Osamu Sakura

Incidental Findings of Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study in a Pediatric Cohort in Japan and Recommendation for a Model Management Protocol

Background The increasing use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in brain researches has led to growing concern over incidental findings (IFs). To establish a practical management protocol for IFs, it is useful to know the actual prevalence and problems of IF management. In the present study, we report the prevalence proportion and some handling problems of IFs in healthy Japanese children, and suggest a management protocol from ethical and practical standpoints. Methods Between 2006 and 2008, 120 healthy children aged 5–8 years participated in a structural MRI study conducted in a pediatric cohort in Japan. All MRI images were reviewed by a pediatric neurologist, and detected IFs were classified into 4 categories. Results IFs of all categories were detected in 40 of the 110 participants (36.4%) for whom T2-weighted or 3D-T1-weighted images were available. Findings of sinusitis and/or otitis media were most frequent (26.4%). Excluding these findings, the prevalence of IFs was still 10.9% (12 findings): 9 findings were categorized as “no referral” (8.2%), 2 as “routine referral” (1.8%), 1 as “urgent referral” (0.9%), and 0 as “immediate referral” (0.0%). In “routine referral” category, only one participant was referred for further examinations. Conclusions Although the prevalence of IFs was high, the proportion of those requiring further examination was low. This result revealed a fairly high false-positive rate and suggested that evaluating equivocal findings was the most difficult part of IF management. A management protocol needs to include a process to properly assess the clinical importance of findings.

Severely affected ALS patients have broad and high expectations for brain-machine interfaces

Abstract Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) may provide new communication channels and motor function to individuals with severe neurodegenerative diseases, but little is known about their interests in such devices. We investigated the interests of severely affected ALS patients in BMIs, and examined factors that might influence these interests. We conducted an anonymous, mail-back questionnaire survey of severely disabled ALS patients diagnosed using the revised El Escorial criteria. Thirty-seven patients responded to the questionnaire. Twenty-nine (78.4%) had undergone tracheostomy positive pressure ventilation. More than 80% of the patients were interested in communication support. Thirty-three (89.2%) felt stressed during communication. Among those using assistive communication devices (17 patients), 15 (88.2%) were not satisfied with them. More than 50% of the patients expressed an interest in BMIs. Their expectations of BMIs ranged widely from emergency alarm to postural change. The frequent use of personal computers tended to be correlated with an interest in invasive BMIs (p = 0.07). In conclusion, this was the first questionnaire survey demonstrating that severely affected ALS patients have broad and high expectations for BMIs. Communication was the most desired support from BMIs for such patients. We need to meet their widely ranging expectations of BMIs.

A report that Fukushima residents are concerned about radiation from Land, Food and Radon

The Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster occurred on 11 March 2011, which caused the leakage of radioactive materials into the environment. In this study, we report public concerns about radiation in Fukushima and Tokyo almost one year after the nuclear disaster. We examined the public concerns by analyzing the data from 1022 participants, 555 in Fukushima and 467 in Tokyo. They were asked whether they were concerned about radiation from some of six different types of sources, which could be answered in a binary way, ‘yes’ or ‘no’. We found not only similarities, but also significant differences in the degrees of concerns between Fukushima residents and Tokyo ones. Fukushima residents more concerned about radiation from land, food and radon in larger rate than that of Tokyo ones, while Tokyo residents were concerned about radiation from medical care. Residents in neither location were concerned about radiation from space. Our results suggested that careful risk communication should be undertaken, adaptively organized depending on location and other factors, e.g. comprehension about radiation, presence of the experience of evacuation, and also age and gender of the people.

Improved “Origami Bird” Protocol Enhances Japanese Students’ Understanding of Evolution by Natural Selection: a Novel Approach Linking DNA Alteration to Phenotype Change

Many studies of evolution education have attempted to develop teaching materials on natural selection because of its importance in the evolutionary process (Lauer 2000; Heim 2002; Catley 2006; Kalinowski et al. 2006; Christensen-Dalsgaard and Kanneworff 2008; Frey et al. 2010). However, to our knowledge, no teaching material effectively connects DNA sequencing to the process of natural selection, although current evolutionary biology is closely linked to molecular biology. Current educational content must be modernized to advance evolution education (Hills 2007). Japanese people easily accept evolution as a fact when compared to people in other countries, especially the U.S. (Sakura 1998; Miller et al. 2006). However, there are some problems in evolution education in Japan, such as using textbooks with outdated scientific theories and a lack of teaching material. These textbooks often cite outdated theories (Shimada 1997, 2004; Nakai 2004), offer a shortage of examples of microevolution (Yamanoi 2008), and include an inaccurate definition of mutation (Yamanoi and Sakura 2010). Fewer teaching materials for evolution have been developed in Japan than in the U.S. and the UK and are hardly introduced in Japanese biology textbooks, particularly for evolutionary mechanisms such as natural selection (Sato and Ohshika 2005). Misconceptions about evolution among high school students are also reported in certain studies. Even after studying evolution, many students fail to understand modern evolutionary concepts, such as linking genes to phenotype, and they mistakenly hold Lamarckism and orthogenesis to be the evolutionary mechanisms (Yamanoi 2008; Fukui 2000; Yamanoi 2010). These misconceptions may be derived from inadequate understanding of the random process in the evolutionary mechanism (Garvin-Doxas and Klymkowsky 2008). We believed that if the students regard mutation as random, not a purposely designed process, then they will disregard Lamarckism and orthogenesis since both ideas assume evolution as a progressive, teleologically designed process. Biology education based on the new Japanese national curriculum framework, the course of study (CS), and its guidelines for secondary school will begin in high schools in 2013. One of the main educational goals in the CS is to relate evolutionary biology to molecular biology (Ministry T. Yamanoi Hakuoh Ashikaga Senior High School, Tadaki-cho1067, Ashikaga, Tochigi 329-4214, Japan

Motor Restoration Based on the Brain–Machine Interface Using Brain Surface Electrodes: Real-Time Robot Control and a Fully Implantable Wireless System

The brain–machine interface (BMI) is a new approach to the man–machine interface, which enables us to control machines and to communicate with others without input devices, but directly using brain signals. We describe our integrative approach to develop a BMI system using brain surface electrodes for motor and communication control in severely disabled people. This includes effective brain signal recording, accurate neural decoding, robust robot control, a wireless fully implantable device, a non-invasive evaluation of surgical indications, etc. In addition, the inspection and addressing of neuroethical issues is indispensible when undertaking work in this field.

