reaching movement task under IF and EF conditions. Of these, 13 healthy young participants, 11 healthy elderly participants, and 6 stroke patients showed better motor performance under EF conditions (EF-dominant), whereas the others showed IF-dominance. We then measured prefrontal activity during rhythmic hand movements under both attentional conditions. IF-dominant participants showed significantly higher left prefrontal activity than EF-dominant participants under IF condition. In addition, receiver operating characteristic analysis supported that the higher activity in the left frontopolar and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices could detect IF-dominance as an individual's optimal attentional strategy for preventing motor performance decline. Taken together, these results suggest that prefrontal activity during motor tasks reflects an individual's ability to process internal body information, thereby conferring IF-dominance. These findings could be applied for the development of individually optimized rehabilitation programs.

    DOI: 10.1117/1.NPh.6.2.025012

    PubMed

  14. Face-to-trait inferences in patients with Parkinson’s disease

    Masahiro Hirai, Takeshi Sakurada, Shin-ichi Muramatsu

    Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology   Vol. 41 ( 2 ) page: 170 - 178   2019.2

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:Informa UK Limited  

    DOI: 10.1080/13803395.2018.1513452

  15. Individual optimal attentional strategy during implicit motor learning boosts frontoparietal neural processing efficiency: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study

    Takeshi Sakurada, Masahiro Hirai, Eiju Watanabe

    Brain and Behavior   Vol. 9 ( 1 ) page: e01183 - e01183   2019.1

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    Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:Wiley  

    DOI: 10.1002/brb3.1183

    Other Link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1002/brb3.1183/fullpdf

  16. Communicative Hand‐Waving Gestures Facilitate Object Learning in Preverbal Infants

    Masahiro Hirai, Yasuhiro Kanakogi

    Developmental Science     page: e12787 - e12787   2018.12

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    DOI: 10.1111/desc.12787

  17. Hypoactivation of the Right Prefrontal Cortex Underlying Motor-Related Inhibitory Deficits in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study

    Takahiro Ikeda, Tatsuya Tokuda, Yukifumi Monden, Masahiro Hirai, Sakae G. Mizushima, Masako Nagashima, Yasushi Kyutoku, Takamichi Taniguchi, Hideo Shimoizumi, Ippeita Dan, Takanori Yamagata

    Japanese Psychological Research   Vol. 60 ( 4 ) page: 251 - 264   2018.10

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    Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:Wiley  

    DOI: 10.1111/jpr.12204

  18. Atypical neural modulation in the right prefrontal cortex during an inhibitory task with eye gaze in autism spectrum disorder as revealed by functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Reviewed International journal

    Takahiro Ikeda, Masahiro Hirai, Takeshi Sakurada, Yukifumi Monden, Tatsuya Tokuda, Masako Nagashima, Hideo Shimoizumi, Ippeita Dan, Takanori Yamagata

    Neurophotonics   Vol. 5 ( 3 ) page: 035008 - 035008   2018.7

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    Authorship:Corresponding author   Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)  

    Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by impairment in social communication and the presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests. Executive function impairment is reportedly partially responsible for these symptoms. Executive function includes planning, flexibility, and inhibitory control. Although planning and flexibility in ASD have been consistently reported as atypical, the atypicality of inhibitory control remains controversial. As most previous studies have used nonsocial stimuli to investigate inhibitory control in ASD, the effects of socially relevant information on the inhibitory control system in individuals with ASD remain unclear. Therefore, we developed a go/no-go task with gaze stimuli and measured hemodynamic responses in the right prefrontal cortex (PFC), involved in inhibitory processing in both typically developing (TD) children and children with ASD, using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Direct gaze induced commission errors to similar extents in both groups. Contrary to the behavioral responses, neural activation in the right PFC was modulated by gaze direction only in the TD group. These findings suggest that the gaze-processing mechanisms in the prefrontal region may be affected by atypical gaze processing in other brain regions during an inhibitory control task with socially relevant information in ASD.

    DOI: 10.1117/1.NPh.5.3.035008

    PubMed

  19. Probing links between action perception and action production in Parkinson's disease using Fitts' law Reviewed

    Takeshi Sakurada, Guenther Knoblich, Natalie Sebanz, Shin-ichi Muramatsu, Masahiro Hirai

    Neuropsychologia   Vol. 111   page: 201 - 208   2018.3

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    Authorship:Last author, Corresponding author   Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:Elsevier Ltd  

    Information on how the subcortical brain encodes information required to execute actions or to evaluate others’ actions remains scanty. To clarify this link, Fitts'-law tasks for perception and execution were tested in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). For the perception task, participants were shown apparent motion displays of a person moving their arm between two identical targets and reported whether they judged that the person could realistically move at the perceived speed without missing the targets. For the motor task, participants were required to touch the two targets as quickly and accurately as possible, similarly to the person observed in the perception task. In both tasks, the PD group exhibited, or imputed to others, significantly slower performances than those of the control group. However, in both groups, the relationships of perception and execution with task difficulty were exactly those predicted by Fitts’ law. This suggests that despite dysfunction of the subcortical region, motor simulation abilities reflected mechanisms of compensation in the PD group. Moreover, we found that patients with PD had difficulty in switching their strategy for estimating others’ actions when asked to do so.

    DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.02.001

    Scopus

  20. Preserved search asymmetry in the detection of fearful faces among neutral faces in individuals with Williams syndrome revealed by measurement of both manual responses and eye tracking Reviewed

    Masahiro Hirai, Yukako Muramatsu, Seiji Mizuno, Naoko Kurahashi, Hirokazu Kurahashi, Miho Nakamura

    JOURNAL OF NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS   Vol. 9   page: 8   2017.3

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author   Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:BIOMED CENTRAL LTD  

    Background: Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) exhibit an atypical social phenotype termed hypersociability. One theory accounting for hypersociability presumes an atypical function of the amygdala, which processes fear-related information. However, evidence is lacking regarding the detection mechanisms of fearful faces for individuals with WS. Here, we introduce a visual search paradigm to elucidate the mechanisms for detecting fearful faces by evaluating the search asymmetry; the reaction time when both the target and distractors were swapped was asymmetrical.
    Methods: Eye movements reflect subtle atypical attentional properties, whereas, manual responses are unable to capture atypical attentional profiles toward faces in individuals with WS. Therefore, we measured both eye movements and manual responses of individuals with WS and typically developed children and adults in visual searching for a fearful face among neutral faces or a neutral face among fearful faces. Two task measures, namely reaction time and performance accuracy, were analyzed for each stimulus as well as gaze behavior and the initial fixation onset latency.
    Results: Overall, reaction times in the WS group and the mentally age-matched control group were significantly longer than those in the chronologically age-matched group. We observed a search asymmetry effect in all groups: when a neutral target facial expression was presented among fearful faces, the reaction times were significantly prolonged in comparison with when a fearful target facial expression was displayed among neutral distractor faces. Furthermore, the first fixation onset latency of eye movement toward a target facial expression showed a similar tendency for manual responses.
    Conclusions: Although overall responses in detecting fearful faces for individuals with WS are slower than those for control groups, search asymmetry was observed. Therefore, cognitive mechanisms underlying the detection of fearful faces seem to be typical in individuals with WS. This finding is discussed with reference to the amygdala account explaining hypersociability in individuals with WS.

