Yuji Naya 

Introduction：

Dr. Naya is a visiting investigator of the Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology at Zhejiang University (ZIINT).  After receiving a B.S. (Basic Science) and a M.S. (Molecular Cell Biology) from Tokyo University, he started his PhD training in the laboratory of Dr. Yasushi Miyashita at Tokyo University in 1993.  In 1995, he obtained an assistant professor position at Tokyo University before the completion of his PhD course.  In 2003, he was recognized by the Japanese Neuroscience Society with the Young Investigator Award.  In the same year, he was promoted to a lecturer position at Tokyo University.  In 2005, he moved to New York University as an associate research scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Wendy A. Suzuki.  Dr. Naya is an investigator of Center for Life Sciences, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research and School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences at Peking University since 2013.  

Research Interests:

Dr. Naya studies memory system in the brain.  The ability to form new long-term memories of facts, events and relationships is referred to as declarative or relational memory.  Declarative memory, which is impaired in patients suffered from Alzheimer disease, is a fundamental cognitive function that enables us to remember the past and to make appropriate choices based on past experiences.  He challenges to elucidate how our brains perform this remarkable function, which is essential for our quality of life.  

To address this question, he uses a behavioral neurophysiological approach using non-human primates.  This approach enables him to characterize the information processing carried out by single and/or ensembles of neurons in multiple brain areas while a subject performs a memory task.  His research is aimed at characterizing the ‘information flow’ responsible for declarative memory across the medial temporal lobe memory system and related neocortical areas, such as the sensory-association areas, the prefrontal cortex and the parietal cortex.

Information flow in non-declarative association (A) and declarative association (B).  (Adapted from Naya, 2016)

Representitive Publications:

1. Naya Y., Yoshida M. and Miyashita Y. (2001) Backward Spreading of Memory-Retrieval Signal in the Primate Temporal Cortex. Science 291:661-664.

2. Naya Y. and Suzuki WA. (2011) Integrating what and when across the primate medial temporal lobe. Science 333: 773-776.

3. Suzuki W. A., and Naya Y., (2014) The perirhinal cortex. Annual review of neuroscience 37:39-53.

4. Naya Y. (2016) Declarative association. In Neuroscience in the 21st century 2nd, DW Pfaff & N Volkow ed. (Springer Science+Business Media, New York), 2651-2677.