Hiroaki Kumano

Waseda University | Sōdai · Faculty of Human Sciences

Self-focused attention (SFA) and other-focused attention (OFA) are central maintenance factors of social anxiety. Tomita et al., Cognitive Therapy and Research 44:511–525, 2020 investigated brain activities when manipulating SFA and OFA during speech tasks, after controlling for social anxiety, using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and eye-tracki...

Self-compassion is regarded as a mediating or moderating variable in mindfulness-based interventions (MBI). However, few studies have investigated the role of self-compassion on MBI. Therefore, we conducted a randomized controlled trial to examine whether (1) MBI decreases depression and trait anxiety, while increasing trait mindfulness, trait self...

Absorption in mind-wandering (MW) may worsen our mood and can cause psychological disorders. Researchers indicate the possibility that meta-awareness of MW prevents these mal-effects and enhances favorable consequences of MW, such as boosting creativity; thus, meta-awareness has attracted psychological and clinical attention. However, few studies h...

Among adults with ADHD, one of the most common problems in daily life is procrastination. ADHD is characterized by attention as well as suboptimal decision-making deficits, indicating difficulty in making long-term reward choices. However, little is known about the relationship between suboptimal decision-making or temporal discounting (TD) and pro...

Background: Self-focused attention (SFA) is a major maintenance factor of social anxiety disorder. The two types of SFA, the observer perspective and self-focus on body sensation, increase anxiety in individuals with high levels of social anxiety. However, the triggers of each SFA remain unclear. This study used ecological momentary assessment to...

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and its subthreshold, high worriers, manifest with severe social dysfunction. Theories regarding cognitive-behavioral risk factors for social dysfunction in patients with GAD and high worriers are in a state of flux and have been independently assessed. However, the possibility of integration within a framework of...

Background: Imagery rescripting (IR) is a technique used in cognitive-behavioral therapy and schema therapy, the treatment process of which has not been empirically verified despite being implemented for various mental disorders. This study aims to examine the experiential process of patients who undergo IR.Methods: Schema therapy sessions were vid...

Introduction Migraine and tension-type headache (TTH) are chronic diseases associated with significant socioeconomic losses and social and psychological impact (current global prevalence: 10% and 38%, respectively). Thus, they require accurate identification and classification. In clinical practice, validated screening tools able to quickly determi...

Background It is generally assumed that erectile dysfunction (ED) under the age of 40 is primarily driven by psychosocial factors. Aims This cross-sectional study evaluated ED, depression, anxiety, and quality of life among young Japanese men. Materials and Methods We used an online survey to gather data from a wide range of community samples. ED...

Metacognitive therapy (MCT) is one of the effective psychotherapies for over-adaptation and alexithymia. MCT focuses on metacognitive beliefs (i.e., beliefs about cognitive processes) and instrumental beliefs (i.e., beliefs about coping behaviors). These beliefs are maintaining factors for mental disorders. Matsuda et al. (2021) developed two scale...

Adults Who Stutter (AWS) are more likely to have Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and more difficulty with speech (Menzies et al., 2008). The social anxiety of AWS is associated with maladaptive coping patterns, which may contribute to the maintenance of SAD (Tomisato et al., 2022). Metacognitive Therapy (MCT) focuses on the transformation of these un...

Many psychotherapies improve metacognitive awareness by enhancing attentional and executive functions. The computational approach is a research method to understand the operating principles of the brain and mind by explicitly mathematical modeling of the brain's information processing processes (Kunisato et al., 2019). The reinforcement learning mo...

Patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) tend to engage in experiential avoidance, and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is used to treat SAD. In ACT, there are three senses of self; the conceptualized self, the self-as-awareness, and the observer self. Research has employed questionnaires to reveal the relationship between the experience...

Patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) tend to engage in experiential avoidance, and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is used to treat SAD. In ACT, there are three senses of self; the conceptualized self, the self-as-awareness, and the observer self. Research has employed questionnaires to reveal the relationship between the experience...