    DOI: 10.1186/s11689-017-9190-0

    Web of Science

  21. Improved motor performance in patients with acute stroke using the optimal individual attentional strategy Reviewed

    Takeshi Sakurada, Takeshi Nakajima, Mitsuya Morita, Masahiro Hirai, Eiju Watanabe

    SCIENTIFIC REPORTS   Vol. 7   page: :40592   2017.1

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    Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP  

    It is believed that motor performance improves when individuals direct attention to movement outcome (external focus, EF) rather than to body movement itself (internal focus, IF). However, our previous study found that an optimal individual attentional strategy depended on motor imagery ability. We explored whether the individual motor imagery ability in stroke patients also affected the optimal attentional strategy for motor control. Individual motor imagery ability was determined as either kinesthetic- or visual-dominant by a questionnaire in 28 patients and 28 healthy-controls. Participants then performed a visuomotor task that required tracing a trajectory under three attentional conditions: no instruction (NI), attention to hand movement (IF), or attention to cursor movement (EF). Movement error in the stroke group strongly depended on individual modality dominance of motor imagery. Patients with kinesthetic dominance showed higher motor accuracy under the IF condition but with concomitantly lower velocity. Alternatively, patients with visual dominance showed improvements in both speed and accuracy under the EF condition. These results suggest that the optimal attentional strategy for improving motor accuracy in stroke rehabilitation differs according to the individual dominance of motor imagery. Our findings may contribute to the development of tailor-made pre-assessment and rehabilitation programs optimized for individual cognitive abilities.

    DOI: 10.1038/srep40592

    Web of Science

  22. 脳卒中患者の認知運動機能連関に関する個人差とその神経基盤 Invited

    櫻田武, 後藤彩, 中嶋剛, 森田光哉, 平井真洋, 山本紳一郎, 渡辺英寿, 川合謙介

    機能的脳神経外科   Vol. 56   page: 62 - 67   2017

  23. Intact attentional orienting towards inverted faces revealed by both manual responses and eye-movement measurement in individuals with Williams syndrome Reviewed

    M. Hirai, Y. Muramatsu, S. Mizuno, N. Kurahashi, H. Kurahashi, M. Nakamura

    JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY RESEARCH   Vol. 60 ( 10 ) page: 969 - 981   2016.10

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author   Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:WILEY-BLACKWELL  

    Background Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) exhibit atypical attentional characteristics when viewing faces. Although atypical configural processing of faces has been reported in WS, the relative strengths of configural and local feature information to capture visual attention in WS remains unclear. We previously demonstrated that attentional capture by target-unrelated upright faces differs depending on what response is measured. Whereas eye movements reflected subtle atypical attentional properties at the late stage of visual search, manual responses could not capture the atypical attentional profiles towards target-unrelated upright faces in individuals with WS. Here we used the same experimental paradigm to assess whether sensitivity to configural facial information is necessary for capturing attention in WS.
    Methods We measured both eye movements and manual responses from 17 individuals with WS and 34 typically developing children and adults while they were actively involved in a visual search task with an inverted face distractor. Task measures (reaction time and performance accuracy) and gaze behaviour (initial direction of attention and fixation duration) were analysed for each stimulus.
    Results When the target and the inverted face were displayed in the same search array, reaction times and accuracies in individuals with WS showed similar tendencies as typical controls. Analysis of task and gaze measures revealed that attentional orienting towards inverted faces was not atypical.
    Conclusion Although individuals with WS exhibited atypical gaze behaviour towards upright faces in our previous study, this unusual behaviour disappears if the faces are upside down. These findings suggest that local feature information alone (e.g. eyes) does not contribute to the heightened attention to faces, but configural information appears necessary for drawing attention to faces in individuals with WS, at least in the current experimental paradigm.

    DOI: 10.1111/jir.12318

    Web of Science

  24. Typical visual search performance and atypical gaze behaviors in response to faces in Williams syndrome Reviewed

    Masahiro Hirai, Yukako Muramatsu, Seiji Mizuno, Naoko Kurahashi, Hirokazu Kurahashi, Miho Nakamura

    JOURNAL OF NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS   Vol. 8   page: 38   2016.10

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author   Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:BIOMED CENTRAL LTD  

    Background: Evidence indicates that individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) exhibit atypical attentional characteristics when viewing faces. However, the dynamics of visual attention captured by faces remain unclear, especially when explicit attentional forces are present. To clarify this, we introduced a visual search paradigm and assessed how the relative strength of visual attention captured by a face and explicit attentional control changes as search progresses.
    Methods: Participants (WS and controls) searched for a target (butterfly) within an array of distractors, which sometimes contained an upright face. We analyzed reaction time and location of the first fixation-which reflect the attentional profile at the initial stage-and fixation durations. These features represent aspects of attention at later stages of visual search. The strength of visual attention captured by faces and explicit attentional control (toward the butterfly) was characterized by the frequency of first fixations on a face or butterfly and on the duration of face or butterfly fixations.
    Results: Although reaction time was longer in all groups when faces were present, and visual attention was not dominated by faces in any group during the initial stages of the search, when faces were present, attention to faces dominated in the WS group during the later search stages. Furthermore, for the WS group, reaction time correlated with eye-movement measures at different stages of searching such that longer reaction times were associated with longer face-fixations, specifically at the initial stage of searching. Moreover, longer reaction times were associated with longer face-fixations at the later stages of searching, while shorter reaction times were associated with longer butterfly fixations.
    Conclusions: The relative strength of attention captured by faces in people with WS is not observed at the initial stage of searching but becomes dominant as the search progresses. Furthermore, although behavioral responses are associated with some aspects of eye movements, they are not as sensitive as eye-movement measurements themselves at detecting atypical attentional characteristics in people with WS.

