Broadening My Horizons in an Interdisciplinary Environment: An Introduction to a Domestic Research Study Program at the School of Medicine

2020/12/11

Yo Nakahara, a second-year student at the School of Medicine, studied at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) during the spring break of his first year in the 2019 academic year as part of a voluntary, short-term domestic study program.

The Keio University School of Medicine is promoting educational and research collaboration with OIST. Pioneering what we hope will be a vibrant future exchange, we would like to share Mr. Nakahara's invaluable experience with you.

The Keio University School of Medicine will continue to support students like Mr. Nakahara who independently conduct research activities at off-campus or overseas research facilities.

We asked Mr. Nakahara, who studied at OIST, to tell us about the discoveries and lessons he learned there.

For about two months, from the beginning of February to the end of March 2020, I studied abroad at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST). This was through a system where an undergraduate student like me could study while assisting in a lab, under the special position of a Research Intern. I will describe what kind of graduate university OIST is later, but first, I would like to introduce what I did there.

I conducted literature research on the theme of "the relationship between psychiatry and embodied cognitive science." I chose this theme because I have long been interested in the study of consciousness and wanted to become proficient in methods other than medical and biological ones (so-called "wet" methods). In the end, I was unfortunately unable to achieve what I had initially set out to do due to a lack of ability, but in terms of being able to approach a different field with an open mind, this choice was the right one.

In my literature research, I read *Ecology of the Brain*, an introductory book on embodied cognitive science, and related literature. Based on this, I created a review incorporating my own thoughts and a map visualizing concepts related to embodied cognitive science. I did not conduct what you would call "research"—that is, performing experiments based on hypotheses to prove them. Rather, it would be more appropriate to say I "studied" the field through coursework. I proceeded with my research in that manner.

The lab I joined was the Embodied Cognitive Science Unit (ECSU). It was a relatively new lab, as Associate Professor Tom Froese had just been appointed in the winter of 2019.

At ECSU, interdisciplinary research is actively pursued to elucidate the relationship between the environment, the body, and the brain (cognition) using engineering, biological, psychological, and even philosophical methods. To borrow the words of Associate Professor Froese, "In embodied cognition, interaction is key. Interaction occurs between the brain, the body, and other factors in the environment, and it is not merely a product of the mind but a fundamental element of it." This reflects the idea that it is important not to focus solely on the brain, but to include surrounding elements in the system of cognition.

The lab's themes are diverse and include Human Machine Interface, artificial intelligence, artificial life, and evolutionary robotics. There were many themes that I, coming from a medical sciences background, didn't even know existed, making it an incredibly stimulating environment.

The lab, led by Associate Professor Froese, consisted of about 15 people in total, including postdocs, technicians, and graduate students. There were people from science fields like Computer Science, Industrial Design, Mechanical Engineering, and Neuroscience, as well as from humanities fields like Psychology, Philosophy, and Anthropology, making it one of the most diverse labs at OIST. It is probably the only lab with a researcher who holds a PhD in philosophy.

As for how I proceeded with my research, I first consulted directly with Associate Professor Froese to decide on my theme, and then developed my own ideas under the guidance of a graduate student who was knowledgeable in the related field. By its very definition, embodied cognitive science has many connections with other fields such as neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, cognitive science, psychology, and philosophy, which made it very challenging to get started. There were many new concepts I had to learn, and I spent a full six weeks reading literature for my review.

In my research, I learned more from people than from literature or experiments. The lab holds a meeting every Friday afternoon. The meeting proceeds with information sharing from Associate Professor Froese, followed by progress reports from each member, and then a reading group session. Through these meetings and research activities, I not only gained insights into each research theme but also heard a lot about the important mindsets for advancing research, which was extremely beneficial.

If you are interested in the content of my research, please access the slides I used for my presentation at the lab from here . I also welcome any questions.

OIST is a "Disneyland" for researchers.

Abundant funding, beautiful facilities, a leadership team that understands research, a fully English-speaking environment, extensive educational resources, the beautiful sea of Okinawa... World-class researchers flock to OIST for these reasons, and in turn, these scientists attract even more outstanding students. OIST today has undoubtedly created this positive cycle and is growing as a research institution at a tremendous speed. I don't know if I will become a researcher, but OIST made me feel that I would want to be one if I were there. It was that wonderful of an environment.

