The University of Osaka · Medicine
Professor Akemi Tomoda's research lab specializes in neurodevelopmental and neuroepigenetic mechanisms underlying the long-term impact of early-life adversity, particularly childhood trauma and domestic violence, on brain structure and function. The lab employs advanced neuroimaging techniques, such as high-resolution MRI and eye-tracking, alongside molecular assessments like salivary oxytocin and DNA methylation analysis to explore how environmental stressors shape neurobiological and psychiatric outcomes. A key focus is on identifying biomarkers and resilience factors related to trauma exposure, especially during critical developmental windows, with translational applications in child and adolescent mental health. The lab also pioneers the use of peripheral tissues as proxies for brain epigenetic profiles to overcome limitations in human brain research.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Exposure to interparental violence is associated with negative outcomes, such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and reduced cognitive abilities. However, little is known about the potential effects of witnessing domestic violence during childhood on gray matter volume (GMV) or cortical thickness. High-resolution 3.0 T volumetric scans (Siemens Trio Scanner) were obtained on 52 subjects (18-25 years) including 22 (6 males/16 females) with a history of visually witnessing episodes of d
COVID-19 has spread rapidly throughout the world and there is increased risk of child maltreatment and domestic violence due to its spread.1, 2 One reason for this is that school closures force children to stay at home for longer durations, which may increase parenting stress. In Japan, all schools nationwide were temporarily closed starting on 2 March 2020. Many children had remained at home at least until the end of April 2020. The purpose of this study was to quantify parenting stress, and to
Neuroepigenetics considers genetic sequences and the interplay with environmental influences to elucidate vulnerability risk for various neurological and psychiatric disorders. However, evaluating DNA methylation of brain tissue is challenging owing to the issue of tissue specificity. Consequently, peripheral surrogate tissues were used, resulting in limited progress compared with other epigenetic studies, such as cancer research. Therefore, we developed databases to establish correlations betwe
This study was designed to ascertain the relationship between visual attention for social information and oxytocin (OT) levels in Japanese preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We hypothesized that poor visual attention for social information and low OT levels are crucially important risk factors associated with ASD. We measured the pattern of gaze fixation for social information using an eye-tracking system, and salivary OT levels by the Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELIS
© The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2015. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.
Childhood maltreatment is a risk factor for psychopathologies, and influences brain development at specific periods, particularly during early childhood and adolescence. This narrative review addresses phenotypic alterations in sensory systems associated with specific types of childhood maltreatment exposure, periods of vulnerability to the neurobiological effects of maltreatment, and the relationships between childhood maltreatment and brain structure, function, connectivity, and network archit
Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) is a severe social functioning disorder associated with early childhood maltreatment where the child displays emotionally withdrawn/inhibited behaviors toward caregivers. Brain regions develop at different rates and regions undergoing rapid change may be particularly vulnerable during these times to stressors or adverse experiences. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of type and timing of childhood adversities on structural alterations in regio
Open papers in the app to read, cite, and organize with AI.
