My principal goal is towards research innovation in healthcare, specifically targeting neurodevelopmental disorders. I study the neurobiology of the predictive system, which is a mechanism to allow the brain to cope with unpredictable events in the world, and I employ the predictive system to understand the neurobiology of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). 

My work harnesses neurobiological and clinical research through interdisciplinary collaborations and provides new insights on advancing neurobiology information linked to genetics of relevance for understanding other neurological disorders and improving mental health issues at large. 

I'm also active in public engagement events. As a British-Japanese female scientist, I speak about diversity and equality issues.

RECENT NEWS:

• The work in 2017 was selected in the Biggest Media - PLOS Biology in the Media in 2017 with over 12,000 views and also featured in Scientific American:  The Brain Has Its Own “Autofill” Function for Speech. The neural version of a texting app anticipates what comes next when we hear speech
• Newcastle University Press release: What’s coming next? Scientists identify how the brain predicts speech

RESEARCH EXPERIENCES

• 2019-2020 Guest Researcher. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), National Institute of Health (NIH), USA
• 2007-2011 Georgetown University, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, USA
• 2007 Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Germany
• 2002-2011 National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), National Institute of Health (NIH), USA

More work will be found: 

Google Scholar

Research Gate

Twitter

Selected outreach events and lectures:

• "Gene, Brain and Behaviour: Power of Prediction and Autism Spectrum Disorders" Enrichment Seminars in Psychology, Newcastle University (March 2021)
• BBC Radio 3: Music Matters: Music in the Time of Our Lives  (17-18 March, 2017)
• Meet the Neuroscientist: Great Exhibition of the North (Great North Museum, 24 August, 2018)
• Brain Awareness Week: Palace of Science (Wylam Brewery, 12 March, 2019)
• European Researchers Night: Supported by the European Commission as a part of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, funded under the Horizon 2020 programme (Great North Museum, 28 September, 2018)
• "Rhythmic Brain. How rhythms can help our perception and learning?": Joseph Cowen Lifelong Learning Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.  (June 2017)
• "Music, Language, Syntax? Sequence Learning and Neurological Disorders": Joseph Cowen Lifelong Learning Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.  (Dec 2016)
• "Rhythms of your brain. Keys to train your brain through sounds": Joseph Cowen Lifelong Learning Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. (January 2016)
• "Is Music Just for Us? Searching for the origins of musicality through neural symphony": Joseph Cowen Lifelong Learning Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. (May - June 2016)
• "Interaction between cortical responses and natural sounds in the primate auditory system using MRI-guided electrophysiology'': Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany (June 2013)
• "Human Brain Function and Behaviour": Kyoto University, Graduate School of Engineering, Japan. Neuroscience, Mental Health (Summer course, 2013)

