Ayaka Kato on Strikingly

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Ayaka Kato is a postdoctoral fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, under the mentorship of Dr. Ignacio Saez and Dr. Xiaosi Gu. She attained her Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in March 2023 and holds a Master of Science in Neuroscience from the University of Oxford and a Bachelor and a Master of Biological Science from the University of Tokyo. Ayaka's research focus encompasses computational psychiatry, dopamine, motivation, and addiction. She employs computational modeling, intracranial recording, and neuroimaging techniques to investigate these areas of study.
CV
latest update 2024.08.05
Link for CV
Publication
Google sholar: https://scholar.google.co.jp/citations?user=27OzVqAAAAAJ&hl=ja

Preprint
Imtiaz, Z., Kato, A., Kopell, B.H., Qasim, S.E., Davis, A.N., Martinez, L.N., Heflin, M., Kulkarni, K., Morsi, A., Gu, X. and Saez, I., 2024. Human Substantia Nigra Neurons Encode Reward Expectations. bioRxiv.

Published
Ayaka Kato, Kazumi Ohta, Kazuo Okanoya, Hokto Kazama (2023) Dopaminergic neurons dynamically update sensory values during olfactory maneuver. Cell Report

Ayaka Kato, Kanji Shimomura, Dimitri Ognibene, Muhammad A Parvaz, Laura A Berner, Kenji Morita, Vincenzo G Fiore (2022) Computational models of behavioral addictions: state of the art and future directions. Addictive Behavior

Morita, K., & Kato, A. (2022). Dopamine ramps for accurate value learning under uncertainty. Trends in Neurosciences.

Shimomura, K., Kato, A., & Morita, K. (2021). Rigid reduced successor representation as a potential mechanism for addiction. The European Journal of Neuroscience, 53(11), 3768.

Kario, K., Nomura, A., Kato, A., Harada, N., Tanigawa, T., So, R., ... & Satake, K. (2021). Digital therapeutics for essential hypertension using a smartphone application: A randomized, open‐label, multicenter pilot study. The Journal of Clinical Hypertension, 23(5), 923-934.

Kato, A., Kunisato, Y., Katahira, K., Okimura, T., & Yamashita, Y. (2020). Computational Psychiatry Research Map (CPSYMAP): a new database for visualizing research papers. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11, 1360.

Kato, A., & Morita, K. (2020). Dynamical Systems Approach: An Elementary Introduction and Application to Research on Dopamine and Reinforcement Learning. Brain and Nerve= Shinkei Kenkyu no Shinpo, 72(11), 1275-1282.

Kato A, Tanigawa T, Satake K, Nomura A (2020) Efficacy of the Ascure Smoking Cessation Program: Retrospective Study JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2020;8(5):e17270

Morita K & Kato A (2018) A Neural Circuit Mechanism for the Involvements of Dopamine in Effort-Related Choices: Decay of Learned Values, Secondary Effects of Depletion, and Calculation of Temporal Difference Error. eNeuro, ENEURO-0021.

Kato A & Morita K (2016) Forgetting in Reinforcement Learning Links Sustained Dopamine Signals to Motivation. PLoS Comput Biol 12(10): e1005145. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005145
Code: https://senselab.med.yale.edu/ModelDB/ShowModel.cshtml?model=195890#tabs-1

Morita K and Kato A (2014) Striatal dopamine ramping may indicate flexible reinforcement learning with forgetting in the cortico-basal ganglia circuits. Front. Neural Circuits 8:36. doi: 10.3389/fncir.2014.0003

Click the figures to access the papers

Dopaminergic neurons dynamically update sensory values during olfactory maneuver
Rigid reduced successor representation as a potential mechanism for addiction
Computational Psychiatry Research Map (CPSYMAP): A New Database for Visualizing Research Papers
Efficacy of the Ascure Smoking Cessation Program: Retrospective Study
A Neural Circuit Mechanism for the Involvements of Dopamine in Effort-Related Choices
Forgetting in Reinforcement Learning Links Sustained Dopamine Signals to Motivation.
Striatal dopamine ramping may indicate flexible reinforcement learning with forgetting in the cortico-basal ganglia circuits.
Education
2023.3 Ph.D. Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,
The University of Tokyo
Laboratory for Circuit Mechanisms of Sensory Perception @ RIKEN CBS
Supervised by Dr. Hokto Kazama / Skills: Ca2+ imaging

2018.9 MSc in Neuroscience, Graduate Programme in Neuroscience,
University of Oxford
1st dissertation: Human TMS & MEG project - advisor: Dr. Matthew Rushworth
2nd dissertation: Rodent dopamine juxtacellular recording project-advisor: Dr. Peter Magill

2017.3 MSc, Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science,
The University of Tokyo advisor: Dr. Yasuo Ihara / Skills: MATLAB Programing, Multi-agent simulation, Genetic Algorism

