Research Center for Mind, Brain, and Behavior

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Center Overview

Center Objectives

The Research Center for Mind, Brain, and Behavior aims to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the relationships among the mind, the brain, and behavior. Historically, psychology has inferred psychological processes by observing behavior directly or using questionnaires to ask people directly about their mental processes, but these methods have given us only a limited understanding of the relationship between mind and behavior.
Meanwhile, advances in brain imaging technology since the 1990s have made it possible to measure brain activity non-invasively, and with the development of brain data analysis methods incorporating machine learning, it is now possible to infer psychological processes from brain activity. By introducing the brain as a third variable, our center aims to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the psychological and neural mechanisms of human social behavior.

Research Direction and Future Prospects

The Center will use brain imaging (fMRI) as well as existing psychological methods such as psychological scales and economic games, and will mainly work on the following four projects:

1. Using fMRI to elucidate the psychological processes that influence social behavior;
2. Development of a new brain activity-based method for evaluating the validity of psychological scales;
3. Predicting group-level behavior from brain activity and elucidating the psychological processes involved;
4. Developing methods (that do not rely on self-reports) for the measurement of attitudes and personality.