Rumination is defined as reputative thinking about negative and depressive things. It's a major risk factor for depression. It affects depression not only directly but also indirectly through sleep. This study aimed to compare the effects of depressive rumination which is a rumination about depression and negative rumination which is a hypernymy of...

In clinical behavior analysis, the focus is on maximizing the Quality of Life (QOL) by emphasizing commitment to life, rather than merely reducing symptoms. The goal is to help clients increase and expand their behavioral repertoire to obtain positive reinforcement. To achieve this objective, value serves as a central element in commitment, and it...

This research examined the reliability and validity of the Change Agenda Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (CA-IRAP). Change agendas that lead people to think that “reducing or removing undesirable thoughts and feelings will solve problems and lead to a more successful life” are considered unworkable in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT...

Testosterone plays an important role in maintaining both physical and mental function. Age-related testosterone depletion contributes to the development of angina, arteriosclerosis, obesity, metabolic syndrome, dementia, frailty, and a range of other conditions. A condition involving age-related testosterone depletion and the associated clinical sy...

The intentionality and content dimensions of mind wandering (MW) are important determinants of its costs and benefits. However, the relationship of intentionality with various combinations of different content dimensions has never been examined. In this study, we aimed to examine whether the content of intentional and unintentional MW differs in te...

The Cognitive Attentional Syndrome Scale 1 Revised (CAS‐1R) is a 10‐item self‐report measure designed to assess dysfunctional metacognition, a transdiagnostic predictor of psychological disorders (e.g., generalized anxiety disorder, major depression disorder). Dysfunctional metacognition is classified into “cognitive attentional syndrome” and “meta...

Tension-type headaches (TTHs) are characterized by compressive or constrictive persistent pain as the main symptom, and peripheral and central mechanisms are thought to be involved in their pathogenesis. TTHs have a worldwide prevalence of 42% and negatively impact both the psychological and social wellbeing of those who suffer from them. The diagn...

Procrastination is associated with various maladaptations. The function of procrastination varies with the context. Since procrastination behavior is measured using trait obtained through questionnaires, few behavioral indices that take into account the context of daily life are developed. Therefore, this study developed an index for measuring proc...

Self-focused attention (SFA) and other-focused attention (OFA) are central maintenance factors of social anxiety, but few studies have investigated both simultaneously in social situations. In this review, we introduced our studies of Tomita et al. (2020) and Tomita & Kumano (2021), in which we aimed to measure both that could be compared by visual...

Background Tension-type headaches and migraines are prevalent conditions; however, no reliable biological markers have been identified for screening. A validated screening tool for epidemiological studies would aid in carrying out large-scale epidemiological studies. Therefore, there is a need to develop a screening tool in the Japanese language ba...

In anxiety disorders, the hyperactivity of the subcortical regions, which generate learned (via amygdala) and non-learned (via PAG) anxiety and fear against aversive stimuli and transmit them to the hypothalamus (via BNST), and that of the cortical regions belonging to the salience network (midcingulate cortex and anterior insular cortex) are obser...

In this study, we analyzed the process of maintaining and changing thoughts and behaviors between the experience of failure in a specific game and the next game based on the technique of TEM, and we named and discussed the contents of the synthesized TEM diagram from the perspective of metacognitive therapy (MCT). We interviewed nine sports competi...

Objectives The 14-item Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory-short form assesses mindfulness, and enhanced mindfulness is beneficial for reducing anxiety and depressive symptoms. This study aims to develop a Japanese version of the measure (J-FMI) and examine its reliability and validity in a clinical population. Methods Patients (N = 340) with mainly de...

Introduction While anticipatory anxiety is a psychological factor of erectile dysfunction (ED), the problem of experiential avoidance, which is an attempt to avoid heightened anxiety and tension associated with anticipatory anxiety, has recently been highlighted (Stephenson, 2019). Experiential avoidance becomes a problem when one worsens his or he...