    DOI: 10.1186/s11689-016-9172-7

    Web of Science

  25. The Trans-Visible Navigator: A See-Through Neuronavigation System Using Augmented Reality Reviewed

    Eiju Watanabe, Makoto Satoh, Takehiko Konno, Masahiro Hirai, Takashi Yamaguchi

    WORLD NEUROSURGERY   Vol. 87   page: 399 - 405   2016.3

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    Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC  

    INTRODUCTION: The neuronavigator has become indispensable for brain surgery and works in the manner of point-to-point navigation. Because the positional information is indicated on a personal computer (PC) monitor, surgeons are required to rotate the dimension of the magnetic resonance imaging/computed tomography scans to match the surgical field. In addition, they must frequently alternate their gaze between the surgical field and the PC monitor.
    OBJECTIVE: To overcome these difficulties, we developed an augmented reality-based navigation system with whole-operation-room tracking.
    METHODS: A tablet PC is used for visualization. The patient's head is captured by the back-face camera of the tablet. Three-dimensional images of intracranial structures are extracted from magnetic resonance imaging/computed tomography and are superimposed on the video image of the head. When viewed from various directions around the head, intracranial structures are displayed with corresponding angles as viewed from the camera direction, thus giving the surgeon the sensation of seeing through the head. Whole-operation-room tracking is realized using a VICON tracking system with 6 cameras.
    RESULTS: A phantom study showed a spatial resolution of about 1 mm. The present system was evaluated in 6 patients who underwent tumor resection surgery, and we showed that the system is useful for planning skin incisions as well as craniotomy and the localization of superficial tumors.
    CONCLUSIONS: The main advantage of the present system is that it achieves volumetric navigation in contrast to conventional point-to-point navigation. It extends augmented reality images directly onto real surgical images, thus helping the surgeon to integrate these 2 dimensions intuitively.

    DOI: 10.1016/j.wneu.2015.11.084

    Web of Science

  26. Optimization of a motor learning attention-directing strategy based on an individual's motor imagery ability Reviewed

    Takeshi Sakurada, Masahiro Hirai, Eiju Watanabe

    EXPERIMENTAL BRAIN RESEARCH   Vol. 234 ( 1 ) page: 301 - 311   2016.1

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    Motor learning performance has been shown to be affected by various cognitive factors such as the focus of attention and motor imagery ability. Most previous studies on motor learning have shown that directing the attention of participants externally, such as on the outcome of an assigned body movement, can be more effective than directing their attention internally, such as on body movement itself. However, to the best of our knowledge, no findings have been reported on the effect of the focus of attention selected according to the motor imagery ability of an individual on motor learning performance. We measured individual motor imagery ability assessed by the Movement Imagery Questionnaire and classified the participants into kinesthetic-dominant (n = 12) and visual-dominant (n = 8) groups based on the questionnaire score. Subsequently, the participants performed a motor learning task such as tracing a trajectory using visuomotor rotation. When the participants were required to direct their attention internally, the after-effects of the learning task in the kinesthetic-dominant group were significantly greater than those in the visual-dominant group. Conversely, when the participants were required to direct their attention externally, the after-effects of the visual-dominant group were significantly greater than those of the kinesthetic-dominant group. Furthermore, we found a significant positive correlation between the size of after-effects and the modality-dominance of motor imagery. These results suggest that a suitable attention strategy based on the intrinsic motor imagery ability of an individual can improve performance during motor learning tasks.

    DOI: 10.1007/s00221-015-4464-9

    Web of Science

  27. Differential electrophysiological responses to biological motion in children and adults with and without autism spectrum disorders Reviewed

    Masahiro Hirai, Atsuko Gunji, Yuki Inoue, Yosuke Kita, Takashi Hayashi, Kengo Nishimaki, Miho Nakamura, Ryusuke Kakigi, Masumi Inagaki

    RESEARCH IN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS   Vol. 8 ( 12 ) page: 1623 - 1634   2014.12

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    Although atypical processing of biological motion (BM) in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been reported, the temporal profile of the neural response to BM is not well explored. In the current study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured in 12 individuals with ASD, aged 8-22 years, and 12 age- and gender-matched normal controls, to investigate the electrophysiological response to BM and a control visual stimulus. By introducing a novel experimental paradigm that can dissociate the electrophysiological responses to motion processing and the global shape processing of BM, we found that: (1) the timing of the response was preserved in ASD groups, whereas (2) the ERP response to BM was significantly enhanced compared with scrambled point-light motion (SM) in normal controls; the responses to both BM and SM were not significantly different in subjects with ASD. Because we did not find a significant group effect on the peak and mean amplitude induced by BM, it is presumed that this atypical response in individuals with ASD was due to over-sensitivity to the local motion signals. This experimental paradigm showed atypical local motion processing of BM in individuals with ASD. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

    DOI: 10.1016/j.rasd.2014.08.014

    Web of Science

  28. Absent activation in medial prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction but not superior temporal sulcus during the perception of biological motion in schizophrenia: a functional MRI study Reviewed

    Naoki Hashimoto, Atsuhito Toyomaki, Masahiro Hirai, Tamaki Miyamoto, Hisashi Narita, Ryo Okubo, Ichiro Kusumi

    NEUROPSYCHIATRIC DISEASE AND TREATMENT   Vol. 10   page: 2221 - 2230   2014

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    Background: Patients with schizophrenia show disturbances in both visual perception and social cognition. Perception of biological motion (BM) is a higher-level visual process, and is known to be associated with social cognition. BM induces activation in the "social brain network", including the superior temporal sulcus (STS). Although deficits in the detection of BM and atypical activation in the STS have been reported in patients with schizophrenia, it remains unclear whether other nodes of the "social brain network" are also atypical in patients with schizophrenia.
    Purpose: We aimed to explore whether brain regions other than STS were involved during BM perception in patients with schizophrenia, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
    Methods and patients: Seventeen patients with schizophrenia, and 17 age-and sex-matched healthy controls, underwent fMRI scanning during a one-back visual task, containing three experimental conditions: (1) BM, (2) scrambled motion (SM), and (3) static condition. We used one-sample t-tests to examine neural responses selective to BM versus SM within each group, and two-sample t-tests to directly compare neural patterns to BM versus SM in schizophrenics versus controls.
    Results: We found significant activation in the STS region when BM was contrasted with SM in both groups, with no significant difference between groups. On the contrary, significant activation in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and bilateral temporoparietal junction (TPJ) was found only in the control group. When we directly compared the two groups, the healthy controls showed significant greater activation in left MPFC and TPJ to BM versus SM than patients with schizophrenia.
    Conclusion: Our findings suggest that patients with schizophrenia show normal activation to biologically and socially relevant motion stimuli in the STS, but atypical activation in other regions of the social brain network, specifically MPFC and TPJ. Moreover, these results were not due to atypical processing of motion, suggesting that patients with schizophrenia lack in the recruitment of neural circuits needed for the visual perception of social cognition.