External effective radiation dose to workers in the restricted area of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant during the third year after the Great East Japan Earthquake

Since the Great East Japan Earthquake on 11 March 2011, Iitate Village has continued to be classified as a deliberate evacuation area, in which residents are estimated to receive an annual additional effective radiation dose of >20 mSv. Some companies still operate in Iitate Village, with a special permit from the Cabinet Office Team in Charge of Assisting the Lives of Disaster Victims. In this study, we measured the annual effective radiation dose to workers in Iitate Village from 15 January to 13 December 2013. The workers stayed in Iitate for 10 h and left the village for the remaining 14 h each working day. They worked for 5 days each week in Iitate Village, but stayed outside of the village for the remaining 2 days each week. We found that the effective radiation dose of 70% of the workers was <2 mSv, including natural radiation; the maximum dose was 3.6 mSv. We estimated the potential annual additional effective radiation dose if people returned full-time to Iitate. Our analysis supports the plan for people to return to their home village at the end of 2017.

Integrative BMI approach for functional restoration using human electrocorticograms

as a method with limited decoding quality. ECoG is often used in surgical treatment in epileptic patient and known as providing stable signal for several weeks but the stability not known for longer period, because it was not designed for chronic use. Here, we designed a new ECoG electrode for chronic use and propose a novel ECoG-based decoding paradigm. We have successfully decoded hand positions and arm joint angles during an asynchronous food-reaching task in monkeys when explicit cues prompting the onset of movement were not required. Performance using our ECoG-based decoder was comparable to existing SUA-based systems while evincing far superior stability and durability. In addition, the same decoder could be used for months without any drift in accuracy or recalibration. These results were achieved by incorporating the spatio-spectro-temporal integration of activity across multiple cortical areas to compensate for the lower fidelity of ECoG signals. These results show the feasibility of high-performance, chronic and versatile ECoG-based neuroprosthetic devices for real-life applications. This new method provides a stable platform for investigating cortical correlates for understanding motor control, sensory perception, and high-level cognitive processes.

A View from the Far East: Neuroethics in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea

Cross-cultural studies of neuroethics that focus on Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan tend to dwell on three areas of “cultural” concern: local variations, the gap between the scientific community and the public, and the different approaches to ethical issues taken by different disciplines. According to a survey, Western and Taiwanese views on the relationship between the “soul” and the “mind” may have little in common. In South Korea, scientific research on bilingualism, covered by reports in the mass media, contributed to popular misconceptions about the early acquisition of foreign languages. Meanwhile, Japanese engineers and medical doctors involved in interdisciplinary research projects have run into trouble in the course of framing ethical guidelines for the treatment of human subjects. Every nation in East Asia has begun developing neuroethics projects, and the discipline has grown rather satisfactorily. However, the experiences of the different areas may differ much more than expected.

Neuroethics Questions to Guide Ethical Research in the International Brain Initiatives

Increasingly, national governments across the globe are prioritizing investments in neuroscience. Currently, seven active or in-development national-level brain research initiatives exist, spanning four continents. Engaging with the underlying values and ethical concerns that drive brain research across cultural and continental divides is critical to future research. Culture influences what kinds of science are supported and where science can be conducted through ethical frameworks and evaluations of risk. Neuroscientists and philosophers alike have found themselves together encountering perennial questions; these questions are engaged by the field of neuroethics, related to the nature of understanding the self and identity, the existence and meaning of free will, defining the role of reason in human behavior, and more. With this Perspective article, we aim to prioritize and advance to the foreground a list of neuroethics questions for neuroscientists operating in the context of these international brain initiatives.

Brain boom as “NETA-science”: Implication for public communication of neuroscience

The number of Japanese papers that include the word ‘NO-KAGAKU’ (‘brain science’ in English) suddenly increased between 1996 and 1997, compared to the number of English papers that included the word ‘neuroscience’. This suggests that the trend of using the word ‘NO-KAGAKU’ among the Japanese scientist community was rather independent of that observed in the international academic community. We noticed the relationship between ‘NO-KAGAKU’ and the science and technology policies of the Japanese government before 1997. During that time the Japanese academic community and the government emphasised on the need to develop a centre of excellence for neuroscience, and finally in 1997, the Brain Science Institute (BSI) was founded in RIKEN, a comprehensive research institute of natural science in Japan. We hypothesized that science policies played an important role in the rapid growth of ‘NO-KAGAKU’ in Japan, and then studied the process of the foundation of RIKEN BSI in order to identify how researchers and government officials formulated and executed science policies. We focused on the ideas of ‘comprehensiveness’ and ‘interdisciplinarity’ of ‘NO-KAGAKU’. This concept of ‘idea’ is one of the recent analytical tools in policy science, which means that the scientific-knowledgebased beliefs held by individuals are used to explain political outcomes. We believe that neurophysiologists, cognitive scientists and computer scientists together proposed the idea of ‘NO-KAGAKU’ in order to receive more research resources on the basis of the progress of each discipline, and that officials of the former Science and Technology Agency promoted this idea.