Metacognitive Therapy (MCT) is one of the effective psychotherapies for over-adaptation. MCT focuses on metacognitive beliefs which are beliefs about cognitive processes and instrumental beliefs which are beliefs about coping behaviors. Metacognitive and instrumental beliefs are considered to maintain the mental illness. Takeda et al. (2018) indica...

Mind Wandering (MW) is described as task unrelated thought which occurs when one's attention is diverted from the task or external environment one is currently engaged to unrelated internal representations. It has been noted that unintentional MW may be more likely to interfere with task performance. We believe that differences in the direction of...

Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) is sometimes used to treat Eating disorder (ED) these days. Previous studies have examined the relationship between ED and ACT's behavioral processes such as experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion. However, most of the previous studies were examined by characteristic measurement using a single questionnaire s...

Mind wandering (MW) is a phenomenon in which a person is distracted from the external environment and ongoing tasks. Among these, unintentional MWs are known to be associated with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Although some aspects of MWs are expected to have a negative influence on ADHD, the relationship between MW and contents...

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is one of the treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Studies have used questionnaires to reveal the relationship between OCD symptoms and variables in ACT at the trait level. However, few studies examine the impact of experiential avoidance and defusion on OCD symptoms in daily life. Thus, this s...

A previous study that manipulated metacognitive beliefs of the patients with generalized anxiety disorder resulted in the transformation of the Big Five attributes. However、 enhancing the attention control function is also expected to transform the Big Five traits. This study also examined the effects of enhancing attention control because synergis...

Social camouflaging behaviors consist of compensation, masking, and assimilation. Social camouflaging behaviors are associated with low self-esteem and poor mental health. However, studies suggest that social camouflaging behaviors also have positive functions. This study examined the relationship between mental health deterioration and low self-es...

Overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM) is considered a risk factor for depression. Previous studies have established the relationship between passive attention control and OGM. However, there are only a few studies examining the relationship between OGM and voluntary attention control. Thus, the current study aims to examine the relationship bet...

A previous study that manipulated metacognitive beliefs of the patients with generalized anxiety disorder resulted in the transformation of the Big Five attributes. However、 enhancing the attention control function is also expected to transform the Big Five traits. This study also examined the effects of enhancing attention control because synergis...

Self-focused attention is a maintenance factor of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Focusing on self taking an observer’s perspective is associated with increased anxiety. The triggers of self-focused attention from an observer perspective remain unclear. Studies have shown that metacognitive therapy (MCT), which targets a perseverative thinking style...

Background A brief measure of dispositional mindfulness is important for applied research on mindfulness. Although short forms of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), which measures the five aspects of mindfulness (i.e., observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging, and non-reactivity), have been developed worldwide, the va...

Background: The Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) model of human functioning uses the behavioral processes of acceptance, mindfulness, and values, which together compose psychological flexibility, the ability to contact the present moment more fully as a conscious human being and to either change or persist when doing so serves valued ends....

Objective: Mindfulness meditation might improve the ability of disengagement from mind-wandering (MW), that is, the ability to shift attention from MW. Disengagement from MW could mediate the relationship between mindfulness and reduced depression. However, no studies have confirmed this relationship because of limitations in measurement methodolog...

The purpose of this study was to examine the causal relationship between rumination in ambiguous rejection situations and the perception and anticipation of rejection. Thirty university students with high rejection sensitivity were presented with ambiguous rejection situations and were asked to maintain or reduce their rumination. Hierarchical mult...

Background: The Cognitive Attentional Syndrome Scale 1 Revised (CAS-1R) is a 10-item self-report measure designed to assess dysfunctional metacognition, which is a transdiagnostic predictor of psychological disorders. Dysfunctional metacognition can be broadly classified into “cognitive attentional syndrome” and “metacognitive beliefs.” In the pres...