OIST was established in 2011 and has been building its status as one of the leading emerging research and educational institutions in Japan and the world. In 2019, it was ranked 9th in the world in the Nature Index's normalized ranking, which ranks research institutions worldwide by the number of high-quality papers.

An overview of OIST's features is as follows:

• A graduate university with only a five-year integrated Doctoral Programs. This means there are no undergraduate students.

• More than half of the students and researchers are from overseas, and the official language on campus is English.

• It is under the jurisdiction of the Cabinet Office, not the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and a large portion of its income comes from government subsidies for operating costs, ensuring abundant funding for operations and facility maintenance.

• The Board of Governors includes many world-class researchers, and because their opinions were incorporated from the design stage, the facility design and research structure are optimized to foster interdisciplinary collaboration.

Among these features, what I found particularly great about OIST was the various measures taken to enrich interdisciplinary learning.

For example, there is a tea time every Saturday afternoon, where many researchers gather in the cafeteria for free snacks and coffee. Conversations naturally arise there, and you can hear interesting stories. I was able to talk with interesting people I would likely never have met if I had stayed on the typical School of Medicine track—such as a Taiwanese researcher studying sea squirts, a Japanese student who came to OIST from the University of Tokyo to learn reinforcement learning (a type of machine learning), and a brilliant molecular biologist who had been publishing papers since his undergraduate days. The intellectual excitement was endless. Additionally, the research buildings have many lounges where conversations start while waiting in front of the coffee machine. I once got into a heated discussion about cognition with fellow interns from another lab and realized we had been talking for an hour while standing. There are also blackboards available, and an acquaintance who happened to be organizing their thoughts on one gave me a mini-lecture on topology (a branch of advanced mathematics).

In addition to these measures that encourage spontaneous discussions, another characteristic of OIST is that it holds events at a very high frequency, almost daily. At one of these events, Associate Professor Watanabe from the University of Tokyo, famous for his research on Brain Machine Interfaces, was present. I had the opportunity to join him for dinner after his lecture, a precious moment that happened by chance simply because I was at OIST.

All interns live in a student dormitory a 15-minute bus ride from campus. I had a British roommate, and we got along well, going for drives and hiking together on weekends. He was a physics major from the University of Cambridge and was engaged in AI analysis of animal behavior at OIST. Like him, interns came to OIST from all over the world, and Japanese people were actually a minority. (Among more than 50 interns, only four were Japanese.)

I thought OIST's global recognition might be low since it's a relatively new university, but among the interns were a significant number of students from world-renowned universities such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and University College London. The level of the students was extremely high.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I was not able to accomplish what I had initially set out to do at OIST. I wanted to approach the elucidation of consciousness through the modeling of mental illness using engineering methods, but I couldn't tackle it due to my own lack of ability, such as not being able to code satisfactorily and lacking foundational knowledge. I still sometimes regret it, thinking, "If only this had been three years later." However, I believe I made the maximum effort I could at the time. In fact, I believe that my lack of ability allowed me to openly embrace the different field of embodied cognitive science and incorporate a perspective on brain and consciousness research that is heterogeneous to what someone in medical sciences would typically consider. I consider the greatest takeaway to be how my stance on brain research and the direction of the research I want to pursue in the future changed significantly during these two months.

At OIST, I witnessed the unimaginable breadth of cognitive neuroscience. I believe that medical sciences are, ultimately, the "study of humanity," and therefore, if one remains confined within the so-called field of medicine, creating new value becomes impossible. While OIST does not have labs that deal with so-called clinical medicine, I believe there is immense significance for medical students to immerse themselves in an interdisciplinary environment like OIST and broaden their own "horizons" beyond just clinical medicine. As for myself, I remain interested in brain decoding using machine power, interdisciplinary research between artificial intelligence and brain science, and the fusion of humans and machines. I plan to continue following the work of Associate Professor Froese's lab, which focuses on these areas, as well as other cognitive neuroscience labs, to deepen my learning across disciplines. I also realized my lack of understanding of research methods, how to handle experimental systems, and the physiological basis of the brain, so I intend to work on building a solid foundation in my current lab at the School of Medicine (the Kenji Tanaka Lab). And I hope to engage with OIST again at some point in the future, perhaps through a collaborative research project or other means.