缅北禁地

I'm a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the Faculty of Medical Sciences and a principal investigator of the Laboratory of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience at 缅北禁地. I obtained my PhD in behavioural neuroscience in Japan and took a post-doc training under the mentorship of Dr Mortimer Mishkin at the Laboratory of Neuropsychology, NIMH/NIH in the USA.

I have +25 years of experience in primate work across four countries (USA, UK, Germany, Japan) and use a variety of neuroscience approaches combined with electrophysiology, fMRI, optogenetics, neuroanatomy, genomics and computational modelling to understand the neural circuits of auditory cognition, aiming to advance treatment and intervention options for mental health and neurological disorders. 

I am a British-Asian scientist from a minority ethnic background and am also a strong advocate for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). I actively contribute to outreach events towards greater equality and bringing new possibilities and potentials among typically under-represented people.



VACANCIES

• Recruiting several PhD/RA positions at 缅北禁地 Medical School ()

SCIENTIFIC FOCUS

• Neurobiology and Neural Circuits of Cognition: Advancing Treatment and Interventions for Neurological and Mental Health Disorders

RESEARCH FUNDING

• 2025-2028 Co-Project Lead on MRC Understanding Public Involvement in Non-clinical Research grant. “Developing resources for public involvement in animal research”
• 2024-2029 Principal Investigator on BBSRC-NSF/BIO Lead Agency US-UK partnership grant. “Neuronal mechanisms for auditory memory sequencing and prediction" 
• 2024-2025 Principal Investigator on EPSRC-funded CloseNIT grant. “Closed-loop auditory stimulation to modulate amygdala-frontal synchrony in free-moving marmosets”
• 2023-2027 Principal Investigator on MRC Programme grant. “Neuronal circuits for perceptual inference” 

RESEARCH EXPERIENCES

• 2019-2020 Guest Researcher. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), National Institute of Health (NIH), USA
• 2007-2011 Georgetown University, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, USA
• 2007 Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Germany
• 2002-2011 National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), National Institute of Health (NIH), USA

• MMB 8019 Sensory & Cognitive Neuroscience (Module Leader)
• BNS 3013 Disorders of the Nervous System
• PSC 3008 Physiology of the Nervous System

2018 Associate Fellow of the Graduate School, FMS, 缅北禁地

Postgraduate and undergraduate project students (>30)

PhD. Supervisor (Biosciences, FMS)

Selected media:

• The work in 2017 was selected in the  with over 12,000 views and also featured in : The Brain Has Its Own “Autofill” Function for Speech. The neural version of a texting app anticipates what comes next when we hear speech
• 缅北禁地 Press release: What’s coming next? Scientists identify how the brain predicts speech

Selected outreach events and lectures:

• 2024 Holmes Memorial Lecture: Lecture 1: Humans: Can you learn to train your brain? (17 January, 2024)
• (1 July, 2023, Featherstone Castle at Haltwhistle, UK, FMS Research Excellence FMS Research Excellence Development Awards (REDA) funded public engagement event)
• "Gene, Brain and Behaviour: Power of Prediction and Autism Spectrum Disorders" Enrichment Seminars in Psychology, 缅北禁地 (March 2021)
• BBC Radio 3:  (17-18 March, 2017)
• : Great Exhibition of the North (Great North Museum, 24 August, 2018)
• Brain Awareness Week:  (Wylam Brewery, 12 March, 2019)
• European Researchers Night: Supported by the European Commission as a part of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, funded under the Horizon 2020 programme (Great North Museum, 28 September, 2018)
• "Rhythmic Brain. How rhythms can help our perception and learning?": Joseph Cowen Lifelong Learning Centre, 缅北禁地 upon Tyne, UK. (June 2017)
• "Music, Language, Syntax? Sequence Learning and Neurological Disorders": Joseph Cowen Lifelong Learning Centre, 缅北禁地 upon Tyne, UK. (Dec 2016)
• "Rhythms of your brain. Keys to train your brain through sounds": Joseph Cowen Lifelong Learning Centre, 缅北禁地 upon Tyne, UK. (January 2016)
• "Is Music Just for Us? Searching for the origins of musicality through neural symphony": Joseph Cowen Lifelong Learning Centre, 缅北禁地 upon Tyne, UK. (May - June 2016)
• "Interaction between cortical responses and natural sounds in the primate auditory system using MRI-guided electrophysiology'': Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany (June 2013)
• "Human Brain Function and Behaviour": Kyoto University, Graduate School of Engineering, Japan. Neuroscience, Mental Health (Summer course, 2013)

