Our Faculty > Masashi Kawasaki

Masashi Kawasaki

Masashi Kawasaki

Education

  • BS, Waseda University
  • PhD, Sophia University

Primary Appointment

  • Professor, Biology

Contact

Research Interest(s)

Neuroethology of electric fish

Research Description

My research subjects are the weakly electric fishes - unusual electronic animal species that the nature has ever created. Specifically, I have focused on the brain mechanisms for electric behaviors of South American and African electric fishes. My research strategy is to combine behavioral experiments for identification of computational algorithms, and neurobiological techniques for identification of underlying neuronal mechanisms. The ultimate goal of my research is to uncover fundamental design principles of the brain using these attractive creatures.

Selected Publications

  • Carlson B, Kawasaki M. Stimulus selectivity is enhanced by voltage-dependent conductances in combination-sensitive neurons. Journal of neurophysiology. 2006;96(6): 3362-77. PMID: 17005607
  • Carlson B, Kawasaki M. Ambiguous encoding of stimuli by primary sensory afferents causes a lack of independence in the perception of multiple stimulus attributes. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 2006;26(36): 9173-83. PMID: 16957074
  • Fortune E, Rose G, Kawasaki M. Encoding and processing biologically relevant temporal information in electrosensory systems. Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology. 2006;192(6): 625-35. PMID: 16450118
  • Zhang Y, Kawasaki M. Interruption of pacemaker signals by a diencephalic nucleus in the African electric fish, Gymnarchus niloticus. Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology. 2006;192(5): 509-21. PMID: 16450119
  • Carlson B, Kawasaki M. Behavioral responses to jamming and 'phantom' jamming stimuli in the weakly electric fish Eigenmannia. Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology. 2007;193(9): 927-41. PMID: 17609965
  • Zhang Y, Kawasaki M. Interruption of pacemaker signals is mediated by GABAergic inhibition of the pacemaker nucleus in the African electric fish Gymnarchus niloticus. Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology. 2007;193(6): 665-75. PMID: 17406874
  • Carlson B, Kawasaki M. From stimulus estimation to combination sensitivity: encoding and processing of amplitude and timing information in parallel, convergent sensory pathways. Journal of computational neuroscience. 2008;25(1): 1-24. PMID: 18176850 | PMCID: PMC2812867
  • Evolution of time-coding systems in weakly electric fishes. Zoological science. 2009;26(9): 587-99. PMID: 19799509
  • Pluta S, Kawasaki M. Temporal selectivity in midbrain electrosensory neurons identified by modal variation in active sensing. Journal of neurophysiology. 2010;104(1): 498-507. PMID: 20505132