Self-focused attention plays an essential role in social anxiety disorder, which is reported to be accompanied by overactivation of the right frontal pole. In this study, we explore the possibility that suppressing over-activation of the right frontal pole would lead to the mitigation of self-focused attention. We used transcranial static magnetic...

Overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM) is considered a risk factor for depression. Previous studies have established the relationship between passive attention control and OGM. However, there are only a few studies examining the relationship between OGM and voluntary attention control. Thus, the current study aims to examine the relationship bet...

Regulative Music Therapy (RMT) is one of the passive music therapy, where we practice focusing on three areas: the music, the body, the thoughts, feelings, and moods while listening to prescribed classical music. The effect of RMT was shown in which improvement in anxiety and mood was reported. Furthermore, it has been pointed out that the essence...

This study created an attention training technique (ATT) with sound stimuli that induced self-focused attention (SFA) and compared the effects with a standard ATT. We recruited and assigned a total of 30 undergraduate students with social anxiety tendencies to the SFA-ATT and standard ATT groups. Each ATT was performed for two weeks and the changes...

Background: The symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are known to exacerbate the effect of cognitive-behavioral impairments on emotional burden. Although adults with ADHD frequently experience procrastination and internalizing symptoms such as depression and anxiety, few studies have examined whether the association between p...

The proceeding of the lecture given at the Annual Convention of the Japanese Psychological Association in 2018 on Nozomi TOMITA's doctoral dissertation "A unified understanding of self-focused attention and attention bias in social anxiety" (in Japanese), and the table of contents of six published papers corresponding to 6 studies of her dissertati...

Metacognitive therapy aims at a state of detached mindfulness (DM), in which unpleasant thoughts and feelings are left unaddressed. To achieve DM, it is important to improve attention ability. In addition, it has been suggested that it is necessary to address beliefs about maladaptive coping behaviors to promote DM in clinical settings. However, th...

Sleep problems are common in the daily life of university students. A variety of sleep problems have been shown to be interrelated with daytime mood and mental health problems. However, few studies have examined which sleep problems influence mood states and which mood states influence sleep problems in the daily life of university students. Theref...

While personality or the integration of psychological characteristics is hard to change，psychotherapies， such as Metacognitive Therapy(MCT) ，can reduce trait anxiety. Therefore，it is possible that the intervention techniques of MCT would work on the personality aspects，and it is necessary to conduct research to examine changes in personality traits...

The results of this study suggest that self-focused attention is a more dominant maintaining factor than attention bias, which may support the theory of Clark & Wells (1995). Brain functional abnormality in social anxiety individuals evident in social situations may correspond to dysfunctional hyperactivities induced by maladaptive psychological st...

We describe the process of introducing online cognitive and behavioral therapies at a primary care psychosomatic clinic during the novel coronavirus pandemic. The preparation period was relatively short, due to some helpful references and the use of "Zoom," the off-the-shelf web conference service. In total, 92 sessions were implemented over six mo...

Attentional avoidance is a factor that inhibits extinction learning, and covert avoidance may be independent of behavior. However, covert attentional avoidance has never been examined as a factor that inhibits extinction learning. Although threat-monitoring is considered to facilitate fear conditioning, this has not been examined. In this study, we...

There are two types of attention: involuntary attention, which is an automatic response to unexpected stimuli, and voluntary attention, which is a conscious attention. Mindfulness training, which involves conscious control of attention, has been shown to affect spontaneous attention, and it is thought that repeated active attention may result in au...

This preliminary investigation aims to develop a new measure for momentary experiential avoidance in daily life using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and a small sample. To measure momentary experiential avoidance, this study devised a new method that involves capturing reductions in unwanted experiences after a behavior has occurred based on...