• Articles

  • Kikuchi Y, Uddin M, Veltman JA, Wells S, Morris C, Woodbury-Smith M. . Molecular Autism 2025, 16, 5.
  • Kocsis Z, Jenison RL, Taylor PN, Calmus RM, McMurray B, Rhone AE, Sarrett MCE, Deifelt Streese C, Kikuchi Y, Gander PE, Berger JI, Kovach CK, Choi I, Greenlee JD, Kawasaki H, Cope TE, Griffiths TD, Howard MA, Petkov CI. . Nature Communications 2023, 14(1), 6264.
  • Kim S-G, Overath T, Sedley W, Kumar S, Teki S, Kikuchi Y, Patterson R, Griffiths TD. . NeuroImage 2022, 249, 118879.
  • Schneider F, Balezeau F, Distler C, Kikuchi Y, van Kempen J, Gieselmann MA, Petkov CI, Thiele A, Griffiths TD. . Cell Reports 2021, 35(11), 109242.
  • Balezeau F, Nacef J, Kikuchi Y, Schneider F, Rocchi F, Muers RS, Fernandez-Palacios O'Connor R, Blau C, Wilson B, Saunders RC, Howard M, Thiele A, Griffiths TD, Petkov CI, Murphy K. . NeuroImage 2021, 230, 117778.
  • Rocchi F, Oya H, Balezeau F, Billig AJ, Kocsis Z, Jenison RL, Nourski KV, Kovach CK, Steinschneider M, Kikuchi Y, Rhone AE, Dlouhy BJ, Kawasaki H, Adolphs R, Greenlee JDW, Griffiths TD, Howard MA, Petkov CI. . Neuron 2021, 109(5), 852-868.e8.
  • Kikuchi Y, Kumar S, Baumann S, Overath T, Gander PE, Sedley W, Patterson RD, Petkov CI, Griffiths TD. . Cortex 2019, 120, 340-352.
  • Calmus R, Wilson B, Kikuchi Y, Petkov CI. . Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 2019, 375(1791), 20190304.
  • Kikuchi Y, Ip J, Lagier G, Mossom JC, Kumar S, Petkov CI, Barraclough NE, Vuong QC. . The Journal of Neuroscience 2019, 39(28), 5506-5516.
  • Banerjee A, Kikuchi Y, Mishkin M, Rauschecker JP, Horwitz B. . eNeuro 2018, 6.
  • Schneider F, Dheerendra P, Balezeau F, Ortiz-Rios M, Kikuchi Y, Petkov CI, Thiele A, Griffiths TD. . Scientific Reports 2018, 8, 17948.
  • Scott BH, Saleem KS, Kikuchi Y, Fukushima M, Mishkin M, Saunders RC. . Journal of Comparative Neurology 2017, 525(16), 3488-3513.
  • Kikuchi Y, Attaheri A, Wilson B, Rhone AE, Nourski KV, Gander PE, Kovach CK, Kawasaki H, Griffiths TD, Howard MA, Petkov CI. . PLoS Biology 2017, 15(4), e2000219.
  • Scott BH, Leccese PA, Saleem KS, Kikuchi Y, Mullarkey MP, Fukushima M, Mishkin M, Saunders RC. . Cerebral Cortex 2017, 27(1), 809-840.
  • Attaheri A, Kikuchi Y, Milne AE, Wilson B, Alter K, Petkov CI. . Brain and Language 2015, 148, 74-80.
  • Petkov CI, Kikuchi Y, Milne AE, Mishkin M, Rauschecker JP, Logothetis NK. . Nature Communications 2015, 6, 6000.
  • Wilson B, Kikuchi Y, Sun L, Hunter D, Dick F, Smith K, Thiele A, Griffiths TD, Marslen-Wilson WD, Petkov CI. . Nature Communications 2015, 6, 8901.
  • Kikuchi Y, Horwitz B, Mishkin M, Rauschecker JP. . Frontiers in Neuroscience 2014, 82, 204.
  • Wilson B, Slater H, Kikuchi Y, Milne A, Marslen-Wilson W, Smith K, Petkov CI. . Journal of Neuroscience 2013, 33(48), 18825-18835.
  • Kikuchi Y, Horwitz B, Mishkin M. . Journal of Neuroscience 2010, 30(39), 13021-13030.
  • Kikuchi Y, Sawaguchi T, Miyauchi S. . Journal of Diagnostic Imaging 2002, 27(5), 475-482.
  • Kikuchi-Yorioka Y, Sawaguchi T. . Nature Neuroscience 2000, 3(11), 1075-1076.
  • Sawaguchi T, Kikuchi Y. Noradrenergic effects on activity of prefrontal cortical neurons in behaving monkeys. Adv. Pharmacol 1998, 42, 759-763.