    DOI: 10.2147/NDT.S70074

    Web of Science

  29. Developmental changes in point-light walker processing during childhood: A two-year follow-up ERP study Reviewed

    Masahiro Hirai, Shoko Watanabe, Yukiko Honda, Ryusuke Kakigi

    DEVELOPMENTAL COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE   Vol. 5   page: 51 - 62   2013.7

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    Event-related potentials were measured in twenty-four children aged 6-15 years, at one-year intervals for two years, to investigate developmental changes in each subject's neural response to a point-light walker (PLW) and a scrambled PLW (sPLW) stimulus. One positive peak (P1) and two negative peaks (N1 and N2) were observed in both occipitotemporal regions at approximately 130, 200, and 300-400 ms. The amplitude and latency of the P1 component measured by the occipital electrode decreased during development over the first one-year period. Negative amplitudes of both N1 and N2, induced by the PLW stimulus, were significantly larger than those induced by the sPLW stimulus. Moreover, for the P1-N1 amplitude, the values for the eight-year-old children were significantly larger than those for the twelve-year-old children. N1 and N2 latency at certain electrodes decreased with age, but no consistent changes were observed. These results suggest that enhanced electrophysiological responses to PLW can be observed in all age groups, and that the early components were changed even over the course of a single year at the age of twelve. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

    DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2013.01.002

    Web of Science

  30. Electrophysiological study of face inversion effects in Williams syndrome Reviewed

    Miho Nakamura, Shoko Watanabe, Masumi Inagaki, Masahiro Hirai, Kensaku Miki, Yukiko Honda, Ryusuke Kakigi

    BRAIN & DEVELOPMENT   Vol. 35 ( 4 ) page: 323 - 330   2013.4

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    Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV  

    Objective: In order to evaluate whether face perception is intact or not in Williams syndrome (WS), the face inversion effects (FIE) in the event-related potential (ERP) or magnetoencephalography (MEG) were investigated in three teenaged patients with WS. Methods: Responses to the inverted faces and upright faces were compared using MEG for one 13 year old girl with WS (subject A) and ERP for boys with WS at 16 and 14 years of age (subjects B and C, respectively). Results: Although age-matched control children showed FIE in both MEG and ERP studies, two subjects (A and B) with WS showed no FIE at all. The neurophysiological data of ERP in subject B was significantly different from those of the age-matched controls. On the other hand, a boy with WS (subject C) showed typical FIE in the same manner as the age-matched controls. Conclusions: The difference between those with or without FIE was not explained merely by the chronological age, a simple delay in mental age or in the ability to discriminate among upright faces. The absence of FIE may be related to the severity of a deficit in the dorsal pathway function that is characteristic to the syndrome. (C) 2012 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

    DOI: 10.1016/j.braindev.2012.05.010

    Web of Science

  31. Developmental changes in mental rotation ability and visual perspective-taking in children and adults with Williams syndrome

    Masahiro Hirai, Yukako Muramatsu, Seiji Mizuno, Naoko Kurahashi, Hirokazu Kurahashi, Miho Nakamura

    Frontiers in Human Neuroscience   Vol. 7   2013

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:Frontiers Media SA  

    DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00856

  32. Body Configuration Modulates the Usage of Local Cues to Direction in Biological-Motion Perception Reviewed

    Masahiro Hirai, Dorita H. F. Chang, Daniel R. Saunders, Nikolaus F. Troje

    PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE   Vol. 22 ( 12 ) page: 1543 - 1549   2011.12

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    Authorship:Lead author   Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC  

    The presence of information in a visual display does not guarantee its use by the visual system. Studies of inversion effects in both face recognition and biological-motion perception have shown that the same information may be used by observers when it is presented in an upright display but not used when the display is inverted. In our study, we tested the inversion effect in scrambled biological-motion displays to investigate mechanisms that validate information contained in the local motion of a point-light walker. Using novel biological-motion stimuli that contained no configural cues to the direction in which a walker was facing, we found that manipulating the relative vertical location of the walker's feet significantly affected observers' performance on a direction-discrimination task. Our data demonstrate that, by themselves, local cues can almost unambiguously indicate the facing direction of the agent in biological-motion stimuli. Additionally, we document a noteworthy interaction between local and global information and offer a new explanation for the effect of local inversion in biological-motion perception.

    DOI: 10.1177/0956797611417257

    Web of Science

  33. バイオロジカルモーションと身体図式 Invited

    平井真洋

    Clinical Neuroscience     2011.7

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    Language:Japanese   Publishing type:Research paper (other academic)  

  34. The development of the perception of facial emotional change examined using ERPs. Reviewed

    Miki K, Watanabe S, Teruya M, Takeshima Y, Urakawa T, Hirai M, Honda Y, Kakigi R

    Clin Neurophysiol.   Vol. 122 ( 3 ) page: 530 - 538   2011.3

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    Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)  

    DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2010.07.013

    PubMed

  35. 身体•身体運動知覚に関する発達認知神経科学研究とその展望 Invited

    平井真洋

    赤ちゃん学会誌   Vol. 10   page: 6 - 25   2011.3

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  36. Allocation of attention to biological motion: Local motion dominates global shape Reviewed

    Masahiro Hirai, Daniel R. Saunders, Nikolaus F. Troje

    JOURNAL OF VISION   Vol. 11 ( 3 )   2011

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    Directional information can be retrieved from a point-light walker (PLW) in two different ways: either from recovering the global shape of the articulated body or from signals in the local motion of individual dots. Here, we introduce a voluntary eye movement task to assess how the direction of a centrally presented, task-irrelevant PLW affects the onset latency and accuracy of saccades to peripheral targets. We then use this paradigm to design experiments to study which aspects of biological motion-the global form mediated by the motion of the walker or the local movements of critical features-drive the observed attentional effects. Putting the two cues into conflict, we show that saccade latency and accuracy were affected by the local motion of the dots representing the walker's feet-but only if they retain their familiar, predictable location within the display.

    DOI: 10.1167/11.3.4

    Web of Science

  37. Neural correlates of face and object perception in an awake chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) examined by scalp-surface event-related potentials. Reviewed

    Fukushima H, Hirata S, Ueno A, Matsuda G, Fuwa K, Sugama K, Kusunoki K, Hirai M, Hiraki K, Tomonaga M, Hasegawa T

    PLoS One   Vol. 5 ( 10 ) page: e13366   2010.10

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    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0013366

  38. Occipital-parietal network prepares reflexive saccades. Reviewed

    Watanabe M, Hirai M, Marino RA, Cameron IG

    J Neurosci.   Vol. 30 ( 42 ) page: 13917 - 13918   2010.10

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    DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3884-10.2010

    PubMed

  39. Developmental changes in point-light walker processing during childhood and adolescence: an event-related potential study. Reviewed

    Hirai M, Watanabe S, Honda Y, Kakigi R

    Neuroscience   Vol. 161 ( 1 ) page: 311 - 325   2009.6

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author   Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)  

    DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2009.03.026

  40. Differential orientation effect in the neural response to interacting biological motion of two agents Reviewed

    Masahiro Hirai, Ryusuke Kakigi

    BMC NEUROSCIENCE   Vol. 10   page: 39   2009.4

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    Background: A recent behavioral study demonstrated that the meaningful interaction of two agents enhances the detection sensitivity of biological motion (BM), however, it remains unclear when and how the 'interaction' information of two agents is represented in our neural system. To clarify this point, we used magnetoencephalography and introduced a novel experimental technique to extract a neuromagnetic response relating to two-agent BM perception. We then investigated how this response was modulated by the interaction of two agents. In the present experiment, we presented two kinds of visual stimuli (interacting and non-interacting BM) with two orientations (upright and inverted).
    Results: We found a neuromagnetic response in the bilateral occipitotemporal region, on average 300-400 ms after the onset of a two-agent BM stimulus. This result showed that interhemispheric differences were apparent for the peak amplitudes. For the left hemisphere, the orientation effect was manifest when the two agents were made to interact, and the interaction effect was manifest when the stimulus was inverted. In the right hemisphere, the main effects of both orientation and interaction were significant, suggesting that the peak amplitude was attenuated when the visual stimulus was inverted or made to interact.
    Conclusion: These results demonstrate that the 'interaction' information of two agents can affect the neural activities in the bilateral occipitotemporal region, on average 300-400 ms after the onset of a two-agent BM stimulus, however, the modulation was different between hemispheres: the left hemisphere is more concerned with dynamics, whereas the right hemisphere is more concerned with form information.

    DOI: 10.1186/1471-2202-10-39

    Web of Science

  41. Neural basis of stable perception of an ambiguous apparent motion stimulus. Reviewed

    Kaneoke Y, Urakawa T, Hirai M, Kakigi R, Murakami I

    Neuroscience.   Vol. 159 ( 1 ) page: 150 - 160   2009.3

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    DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2008.12.014

  42. Intact point-light walker processing in Williams syndrome: a magnetoencephalography study. Reviewed

    Hirai M, Nakamura M, Kaneoke Y, Kakigi R

    Neuroreport.   Vol. 20 ( 3 ) page: 267 - 272   2009.2

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author   Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)  

    DOI: 10.1057/WNR.0B013e32832000de

  43. ヒトが感じるヒトの存在感 - バイオロジカルモーションとその周辺- Invited

    平井真洋

    日本バーチャルリアリティ学会誌   Vol. 14 ( 1 ) page: 18 - 23   2009

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  44. Differential cortical processing of local and global motion information in biological motion: An event-related potential study Reviewed

    Masahiro Hirai, Ryusuke Kakigi

    Journal of Vision   Vol. 8 ( 16 ) page: 1 - 17   2008.12

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    To reveal the neural dynamics underlying biological motion processing, we introduced a novel golf-swing point-light motion (PLM) stimulus with an adaptation paradigm and measured event-related potentials (ERPs). In the adaptation phase, PLM and scrambled PLM (sPLM) stimuli were presented
    a static point-lights stimulus was also presented as a control condition. In the subsequent test phase, PLM or sPLM stimuli were presented. We measured ERPs from the onset of the test phase. Two negative components were observed and modulated differently: the amplitude of the N1 component was significantly attenuated by PLM and sPLM adaptation stimuli compared with the static point-light adaptation stimulus, whereas the amplitude of the N2 component in response to the PLM test stimulus was significantly attenuated only by the PLM adaptation stimulus. The amplitude of the N2 component in response to the PLM test stimulus was significantly larger than that in response to the sPLM test stimulus when a sPLM or static adaptation stimulus was used. These findings indicate that the N1 component is sensitive to local motion information while the N2 component is sensitive to the presence of a coherent form conveyed by global motion. © ARVO.

    DOI: 10.1167/8.16.2

    Web of Science

    Scopus

    PubMed

  45. Neural responses related to point-light walker perception: a magnetoencephalographic study. Reviewed

    Hirai M, Kaneoke Y, Nakata H, Kakigi R

    Clin Neurophysiol.   Vol. 119 ( 12 ) page: 2775 - 2784   2008.12

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author   Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)  

    DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2008.09.008

  46. Emotional object and scene stimuli modulate subsequent face processing: an event-related potential study. Reviewed

    Hirai M, Watanabe S, Honda Y, Miki K, Kakigi R

    Brain Res Bull.   Vol. 77 ( 5 ) page: 264 - 273   2008.9

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author   Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)  

    DOI: 10.1016/j.brainresbull.2008.08.011

  47. Evoked magnetic fields following noxious laser stimulation of the thigh in humans. Reviewed

    Nakata H, Tamura Y, Sakamoto K, Akatsuka K, Hirai M, Inui K, Hoshiyama M, Saitoh Y, Yamamoto T, Katayama Y, Kakigi R

    Neuroimage   Vol. 42 ( 2 ) page: 858 - 868   2008.8

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    DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.05.017

  48. Differential neural responses to humans vs. robots: an event-related potential study. Reviewed

    Hirai M, Hiraki K

    Brain Res.   Vol. 1165   page: 105 - 115   2007.8

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    DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2007.05.078

  49. Visual search for biological motion: An event-related potential study Reviewed

    Masahiro Hirai, Kazuo Hiraki

    Neuroscience Letters   Vol. 403 ( 3 ) page: 299 - 304   2006.8

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    To investigate the neural response to detection of biological motion (BM) surrounded by distractors, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Scrambled motion with the same velocity vector as the BM but randomized initial starting points was used as the distractor. The number of distractors was varied to control the difficulty of the task. The behavioral data showed that the reaction time increased with the number of distractors. Moreover, the ERP results showed that enhanced negativity was elicited at posterior electrodes contralateral to the location of the BM as with the conventional N2pc-like component, which is related to selection of the target. The increment of reaction time indicated that the attentional process is involved in the detection of BM. Furthermore, the ERP waveforms suggest that, even when detection of the target requires form-from-motion processing, similar neural mechanisms to those involved in conventional visual search tasks were employed here. © 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

    DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2006.05.002

    Scopus

    PubMed

  50. The relative importance of spatial versus temporal structure in the perception of biological motion: An event-related potential study Reviewed

    M Hirai, K Hiraki

    COGNITION   Vol. 99 ( 1 ) page: B15 - B29   2006.2

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author   Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV  

    We investigated how the spatiotemporal structure of animations of biological motion (BM) affects brain activity. We measured event-related potentials (ERPs) during the perception of BM under four conditions: normal spatial and temporal structure; scrambled spatial and normal temporal structure; normal spatial and scrambled temporal structure; and scrambled spatial and temporal structure. As in a previous study, we identified two negative components at both occipitotemporal regions: N210 reflected general motion processing while N280 reflected the processing of BM. We analyzed the averaged ERPs in the 200-300 ms response time window and found that spatial structure had a substantial effect on the magnitude of the averaged response amplitude in both hemispheres. This finding suggests that spatial structure of point-lights elicits a stronger response in the occipitotemporal region than temporal structure for the BM perception. (C) 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.

    DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2005.05.003

    Web of Science

  51. An event-related potentials study of biological motion perception in human infants. Reviewed

    Hirai M, Hiraki K

    Brain Res Cogn Brain Res.   Vol. 22 ( 2 ) page: 301 - 304   2005.2

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    DOI: 10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.08.008

  52. Active processing of biological motion perception: an ERP study. Reviewed

    Hirai M, Hiraki K

    Brain Res Cogn Brain Res.   Vol. 23 ( 2-3 ) page: 387 - 396   2005.1

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    DOI: 10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.11.005

  53. Neural dynamics in human imitation revealed by ERP surface topography Reviewed

    H Fukushima, M Hirai, A Arita, K Kamewari, K Hiraki

    NEUROREPORT   Vol. 15 ( 13 ) page: 2129 - 2132   2004.9

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    To clarify the neural dynamics in human motor imitation, we examined event-related potentials (ERP) for a reaction time task that required responses to an actor's finger motions with identical motions. Compared with a control task (reaction to an LED illumination), the ERP surface topography in the imitative reaction was differentiated at around 120-200 ms post-cueing, showing an early sensitivity to the response hand over the pre-central region. This result suggested that activities around the motor areas were facilitated in the imitative reaction, which is consistent with recent neuroimaging studies. However, taken together with that there were no differences in reaction times, the early ERP latency of conditional divergence indicated that neural activities related to imitation are visual responses and do not directly lead to motor acceleration.

    DOI: 10.1097/00001756-200409150-00026

    Web of Science

  54. An event-related potentials study of biological motion perception in humans Reviewed

    M Hirai, H Fikushima, K Hiraki

    NEUROSCIENCE LETTERS   Vol. 344 ( 1 ) page: 41 - 44   2003.6

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author   Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher:ELSEVIER SCI IRELAND LTD  

    In order to clarify the neural dynamics involved in the perception of biological motion, we recorded event-related potentials from 12 subjects. The subjects were shown biological motion or scrambled motion as a control stimulus. In the scrambled motion, each point had the same velocity vector as in the biological motion, but the initial starting positions were randomized. The perception of both biological and scrambled motion elicited negative peaks at around 200 (N200) and 240 ms (N240). Furthermore, both negative peaks were significantly larger in the biological motion condition than in the scrambled motion condition over the right occipitotemporal region. In light of previous human neuroimaging studies, we speculate that component N200 is generated near the extrastriate cortex area and N240 is generated from the superior temporal sulcus region. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

    DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3940(03)00413-0

    Web of Science

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Books 7

  1. 図説 視覚の事典

    日本視覚学会( Role: Contributor)

    朝倉書店  2022.11  ( ISBN:4254102941

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    Total pages:360   Language:Japanese

    CiNii Books

    ASIN

  2. 認知科学講座2 心と脳 (認知科学講座 2)

    川合, 伸幸( Role: Contributor ,  脳と社会的認知)

    東京大学出版会  2022.10  ( ISBN:4130152025

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    Total pages:264   Language:Japanese

    CiNii Books

    ASIN

  3. 公認心理師基礎用語集 増補第3版──よくわかる国試対策キーワード

    松本, 真理子, 永田, 雅子( Role: Contributor)

    遠見書房  2022.5  ( ISBN:4866161418

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    Total pages:288   Language:Japanese

    CiNii Books

    ASIN

  4. 社会的認知の発達科学(第二部3章)

    平井真洋( Role: Joint author ,  「生物知覚の脳内機構」)

    新曜社  2018 

  5. ソーシャルブレインズ

    平井真洋( Role: Joint author ,  第6章「動きに敏感な脳」)

    東京大学出版会  2009 

  6. Trends in Brain Mapping Research

    平井真洋( Role: Joint author ,  Neural dynamics for biological motion perception (p.85~116))

    Nova Science Publishers  2006 

  7. 発達心理学事典

    平井真洋( Role: Contributor ,  「身体運動知覚」「顔知覚」)

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MISC 12

  1. The two-process theory of biological motion processing Reviewed

    Hirai Masahiro, Senju Atsushi

    NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS   Vol. 111   page: 114-124   2020.4

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  2. Developmental changes in orienting towards faces: A behavioral and eye-tracking study Reviewed

    Hirai Masahiro, Muramatsu Yukako, Nakamura Miho

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT   Vol. 44 ( 2 ) page: 157-165   2020.3

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    Language:English  

    DOI: 10.1177/0165025419844031

    Web of Science

  3. Does culture shape face perception in autism? Cross-cultural evidence of the own-race advantage from the UK and Japan Reviewed

    Hanley Mary, Riby Deborah M., Derges Michael-John, Douligeri Anna, Philyaw Zackary, Ikeda Takahiro, Monden Yukifumi, Shimoizumi Hideo, Yamagata Takanori, Hirai Masahiro

    DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE     2020.2

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    Language:English  

    DOI: 10.1111/desc.12942

    Web of Science

  4. Role of the Embodied Cognition Process in Perspective-Taking Ability During Childhood Reviewed

    Hirai Masahiro, Muramatsu Yukako, Nakamura Miho

    CHILD DEVELOPMENT   Vol. 91 ( 1 ) page: 214-235   2020.1

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    Language:English  

    DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13172

    Web of Science

  5. 人の動きを区別する Invited

    平井真洋

    心理学ワールド   ( 90 )   2020

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    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author  

  6. Development of Bodily Movement Perception in Preverbal Infants Reviewed

    Hirai Masahiro

    I-PERCEPTION   Vol. 10   page: 21-21   2019.9

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    Language:English  

    Web of Science

  7. Communicative hand-waving gestures facilitate object learning in preverbal infants Reviewed

    Hirai Masahiro, Kanakogi Yasuhiro

    DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE   Vol. 22 ( 4 )   2019.7

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    Language:English  

    DOI: 10.1111/desc.12787

    Web of Science

  8. Face-to-trait inferences in patients with Parkinson’s disease Reviewed

    Hirai Masahiro, Sakurada Takeshi, Muramatsu Shin-ichi

    JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY   Vol. 41 ( 2 ) page: 170-178   2019.2

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  9. Individual optimal attentional strategy during implicit motor learning boosts frontoparietal neural processing efficiency: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study Reviewed

    Sakurada Takeshi, Hirai Masahiro, Watanabe Eiju

    BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR   Vol. 9 ( 1 )   2019.1

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    Language:English  

    DOI: 10.1002/brb3.1183

    Web of Science

  10. Prefrontal activity predicts individual differences in optimal attentional strategy for preventing motor performance decline: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study Reviewed