• Rocchi F, Oya H, Balezeau F, Billig AJ, Kocsis Z, Jenison RL, Nourski KV, Kovach CK, Steinschneider M, Kikuchi Y, Rhone AE, Dlouhy BJ, Kawasaki H, Adolphs R, Greenlee JDW, Griffiths TD, Howard MA, Petkov CI. Common fronto-temporal effective connectivity in humans and monkeys. Neuron 2021, epub ahead of print.
• Balezeau F, Nacef J, Kikuchi Y, Schneider F, Rocchi F, Muers RS, Fernandez-Palacios O'Connor R, Blau C, Wilson B, Saunders RC, Howard M, Thiele A, Griffiths TD, Petkov CI, Murphy K. MRI monitoring of macaque monkeys in neuroscience: Case studies, resource and normative data comparisons. NeuroImage 2021, 230, 117778.
• Calmus R, Wilson B, Kikuchi Y, Petkov CI. Structured sequence processing and combinatorial binding: neurobiologically and computationally informed hypotheses. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 2019, 375(1791), 20190304.
• Kikuchi Y, Kumar S, Baumann S, Overath T, Gander PE, Sedley W, Patterson RD, Petkov CI, Griffiths TD. The distribution and nature of responses to broadband sounds associated with pitch in the macaque auditory cortex. Cortex 2019, 120, 340-352.
• Kikuchi Y, Ip J, Lagier G, Mossom JC, Kumar S, Petkov CI, Barraclough NE, Vuong QC. Interactions between conscious and subconscious signals: Selective attention under feature-based competition increases neural selectivity during brain adaptation. The Journal of Neuroscience 2019, 39(28), 5506-5516.
• Schneider F, Dheerendra P, Balezeau F, Ortiz-Rios M, Kikuchi Y, Petkov CI, Thiele A, Griffiths TD. Auditory figure-ground analysis in rostral belt and parabelt of the macaque monkey. Scientific Reports 2018, 8, 17948.
• Kikuchi Y, Sedley W, Griffiths TD, Petkov CI. Evolutionarily conserved neural signatures involved in sequencing predictions and their relevance for language. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 2018, 21, 145-153.
• Banerjee A, Kikuchi Y, Mishkin M, Rauschecker JP, Horwitz B. Chronometry on Spike-LFP Responses Reveals the Functional Neural Circuitry of Early Auditory Cortex Underlying Sound Processing and Discrimination. eNeuro 2018, 6.
• Hoeschele M, Merchant H, Kikuchi Y, Hattori Y, ten Cate CJ. Searching for the origins of musicality across species. In: Henkjan Honing, ed. The Origins of Musicality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2018, pp.149-170.
• Kikuchi Y, Attaheri A, Wilson B, Rhone AE, Nourski KV, Gander PE, Kovach CK, Kawasaki H, Griffiths TD, Howard MA, Petkov CI. Sequence learning modulates neural responses and oscillatory coupling in human and monkey auditory cortex. PLoS Biology 2017, 15(4), e2000219.
• Scott BH, Saleem KS, Kikuchi Y, Fukushima M, Mishkin M, Saunders RC. Thalamic connections of the core auditory cortex and rostral supratemporal plane in the macaque monkey. Journal of Comparative Neurology 2017, 525(16), 3488-3513.
• Munoz-Lopez M, Kikuchi Y. Editorial: The Functional Organization of the Auditory System. Frontiers in Neuroscience 2016, 10, 290.
• Vuong QC, Kikuchi Y, Ip J, Mossom JC, Barraclough N, Petkov CI. Attentional modulation of responses in human face- and voice-sensitive cortex. In: Scottish Vision Group. 2016, Carnoustie, Scotland: Sage Publications Ltd.
• Scott BH, Leccese PA, Saleem KS, Kikuchi Y, Mullarkey MP, Fukushima M, Mishkin M, Saunders RC. Intrinsic Connections of the Core Auditory Cortical Regions and Rostral Supratemporal Plane in the Macaque Monkey. Cerebral Cortex 2017, 27(1), 809-840.
• Wilson B, Kikuchi Y, Sun L, Hunter D, Dick F, Smith K, Thiele A, Griffiths TD, Marslen-Wilson WD, Petkov CI. Auditory sequence processing reveals evolutionarily conserved regions of frontal cortex in macaques and humans. Nature Communications 2015, 6, 8901.
• Hoeschele M, Merchant H, Kikuchi Y, Hattori Y, ten Cate C. Searching for the origins of musicality across species. Philosophical Transactions B 2015, 370(1664), 20140094.
• Petkov CI, Kikuchi Y, Milne AE, Mishkin M, Rauschecker JP, Logothetis NK. Different forms of effective connectivity in primate frontotemporal pathways. Nature Communications 2015, 6, 6000.
• Attaheri A, Kikuchi Y, Milne AE, Wilson B, Alter K, Petkov CI. EEG potentials associated with artificial grammar learning in the primate brain. Brain and Language 2015, 148, 74-80.
• Kikuchi Y, Horwitz B, Mishkin M, Rauschecker JP. Processing of harmonics in the lateral belt of macaque auditory cortex. Frontiers in Neuroscience 2014, 82, 204.
• Wilson B, Slater H, Kikuchi Y, Milne A, Marslen-Wilson W, Smith K, Petkov CI. Auditory Artificial Grammar Learning in Macaque and Marmoset Monkeys. Journal of Neuroscience 2013, 33(48), 18825-18835.
• Kikuchi Y, Kumar S, Baumann S, Overath T, Griffiths T, Petkov C. Neuronal Representation of Temporal Regularity Associated with Pitch Perception in Macaque Auditory Cortex. In: Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting. 2012, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
• Kikuchi Y, Horwitz B, Mishkin M. Hierarchical auditory processing directed rostrally along the monkey’s supratemporal plane. Journal of Neuroscience 2010, 30(39), 13021-13030.
• Petkov CI, Kikuchi Y, Augath M, Mishkin M, Rauschecker J, Logothetis NK. Voice region connectivity in the monkey assessed with microstimulation and functional imaging. In: 6th APAN Satellite Meeting to Society for Neuroscience. 2008, Washington DC Convention Center.
• Kikuchi Y, Rauschecker JP, Mishkin M, Augath M, Logothetis NK, Petkov CI. Voice region connectivity in the monkey assessed with microstimulation and functional imaging. In: Society for Neuroscience. 2008, Washington DC, USA.
• Kikuchi Y, Sawaguchi T, Miyauchi S. Cognitive neuroscience and functional MRI. Journal of Diagnostic Imaging 2002, 27(5), 475-482.
• Sawaguchi T, Iba M, Kikuchi-Yorioka Y, Fukushi T. Working memory and prefrontal cortex. In: Tanji, J., Yoshizawa, S, ed. Higher Brain Function. Tokyo: Asakura Publishing, 2001, pp.251-269.
• Kikuchi-Yorioka Y, Sawaguchi T. Parallel visuospatial and audiospatial working memory processes in the monkey dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Nature Neuroscience 2000, 3(11), 1075-1076.
• Sawaguchi T, Kikuchi Y. Noradrenergic effects on activity of prefrontal cortical neurons in behaving monkeys. Adv. Pharmacol 1998, 42, 759-763.