• Book Chapters

  • Hoeschele M, Merchant H, Kikuchi Y, Hattori Y, ten Cate CJ. . In: Henkjan Honing, ed. The Origins of Musicality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2018, pp.149-170.
  • Sawaguchi T, Iba M, Kikuchi-Yorioka Y, Fukushi T. . In: Tanji, J., Yoshizawa, S, ed. Higher Brain Function. Tokyo: Asakura Publishing, 2001, pp.251-269.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Du Y, Woolgar E, Kikuchi Y, Ogawa T. . In: IEEE Cyber Science and Technology Congress (CyberSciTech 2025). 2025, Hakodate, Japan: IEEE.
  • Woolgar E, Du Y, Errington S, Slater B, Ogawa T, Kikuchi Y. . In: IEEE Cyber Science and Technology Congress (CyberSciTech 2025). 2025, Hakodate, Japan: IEEE.
  • Slater B, Howett D, Nacef J, Easton A, Petkov CI, Kikuchi Y. Transcranial ultrasound stimulation of primate hippocampus and prefrontal cortex modulates context-guided sequence learning. In: Society for Neuroscience meeting. 2022. Submitted.
  • The PRIMatE Data and Resource Exchange (PRIME-DRE) Global Collaboration Workshop and Consortium, Poirier C, Petkov C, Kikuchi Y. . In: The PRIMatE Data and Resource Exchange (PRIME-DRE) Global Collaboration Workshop and Consortium. 2022, Virtual: Elsevier.
  • Woodbury-Smith M, Kikuchi Y. Patterns of intolerance to mutation in genes implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders among 2,054 rhesus macaques. In: American Society of Human Genetics. 2022. Submitted.
  • Woodbury-Smith M, Massey D, Slater B, Witham C, Wells S, Kikuchi Y. A translational primate model of autism spectrum disorder: phenotypic traits in social and predictive behaviour and patterns of intolerance to mutation in macaque genome. In: Society for Neuroscience meeting. 2022. Submitted.
  • Vuong QC, Kikuchi Y, Ip J, Mossom JC, Barraclough N, Petkov CI. . In: Scottish Vision Group. 2016, Carnoustie, Scotland: Sage Publications Ltd.
  • Kikuchi Y, Kumar S, Baumann S, Overath T, Griffiths T, Petkov C. . In: Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting. 2012, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
  • Petkov CI, Kikuchi Y, Augath M, Mishkin M, Rauschecker J, Logothetis NK. . In: 6th APAN Satellite Meeting to Society for Neuroscience. 2008, Washington DC Convention Center.
  • Kikuchi Y, Rauschecker JP, Mishkin M, Augath M, Logothetis NK, Petkov CI. . In: Society for Neuroscience. 2008, Washington DC, USA.

• Editorial

  • Munoz-Lopez M, Kikuchi Y. . Frontiers in Neuroscience 2016, 10, 290.

• Note

  • Kocsis Z, Jenison RL, Taylor PN, Calmus RM, McMurray B, Rhone AE, Sarrett MCE, Deifelt Streese C, Kikuchi Y, Gander PE, Berger JI, Kovach CK, Choi I, Greenlee JD, Kawasaki H, Cope TE, Griffiths TD, Howard MA, Petkov CI. . Nature Communications 2023, 14(1), 8029.

• Reviews

  • Kikuchi Y, Sedley W, Griffiths TD, Petkov CI. . Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 2018, 21, 145-153.
  • Hoeschele M, Merchant H, Kikuchi Y, Hattori Y, ten Cate C. . Philosophical Transactions B 2015, 370(1664), 20140094.