News — Department of Neurophysiology, Kobe University

2026 · 06

Symposium talk at the 122nd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology

On 18 June 2026, Masanori Sakaguchi spoke in a symposium at the 122nd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology (Pacifico Yokohama), presenting a sleep-based approach to PTSD — Sound Exposure during Sleep (SES) — and how basic sleep neuroscience can be translated toward clinical care.

2026 · 06

New members join the lab

In 2026, the Department of Neurophysiology welcomed three new members.

Yume Yoshida — Dentist; PhD candidate, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery (Prof. Akashi’s group). Developing the trauma-memory cue sounds used in SES research, toward a treatment for dental phobia.

Izumi Yamamoto — administrative officer

Mukhamad Sunardi — MD, PhD (from Indonesia); Specially-Appointed Technical Staff. A specialist in mouse genetic engineering, supporting research across the lab.

See the People page for details.

2026 · 05

Preprint — SES first-in-human feasibility study (Ino et al., medRxiv)

Our preprint reporting a first-in-human feasibility study of Sound Exposure during Sleep (SES) for PTSD (registered as jRCT1030230706) is now available on medRxiv (Ino et al., medRxiv 2026; preprint, peer review pending). See Publications.

2026 · 04

Grant-in-Aid Kiban-A awarded

The lab received a 3-year Kiban-A grant from JSPS to study mechanisms of memory consolidation during sleep, in collaboration with Keio University, IIIS Tsukuba, and Kobe University.

2026 · 04

Publication — Nagai et al., JoVE

Kazuki Nagai and colleagues published a video-protocol article describing SNiFFer, a method for selective REM sleep deprivation, in the Journal of Visualized Experiments (see Publications).

2026 · 04

Yuto Momohara appointed Assistant Professor

Yuto Momohara joins as Assistant Professor following postdoctoral training at UTHealth (Houston).

2026 · 03

Academia Sinica symposium

Masanori Sakaguchi presented at the Academia Sinica symposium on adult neurogenesis and aging (Taipei, March 9–11). He exchanged ideas with researchers in related fields.

2026 · 01

The lab moves to Kobe University

Masanori Sakaguchi was appointed Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurophysiology at Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine. He also holds a Visiting Professorship at the University of Tsukuba (from May 2026) and a visiting researcher position at RIKEN CBS.

2025

Publication — Vergara et al., Nature Communications

A comprehensive software suite for extracting neuron signals across multiple imaging sessions (see Publications).

2025

Publication — Srinivasan et al., Nature Communications

Transient reactivation of small ensembles of adult-born neurons during REM sleep, revealed by chronic miniscope imaging (see Publications).