    Sakurada Takeshi, Goto Aya, Tetsuka Masayuki, Nakajima Takeshi, Morita Mitsuya, Yamamoto Shin-ichiroh, Hirai Masahiro, Kawai Kensuke

    NEUROPHOTONICS   Vol. 6 ( 2 )   2019

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    Language:English  

    DOI: 10.1117/1.NPh.6.2.025012

    Web of Science

  11. Individual ability of motor imagery can determine the suitable attentional strategy under motor learning.

    Takeshi SAKURADA, Masahiro HIRAI, Eiju WATANABE

    Neuroscience 2015     2015.10

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    Publishing type:Research paper, summary (national, other academic conference)  

  12. Correlation between biological motion detection and cortical responses: An magnetoencephalographic study

    Masahiro Hirai, Yoshiki Kaneoke, Ryusuke Kakigi

    NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH   Vol. 61   page: S176 - S176   2008

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    Language:English   Publishing type:Research paper, summary (international conference)   Publisher:ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD  

    Web of Science

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Presentations 4

  1. 身体に根ざした社会的認知発達 Invited

    平井真洋

    日本人間行動進化学会第13回大会  2020.12.13 

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    Event date: 2020.12

    Language:Japanese   Presentation type:Oral presentation (invited, special)  

  2. 社会的認知の定型・非定型発達:cross-syndromeアプローチに よる探求 Invited

    平井真洋

    発達障害コンソーシアム第3回セミナー  2022.12.6 

  3. 脳波を用いた他者の動き知覚に関する発達

    平井真洋

    第22回学術集会 - 日本赤ちゃん学会 指定演題ラウンドテーブル③基礎ー現場の架け橋としての赤ちゃん研究  2022.7.3 

  4. Inefficient action toward infants can induce preference and learning

    Masahiro Hirai, Yasuhiro Kanakogi, Ayaka Ikeda

    The International Congress of Infant Studies 2022  2022.7.10 

Research Project for Joint Research, Competitive Funding, etc. 4

  1. ウィリアムズ症候群のライフステージに応じた支援に関する研究

    2020.10 - 2021.9

    社会福祉事業・研究助成 

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    Authorship:Coinvestigator(s)  Grant type:Competitive

    Grant amount:\1800000 ( Direct Cost: \1800000 )

  2. 日英非定型発達児への科学的証拠に基づくケアにかんする研究

    2015.11 - 2016.10

    ファイザーヘルスリサーチ振興財団助成 

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    Grant type:Competitive

  3. 定型・非定型発達児を対象とした他者視点取得に関する神経基盤の解明

    2014.10 - 2016.3

    発達科学研究教育奨励賞 

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    Grant type:Competitive

  4. 発達障害の早期検出を目指したアイトラッカーによる「コミュニケーションへの関心」を評価する指標の開発

    2012.10 - 2013.3

    大幸財団助成 

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    Grant type:Competitive

KAKENHI (Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research) 13

  1. 社会的動機づけ理論は自閉スペクトラム症児者の社会的認知特性を説明可能か?

    Grant number:23K17638  2023.6 - 2025.3

    科学研究費助成事業  挑戦的研究(萌芽)

    平井 真洋

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    Authorship:Principal investigator 

    Grant amount:\6370000 ( Direct Cost: \4900000 、 Indirect Cost:\1470000 )

  2. エピゲノム変化に着目したライフステージに応じた社会認知特性の評価

    Grant number:22H00986  2022.4 - 2025.3

    科学研究費助成事業  基盤研究(B)

    木村 亮, 平井 真洋, 井上 亮, 加藤 寿宏

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    Authorship:Coinvestigator(s) 

    本研究の目的は、腸内細菌叢を介したDNAメチル化変化から「生物学的年齢」を算出し、自閉スペクトラム症やそれとは逆の高い社交性を呈するウィリアムズ症候群について、発達段階に応じた社会性や認知行動特性を精密に評価することである。これら神経発達症では、症状の個人差が大きく、発達に応じた社会性や認知特性との関係は明らかになっていない。本研究では、被検者検体を使って、腸内細菌叢に関連したDNAメチル化変化を基に「生物学的年齢」を算出し、問診や質問紙、視線・身体活動計測を組み合わせ、発達と社会認知行動特性との関係を明らかにする。本研究の結果は、介入や支援の客観化による特性改善へ発展することが期待される。

  3. 感覚過敏と他者視点取得能力の関係解明:cross-syndrome比較からの洞察

    Grant number:21K18554  2021.7 - 2023.3

    挑戦的研究(萌芽)

    平井 真洋

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    Authorship:Principal investigator 

    Grant amount:\6500000 ( Direct Cost: \5000000 、 Indirect Cost:\1500000 )

  4. 他者の動き情報に基づく乳児の学習メカニズムの解明とモデル化

    Grant number:21H03783  2021.4 - 2024.3

    平井 真洋

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    Authorship:Principal investigator 

    Grant amount:\17420000 ( Direct Cost: \13400000 、 Indirect Cost:\4020000 )

  5. Elucidation of environmental factors of social cognitive characteristics in groups with different human social characteristics.

    Grant number:21KK0041  2021.10 - 2026.3

    Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research  Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research (Fostering Joint International Research (B))

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    Authorship:Principal investigator 

    Grant amount:\17810000 ( Direct Cost: \13700000 、 Indirect Cost:\4110000 )

  6. Exploring for the role of genetic and environmental factors in the development of social cognition: a UK-Japan comparison study between Williams syndrome and Autism spectrum disorders

    Grant number:18H01103  2018.4 - 2021.3

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    Authorship:Principal investigator 

    Grant amount:\17290000 ( Direct Cost: \13300000 、 Indirect Cost:\3990000 )

  7. AADC欠損症等の小児神経疾患・先天代謝異常症に対する遺伝子治療法開発

    2016.4 - 2019.3

    難治性疾患実用化研究事業 

    山形崇倫

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    Grant type:Competitive

  8. The cognitive mechanisms underlying the processing of socially relevant information embedded in bodily movement and its development(Fostering Joint International Research)

    Grant number:15KK0129  2016 - 2019

    Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research (Fostering Joint International Research)

    HIRAI MASAHIRO

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    Authorship:Principal investigator 

    Grant amount:\15470000 ( Direct Cost: \11900000 、 Indirect Cost:\3570000 )

    Our visual system can recognize a variety of socially relevant information from point-light bodily movements known as biological motion (BM). However, the theoretical background remains unclear. In the first study of this project, we proposed a two-process model of the developmental mechanisms underlying BM processing. In the first system, the ‘Step Detector,’ we hypothesize that the system rapidly processes the local foot motion and feet-below-the-body information specific to vertebrates. Moreover, the system is less dependent on postnatal learning and involves subcortical networks. In the second system, the ‘Bodily Action Evaluator,’ slowly processes the fine global structure-from-motion, is specific to conspecific. Moreover, the system is dependent on the gradual learning process in cortical networks. In the second study of this project, we explored neural mechanisms underlying the processing of ostensive gestures by measuring EEGs from nine-month-old infants.

