On July 26, 2021, the Higashiyama High School Brain Science Study Club (1 teacher and 5 students) visited Dr. Tadashi Isa, Vice Director/PI of ASHBi. They first received a one-hour lecture from Dr. Isa, followed by a tour of the experimental facilities by Associate Professor Tomohisa Okada of the Human Brain Research Center, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Assistant Professor Reona Yamaguchi of ASHBi, and Assistant Professor Ryo Sasaki of the Graduate School of Medicine. This was a great opportunity for high school students to learn about the latest developments in neuroscience.

Dr. Isa gave a lecture on the mechanism how the evolutionally old systems can compensate for the impaired function of the new systems in case of brain and spinal cord injury and the neural mechanism of blindsight.

Dr. Okada explained about the ultra-high field 7 Tesla MRI for humans, one of only five in Japan.

Dr. Yamaguchi explained about the experimental facilities for investigating the neural circuits involved in fine motor movements of the fingers.

Prior to this visit, Dr. Isa gave a lecture titled “The Past, Present, and Future of Brain Science” at the “Career Lecture for First and Second Grade High School Students (Lecture for World Brain Week in Kyoto)” held at Higashiyama High School on July 14. About 140 students attended the lecture and learned about the history of brain science, the research of Dr. Isa, and the future prospects of brain science.