Metacognitive therapy aims at a state of detached mindfulness (DM), in which unpleasant thoughts and feelings are left unaddressed. In order to achieve DM, it is important to improve attention ability. In addition, it has been suggested that it is necessary to address beliefs about maladaptive coping behaviors to promote DM in clinical settings. Ho...

Voluntary attention control comprises three components: selective attention, switching attention, and divided attention. These components can be assessed with a questionnaire-Voluntary Attention Control Scale(VACS)-and a behavioral task-Dichotic Listening Task(DLT) ．Previous studies suggested that VACS is related to depression and anxiety and that...

Sleep problems and negative moods during the day are interrelated, and sleep disorders and psychiatric disorders often co-occur. However, it is unclear how sleep states and multiple moods influence each other in healthy people's daily life. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between total sleep time (TST), sleep ef...

We presented the process of introducing online cognitive and behavioral therapies at a primary care psychosomatic clinic under the pandemic of the new coronavirus. The preparation period was pretty short, which was due to some helpful references and the use of the off-the-shelf web conference service "Zoom." Ninety-two sessions were implemented in...

Self-compassion is considered to be an important mediating and moderating variable in mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). However, little research has been conducted focusing on the role of self-compassion in MBIs. Therefore, the present study examined whether (1) depression and trait-anxiety will decrease and self-compassionate behaviors (SCBs...

This study aimed to investigate the neurocognitive effects of the Attention Training Technique (ATT) on brain activity in healthy participants. The participants included 20 university students who were asked to practice ATT as a homework assignment for 20 days. The intracerebral source localization of their electroencephalogram during rest and the...

Self-focused attention plays an essential role in social anxiety disorder, which is reported to be accompanied by over-activation of the right frontal pole. In this study, we explore the possibility that suppressing over-activation of the right frontal pole would lead to the mitigation of self-focused attention. We used transcranial static magnetic...

Mind wandering (MW) is a shift in the contents of thought, away from events in the external environment, towards self-generated thoughts. Here, we aimed to clarify the relationship between the specific types of MW and psychological symptoms. Data from 37 healthy Japanese college students were analyzed. The frequency of unintentional negative MW was...

In metacognitive therapy, harmful cognitive activities are considered to lead to mental disorders. In addition, metacognitive beliefs, which are how we understand cognitive activities, are said to control those cognitive activities. However, there is no measure that comprehensively captures maladaptive coping behaviors included in harmful cognitive...

It has been suggested that the higher the expectation of rejection, the more strongly one is likely to perceive any given interpersonal interaction as rejection (Suyama, 2016). We consider the possibility that rumination is associated with the expectation of and perceptions related to rejection; however, this potential connection has not been direc...

The cognitive-behavioral model of social anxiety disorder (SAD) indicates that attentional biases toward certain types of external information are a maintaining factor for SAD. According to metacognitive therapy, attentional biases occur under the influence of metacognitive beliefs about focused attention. However, there is no empirical study that...

Sleep architecture of patients with mental disorders such as depression has short slow-wave sleep time (SWST) in the first half of sleep. However, studies have not yet investigated the causal relationship of reduced SWST and negative daytime moods. Additionally, most extant studies on the relationship between sleep architecture and daytime moods ha...

This study elucidates the effect of metacognitive therapy on depression and executive functions. In Study 1, we revealed the executive functions associated with worry, rumination, and depression even when metacognitive beliefs were controlled by surveying 157 college students. In Study 2, an experimental task was employed to measure the executive f...

Skill training and trauma-focused intervention should be conducted in parallel to promote the employment of clients with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and alleviate non-lethal trauma related to employment. The study reports a case of a client with ASD who succeeded in trauma processing and work adaptation after skill training and imagery rescrip...

Social anxiety disorder is characterized by fear of negative evaluation (FNE), fear of positive evaluation (FPE), and attentional avoidance. It has been suggested that self-focused attention process as taking “observer perspective,” wherein individuals perceive themselves from another person’s viewpoint, involves attentional avoidance. A perspectiv...