Tom is a cognitive scientist with roots in computer science and cybernetics. He investigates how mind arises from the dynamic interplay of brain, body, and environment, drawing on artificial life, agent-based modeling, human-computer interaction, and philosophy of mind.

Kaori keeps the unit running smoothly — handling equipment purchases, travel and visits, workshops, and the day-to-day operations that support our research. Please contact her with any requests.

Milan is a cognitive neuroscientist and neural engineer with a background in AI and machine learning. He investigates how neural noise and the complex interplay of brain, body, and environment shape decision-making and cognition, combining EEG with computational modeling.

Ann is a researcher with a background in computational cognitive science and experimental psychology. She completed her PhD at the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Osnabrück in Germany. Her research interests include how principles of embodied social cognition can inform the design of technology interfaces. Currently, she leads the human-agent interaction project using perceptual crossing experiments.

My research centers on the sense of agency: the subjective feeling that one’s own bodily movements cause and control changes in the external world. I approach this topic from two directions. In basic research, I investigate the mechanisms and functions of the sense of agency from the perspectives of motor control, motor learning, and metacognition. In applied research, I explore how body-augmenting interfaces such as electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) and exoskeletons can extend and modulate the sense of agency. Since completing my Ph.D., I have been pursuing this research under the concept of the “Dynamics of Self-Outline.” I am currently a JSPS Research Fellow (PD) in the Embodied Cognitive Science Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), a visiting researcher in the Cybernetic Humanity Group at Sony CSL, and a research assistant at the Body & Action Lab, Rikkyo University.

Brian is one of the unit's Lead Research Technicians and our equipment specialist, with his center of operations in the Human Behavior Lab in the Central Building. He served 20 years in the U.S. Air Force as an Aircraft Electrical and Environmental Systems Specialist before completing a BSc in Psychology. He designs and maintains the unit's experimental hardware — including a vibrating table for artificial life experiments — co-runs EEG data collection for our perceptual crossing studies, and serves as the unit's licensed drone pilot.

Tae is one of the unit's Lead Research Technicians, managing the daily operations of our main office in Lab 2. Born and raised in Okinawa, she prepares the ethics documents for the unit's human subjects research, leads participant recruitment and scheduling, and manages participants' personal information. For the perceptual crossing studies she mainly collects behavioral data, and she also supports EEG data collection. The collaboration with Kyoto University Hospital on anorexia nervosa is her project. If you have taken part in an experiment and have a question, please feel free to contact her.

Georgii brings a background in theoretical astrophysics to questions at the intersection of artificial life and astrobiology. He investigates how complex systems self-organize and how enclosed ecosystems adapt to stress, drawing on nonlinear dynamics, cellular automata, and agent-based models — with current work on intermediate-perturbation dynamics, Daisyworld variants, and monotile self-assembly.

Kazuma's doctoral work investigated the sense of agency — the subjective feeling of "I did it" — in exploratory movement under uncertainty, combining control-detection tasks, metacognitive measures, and motor adaptation paradigms. He was co-hosted by Shunichi Kasahara's Cybernetic Humanity Studio (Sony CSL) at OIST. Thesis: An Empirical Investigation into the Mechanisms Underlying the Emergence of the Sense of Agency from Exploratory Actions (PhD conferred 2026-09-30)

Kensei's doctoral work used individual movement patterns to probe the ecology and evolution of social insects. He was co-supervised at ECSU, with primary supervision by Tom Bourguignon (Evolutionary Genomics Unit). Thesis: Individual Movement Patterns as Reflections and Predictors of Ecology and Evolution in Social Insects (PhD conferred 2026-03-31)

Natalya's doctoral work used the Self-Optimization model and Hopfield networks to investigate how associative learning gives rise to creativity in adaptive systems. She played a central role advancing ECSU's research based on computational modeling and artificial life. Thesis: Learning to Be Creative: A Computational Investigation of the Role of Associative Learning in Creativity (PhD conferred 2026-01-31).

Shannon's doctoral work combined personality science and neuroscience to examine how intrinsic neural timescales shape the sense of self across age and individual differences. She played a central role in ECSU's perceptual crossing and EEG hyperscanning research. Thesis: Investigations into the Neuroscience of the Self: Personality and Age from the Perspective of Intrinsic Neural Timescales (PhD conferred 2026-01-31).

Eric's doctoral work combined simulation and experiment to investigate the neurophysiological basis of inter-brain synchrony during social interaction, building on coupled-oscillator models and EEG hyperscanning analyses of the perceptual crossing experiment. Thesis: An Investigation into Inter-brain Synchrony using Simulation and Experimental Approaches (PhD conferred 2025-03-31).

Ivan's doctoral work analyzed collective dynamics in strikingly different social groups — from honey bees to football players — revealing shared signatures of self-organization and critical dynamics. Thesis: On the Analysis of Collective Dynamics in Social Groups with Bees and Football Players as Case Studies (PhD conferred 2025-06-30).