Nagoya University · Medicine
Professor Takashi Okada's research lab specializes in perinatal mental health, neuropsychiatry, and cognitive neuroscience, with a focus on depression during pregnancy and postpartum, particularly in relation to maternal psychosocial factors and social support. The lab investigates neurocognitive mechanisms underlying attentional processing, such as gaze-cuing effects, in both clinical populations (e.g., autism, schizophrenia) and healthy individuals. It also explores the impact of psychotropic medications on autonomic function and quality of life across the lifespan, especially in ADHD and schizophrenia. The lab integrates clinical, psychological, and neurophysiological approaches to understand mental health across the lifespan.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
The proportion of women who experience a depressive state after delivery differs between primiparas and multiparas, so it is important to clarify the different factors related to depression between the two groups. In this study, we confirmed the differences in depressive states, the perinatal period, and social support between primiparas and multiparas, and clarified their characteristics. Data were extracted from a prospective cohort questionnaire survey conducted on pregnant women in Japan tha
The arguments against the use of anticholinergic antiparkinsonian drugs for neuroleptic-induced parkinsonism have been based, in part, on their autonomic side effects. Except for anecdotal case reports, there is little evidence that antiparkinsonian drugs are the main factor causing autonomic dysfunction in schizophrenic patients with parkinsonism. Therefore, in the current study, the separate influences of the anticholinergic antiparkinsonian drug (biperiden), parkinsonism, and psychotic sympto
Recent studies have revealed that eye gaze triggers reflexive shift of the observer's visuospatial attention to its direction even if it does not predict any events in the environment. To determine whether medial temporal structures are involved in this reflexive gaze processing, an experiment of the gaze-cuing paradigm was carried out in seven epileptic patients who had undergone unilateral temporal lobectomy and nine age- and IQ-matched epileptic controls who had not undergone any surgical tre
We examined whether eye gaze triggers reflexive attentional shift in autism. First, autistic individuals who were lacking both joint attention behaviors and theory-of-mind abilities were examined. Targets were randomly presented to either the left or right side of a gazing face. Autistic subjects localized the targets faster when targets were congruent with than against gaze directions. The occurrence of this gaze-triggered attentional shift was further examined using different stimulus onset as
Discontinuing medications was associated with a small but statistically significant decrease in quality of life among children and adolescents with ADHD but not in adults with ADHD. Quality of life can be applied in pharmacologic interventions regarding continuing and discontinuing medication because this concept is related to individuals' appraisal of their situation. Quality of life is an important factor for planning individualized ADHD medication treatment.
Our large-scale cohort study indicates that bonding failure predicts depressive mood during pregnancy and 5 days after delivery. These findings suggest that protection and support for pregnant women with depressive mood and bonding failure may prevent both issues during pregnancy and the early stage after delivery.
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