  9. The cognitive mechanisms underlying the processing of socially relevant information embedded in bodily movement and its development

    Grant number:15H05310  2015.4 - 2019.3

    Hirai Masahiro

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    Authorship:Principal investigator 

    Grant amount:\20410000 ( Direct Cost: \15700000 、 Indirect Cost:\4710000 )

    Our visual system can recognize a variety of socially relevant information from bodily movements, and we utilize this information to lead an efficient social life. However, the developmental aspect of the information processing remains unclear. We explored the developmental process of the perception of others’ movements, socially relevant information embedded in bodily movements, and how the information can affect infants’ learning abilities. In a series of studies, we revealed that (1) preference for human action can change within the first year of life, (2) horizontal hand waving-gestures can induce 4-month-old infants’ preferences, and 9-month-old infants can utilize the information for learning the identity of objects, (3) inefficiency of human action can affect infants’ learning, and (4) neural mechanisms underlying the learning are based on bodily action. We further developed a theoretical model for developmental changes in the perception of others’ action.

  10. Constructing a training system for perspective-taking and its application

    Grant number:15K12050  2015.4 - 2018.3

    HIRAI MASAHIRO

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    Authorship:Principal investigator 

    Grant amount:\3510000 ( Direct Cost: \2700000 、 Indirect Cost:\810000 )

    We aimed to create a system that enables us to operate the viewpoint freely, to reveal how the transformed-visual input can alter the cognitive function, and how it changes across development. As a result, (1) differential atypical performances were observed among children with and without autism spectrum disorders (ASD) when the visual perspective was transformed (2) different brain areas were involved in taking other’s perspective across children with and without ASD.

  11. 身体に根ざした他者視点取得能力の神経機構とその障害

    Grant number:15H01585  2015.4 - 2017.3

    新学術領域研究(研究領域提案型)

    平井 真洋

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    Authorship:Principal investigator 

    Grant amount:\10140000 ( Direct Cost: \7800000 、 Indirect Cost:\2340000 )

    本研究では,社会的コミュニケーションにおいて重要な要素の一つである,他者視点取得の定型・非定型発達変化を明らかにすることを目的としている.他者視点取得とは,他者の見ている景色は自分の見えている景色とは異なることを理解する能力である.近年,非定型発達児における他者視点取得が不得手であるとの報告がなされている.更に,他者視点取得は,心的回転課題とは異なる方略でなされるとの報告がある.また,申請者らは,低年齢定型発達児と非定型発達児は似たようなエラーを示すことを見出している.具体的には,他者視点が自己視点と異なる場合でも自己視点を回答する自己視点バイアスエラーがみられる.本研究課題では,そのエラーに着目し,それが定型発達児ならびに非定型発達児においてどのように異なるかを明らかにすることを目指した.本研究課題では,異なる二つの実験課題を用い,他者視点取得課題時における自己視点バイアスエラーの生起要因について検討した.研究課題1では,視点変換操作を施した際の,運動プラニング能力を定型・非定型発達児を対象に検討し,その発達軌跡を追った.研究課題2では,他者視点取得課題と統制課題として,心的回転課題を実施した際の脳活動を定型・非定型発達児を対象に光トポグラフィーにより計測した.結果,研究課題1では,定型発達児において,視覚座標系の情報から身体座標系のような発達変化がみられるのに対し,非定型発達児では発達によらず,身体座標系の情報を利用する傾向がみられた.また,研究課題2における他者視点取得課題遂行時の脳活動計測において,視点取得課題遂行時には,側頭頭頂接合部付近における活動を見出し,定型・非定型発達児における活動の違いを見出した.
    28年度が最終年度であるため、記入しない。
    28年度が最終年度であるため、記入しない。

  12. A developmental study on the processing of communicative signal embedded in human bodily motion

    Grant number:25871228  2013.4 - 2015.3

    HIRAI Masahiro

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    Authorship:Principal investigator 

    Grant amount:\4160000 ( Direct Cost: \3200000 、 Indirect Cost:\960000 )

    According to recent typical and atypical development studies, even 2-year-old children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have atypical preference for human bodily motion. In this study, we have tried to reveal the way of representation of ‘communicative signal’ embedded in human bodily motion and how it is processed in the neural system. We have developed an experimental paradigm to extract an event-related potential component which is sensitive to human bodily motion and found an atypical modulation of the component in children and adults with ASD. We further explored the way of representation of communicative signals embedded in bodily motion revelaed by behavioral experiments.

  13. Study on the hierarchical processing of biomotion in individuals with Williams Syndrome

    Grant number:23830127  2011 - 2012

    HIRAI Masahiro

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    Authorship:Principal investigator 

    Grant amount:\1820000 ( Direct Cost: \1400000 、 Indirect Cost:\420000 )

    Biological motion (BM) is a visual phenomenon whereby our visual system can extract rich visual information from only point-light motion. It has been pointed out that the BM perception is part of a social perception and many recent behavioral studies have demonstrated that children with autism spectrum disorders are not good at detecting a human form from point-light motion. Although some studies in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) on the BM perception have clarified the perceptual characteristics, it has not been well addressed the various aspects of BM processing. In the current study, we measured the thresholds for lower- and higher- levels of BM processing by adopting a psychophysical method and we found cognitive gaps in the BM perception.

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Teaching Experience (Off-campus) 2

  1. 発達臨床心理学(障害者・障害児心理学)

    2022.9 Osaka University)

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    Level:Undergraduate (specialized) 

  2. 認知心理学特論IX

    2020.9 Kyoto University)

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    Level:Postgraduate 

 

Social Contribution 3

  1. 脳・こころ・ジェンダー:発達認知神経科学的な視座から

    Role(s):Appearance

    進化生物学による女性間の関係の理解-持続可能なジェンダーパリティにむけて  2021.3

  2. 社会と文化を創り上げる脳の仕組みとその発達

    Role(s):Appearance

    岐阜県立岐阜北高等学校  2020.10

  3. 他者の動きの認知発達から探る社会脳の発達

    Role(s):Appearance

    第6回赤ちゃん学コロキウム「心の尺度〜生理学的指標を用いた赤ちゃん研究〜」  2020.9

Academic Activities 1

  1. 世界で活躍できる研究者戦略育成事業 学術メンター

    2023.5