Kazuyuki Sakatsume

• Professor at Waseda University

The core function of the prefrontal cortex is control. One of the functions of the prefrontal cortex is the executive function. The executive function is responsible for higher-order control. Executive function is necessary for humans to establish a high level of adaptive relationship with the environment. The prefrontal cortex is slow to mature, a...

Background: Addressing the needs of the aging population is a common challenge for developed countries. In Japan, there were no observational studies on changes in life expectancy for community-dwelling seniors. We conducted two surveys for older individuals over a 7-year period in a village to examine various factors that influence life expectancy...

Background: Men score higher on mental rotation tasks compared to women and suffer from depression and anxiety at half the rate of women. The objective of this study was to confirm the gender-specific effects of depression and anxiety on mental rotation performance. Methods: We collected data in non-experimental conditions from 325 university st...

Objective: We investigated factors that influence variations in life expectancy and quality of life (QOL) to develop and prepare social diagnostic scales for the elderly. Methods: In 2007, we investigated the mental and physical functions, living conditions, QOL, and malnutrition risks among the population of village Y in Nagano Prefecture. In 2014...

The aim of this study was to examine and compare the areas of brain blood flow in patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) without structural abnormality and acute low back pain (ALBP) with lumber disc herniation (LDH). Functional neuroimaging studies provide evidence of abnormalities in the regional cerebral blood flow during low back pain. Rece...

An experiment was conducted to analyze the space-movement processes which unilateral spatial neglect (USN) patients manifested. Three kinds of movement features were tested which were reported in previous studies; (a) general coarse response tendency, (b) hypokinesia in the disordered space-side, and (c) more frequent response toward the normal spa...

左半球損傷による構成障害を行為のプランニングの障害に, 右半球損傷によるそれを視空間障害に帰着させる Hecaen ら6) や Warrington ら14) の仮説を検証するために, 通常の立方体模写と, 検者について立方体を１辺ずつ書き加えていく変法を, 頭頂葉後部病巣を有する重度構成障害21例 (左半球損傷８例, 右半球損傷13例) に施行した。左半球損傷例では, 行為のプランを設定する必要のない変法にて模写が大きく改善したが, 構成障害は完全には消失せず, 行為のプランニングの障害と視知覚の障害が同時に存在していると考えられた。一方, 右半球損傷例の改善は左半球損傷例よりも明らかに小さく, 図形知覚の障害がその構成障害の基盤にあると考えられた。

臨床的に簡便なヴィジランス検査として，等速打叩課題を考案し (坂爪ら, 1986) , 多数の脳損傷例に施行した (333例) ． 被験者に，健側に持った鉛筆で，机上を毎秒一回の速さで叩くように教示した．検者は，ストップウオッチをみながら，10秒問を１ブロックとして打叩音を計数し，計30ブロック (５分間) を記録した．本課題の指標として，30ブロックの平均打叩数 (反応傾向度) と ＳＤ (反応動揺度) を用いた．もしヴィジランスに障害があれば課題の遂行に動揺がみられるものと考えた． 結果は以下のとおりであった．(1) 本課題に困難を示した者は，精神機能面になんらかの障害を伴っていた右脳損傷群で特に多かった (約80％，他の群では約50％弱) ．(2) 概して精神症状を随伴すると困難を示し...

Two experiments were conducted to study the effect of US experience upon CR in the taste-aversion learning situation. In Experiment I, like many other learning situations (e.g., CER situation), it was tested whether the US experience had any effect on CR in the taste-aversion learning. After conditioning (CS1: saccharin solution (0.1%), US: LiCl so...