2015.3 BSc, Department of Biological Sciences, School of Science,
The University of Tokyo advisor: Dr. Takeo Kubo and Dr. Hideaki Takeuchi / Skills: Wavelet analysis, CRISPR-Cas9
Awards and Grants
Frist prize in the first whole brain architecture Hackathon in Tokyo (2015) “Curiosity based exploration using place cell”
Scholarship from Son-Masayoshi Foundation (2017-2021)
JSPS research fellow (DC2 2019.4-2021.3)
Director Poster Award, Gold prize, at the RIKEN CBS Retreat
Ohbu Research Incentive Award 2024, Dopaminergic neurons dynamically update sensory values during olfactory maneuver, RIKEN
Toshihiko Tokizane Memorial Award for Excellent Graduate Study in Neuroscience, 2024
Presentations and invited talks
Kato A & Kazama H Encoding of innate values of odors by dopaminergic neurons. The 43rd Annual Meeting of the Japan Neuroscience Society 07/2020

Ayaka Kato, Tomoyuki Tanigawa, Kohta Satake, Akihiro Nomura EFFICACY OF THE NOVEL DIGITAL ASCURE SMOKING CESSATION PROGRAM COMBINING SMARTPHONE APP AND WEB BASED MENTORING Poster-> https://cureapp.institute/resource/img/pdf/SNRT_abstract.pdf
Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco (SRNT) 25th Annual Meeting San Francisco, California USA, February 2019

Kato A & Morita K Forgetting in reinforcement learning reconciles the two roles of dopamine: reward prediction error and motivational drive (633.06.)
Society for neuroscience San Diego USA 11/2016

Itoh T*, Ukita J*, Kato A* *Equal contribution Modeling the development of place cells in hippocampus.
Annual International Conference on Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures Lyon France 11/2015

Kato A & Morita K Potential mechanistic account for the suggested relationship between the ramping dopamine signal and sustained motivational drive: a study of reinforcement learning model.
doi: 10.12751/nncn.bc2015.0095 Bernstein Conference Heidelberg Germany 09/2015

Kato A & Morita K
Exploring models of reinforcement learning to explain the ramping DA signal in the striatum.
The 37th Annual Meeting of the Japan Neuroscience Society, Yokohama Japan 09/2014
Experiences
2018.10 - 2021.3
Researcher -- CureApp Inc
Project: Evaluating the efficacy of the Ascure Smoking Cessation Program
Skills: R, Logistic regression, Academic writing

2018.12 - 2019.3
Research assistant - UTEC (Venture Capital)

2018.2 - 2018.6
Internship in R&D  sector -- Araya (Japanese startup) 
Project: Exploratory research on how to utilize Phi-tool box https://figshare.com/articles/phi_toolbox_zip/3203326
Skills: MATLAB, Analyzing Network

2015.11  – 2016.3
Internship in R&D  sector -- Colorful Board (Japanese startup) 
Project: Visualizing user’s fashion preference for personalized recommendation system
Skills: Python, Natural language processing (Word2Vec)

2015.8 – 2016.2
Hackathon winner -- Whole Brain Architecture Hackathon in Tokyo
Project: Developing an agent exploring novel virtual space by self-localization and mapping
Skills: Python, recurrent neural network (LSTM)

2013.8  –  2018.2 
Research Assistant -- University of Tokyo  (Supervisor: Dr. Kenji Morita)
Project: Computational modeling of motivation as reinforcement learning with forgetting
Skills: MATLAB Programing, Reinforcement learning, Nonlinear dynamics
Links
Research map
Gu lab webpage
Saez lab webpage
Contact

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Profile

CV

latest update 2024.08.05

Publication

Imtiaz, Z., Kato, A., Kopell, B.H., Qasim, S.E., Davis, A.N., Martinez, L.N., Heflin, M., Kulkarni, K., Morsi, A., Gu, X. and Saez, I., 2024. Human Substantia Nigra Neurons Encode Reward Expectations. bioRxiv.

Ayaka Kato, Kazumi Ohta, Kazuo Okanoya, Hokto Kazama (2023) Dopaminergic neurons dynamically update sensory values during olfactory maneuver. Cell Report

Ayaka Kato, Kanji Shimomura, Dimitri Ognibene, Muhammad A Parvaz, Laura A Berner, Kenji Morita, Vincenzo G Fiore (2022) Computational models of behavioral addictions: state of the art and future directions. Addictive Behavior

Morita, K., & Kato, A. (2022). Dopamine ramps for accurate value learning under uncertainty. Trends in Neurosciences.

Shimomura, K., Kato, A., & Morita, K. (2021). Rigid reduced successor representation as a potential mechanism for addiction. The European Journal of Neuroscience, 53(11), 3768.

Dopaminergic neurons dynamically update sensory values during olfactory maneuver

Rigid reduced successor representation as a potential mechanism for addiction

Computational Psychiatry Research Map (CPSYMAP): A New Database for Visualizing Research Papers

Efficacy of the Ascure Smoking Cessation Program: Retrospective Study

A Neural Circuit Mechanism for the Involvements of Dopamine in Effort-Related Choices

Forgetting in Reinforcement Learning Links Sustained Dopamine Signals to Motivation.

Striatal dopamine ramping may indicate flexible reinforcement learning with forgetting in the cortico-basal ganglia circuits.

Education

2023.3 Ph.D. Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,

2018.9 MSc in Neuroscience, Graduate Programme in Neuroscience,

2017.3 MSc, Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science,

2015.3 BSc, Department of Biological Sciences, School of Science,

Awards and Grants

Presentations and invited talks

Experiences

Links

Research mapGu lab webpageSaez lab webpage

Contact

Research map
Gu lab webpage
Saez lab webpage