Dr. Motoharu Yoshida

Biography

Dr. Motoharu Yoshida obtained his B.Sc (1999), M.Sc (2001) and Ph.D (2004) degrees in information technology at Kyushu Institute of Technology, Fukuoka, Japan. His Ph.D work focused on the memory function of the hippocampus based on dynamical neural activity of the hippocampal CA3-CA1 region, in the lab of Prof. Hatsuo Hayashi. He then conducted his post-doctoral study at McGill University, Montreal Neurological Institute, Canada, from 2004 to 2006 in the lab of Prof. Angel Alonso. From 2006 to 2008, he was supported by a post-doctoral fellowship from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. From 2006 to 2009, he was a post-doctoral researcher at Boston University, Center for Memory and Brain, in the lab of Prof. Michael Hasselmo. From 2010 to 2016, Dr. Yoshida was a W1 professor at Ruhr-University Bochum, Faculty of Psychology, heading the Neural Dynamics Laboratory. Since April 2016, Dr. Yoshida is a group leader of the Cognitive Neurophysiology research group at DZNE Magdeburg and LIN Magdeburg.

Research Interest

The hippocampus and entorhinal cortex, which are part of the medial temporal lobe (MTL), support memory and spatial navigation functions. Our research focuses on neural computation underlying cognitive functions of the MTL, combining in vitro and in vivo electrophysiological recordings with computational simulations. Since the MTL is crucially involved in Alzheimer’s disease and temporal lobe epilepsy, studying neural computation in the MTL is central not only to understanding of cognitive functions and its engineering applications, but also to developing treatments for dementia and epilepsy.