Watanabe Laboratory
Unraveling the Neural Mechanism of Consciousness via Development and Testing of Machine Consciousness
Graduate Student Recruitment
We are seeking graduate students (Master's and PhD) and researchers interested in the neural mechanism of consciousness and mind-uploading. Join us to pioneer new frontiers in neuroscience and artificial consciousness!
Learn More About AdmissionsResearch Areas
We aim to bring innovation to humanity's understanding of consciousness by scientifically elucidating the nature of consciousness and implementing that knowledge in engineering. Through an interdisciplinary approach that integrates neuroscience, computer science, and philosophy, we are pioneering new horizons in consciousness research.
Latest News
Welcome Party
We held a welcome party for new students this year.
Paper Published in iScience
The paper "Aberrant prefrontal activity and arousal level correlate with action initiation and response vigor in rats" by Frederike J. Klein, Dmitrii Vasilev, Ryo Iwai, Masataka Watanabe, and Nelson K. Totah was published online in iScience.
ESPP2026 Accepted
Shunsuke Sasaki's (M2) poster presentation "Fission and the Fear of Death: The Interventionist Criterion of Survival" was accepted at European Society for Philosophy and Psychology (ESPP) Conference 2026, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Featured Publications
Brightness illusions drive a neuronal response in the primary visual cortex under top-down modulation
Saeedi, A.; Wang, K.; Nikpourian, G.; Bartels, A.; Logothetis, N. K.; Totah, N. K.; Watanabe, M.
Nature Communications, 15:3141, 2024
View Details脳の意識 機械の意識 - 脳神経科学の挑戦 -
渡邉正峰
中央公論新社, 2017
Temporal Jitter of the BOLD Signal Reveals a Reliable Initial Dip and Improved Spatial Resolution
Watanabe, M.; Bartels, A.; Macke, J. H.; Murayama, Y.; Logothetis, N. K.
Current Biology, 23(21): 2146-2150, 2013
Attention But Not Awareness Modulates the BOLD Signal in the Human V1 During Binocular Suppression
Watanabe, M.; Cheng, K.; Murayama, Y.; Ueno, K.; Asamizuya, T.; Tanaka, K.; Logothetis, N.
Science, 334(6057): 829-831, 2011
Get In Touch
Please feel free to contact us regarding research inquiries, collaborative research proposals, laboratory visit requests, and more.
7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8654, Japan
Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo Department of Systems Innovation
Email: watanabe(at)sys.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp