Nagoya University · Neuroscience
Professor Nobuyuki Kawai's research lab specializes in organic synthesis and stereoselective transformations, with a focus on developing novel catalytic methods for constructing complex heterocyclic frameworks—particularly tetrahydropyrans—through palladium-catalyzed reactions. The lab investigates stereospecific cyclizations involving chiral allylic alcohols, emphasizing 1,3-chirality transfer and diastereoselective control under mild conditions. In parallel, the lab explores cognitive and social behaviors in primates, particularly reciprocity and social facilitation, using behavioral experiments and neurophysiological tools such as fNIRS to examine age-related changes in executive functions and social cognition. These interdisciplinary efforts bridge synthetic chemistry with behavioral neuroscience, aiming to understand both molecular and cognitive mechanisms of selectivity and social interaction.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
PdCl2(CH3CN)2 (10 mol %) catalyzed reactions of non-3-ene-2,8-diols 1 and 2 gave 2,6-disubstituted tetrahydropyrans 3 and 4 in excellent yields with high diastereoselectivities (>20:1). Intramolecular cyclizations of the hydroxy nucleophile to the chiral allylic alcohol take place efficiently under mild conditions. A new stereogenic center is generated on the tetrahydropyran ring by 1,3-chirality transfer from the chiral allylic alcohol via a syn-SN2' type process. Cis tetrahydropyran 3E was for
Many non-human primates have been observed to reciprocate and to understand reciprocity in one-to-one social exchanges. A recent study demonstrated that capuchin monkeys are sensitive to both third-party reciprocity and violation of reciprocity; however, whether this sensitivity is a function of general intelligence, evidenced by their larger brain size relative to other primates, remains unclear. We hypothesized that highly pro-social primates, even with a relatively smaller brain, would be sen
Humans quickly detect the presence of evolutionary threats through visual perception. Many theorists have considered humans to be predisposed to respond to both snakes and spiders as evolutionarily fear-relevant stimuli. Evidence supports that human adults, children, and snake-naive monkeys all detect pictures of snakes among pictures of flowers more quickly than vice versa, but recent neurophysiological and behavioral studies suggest that spiders may, in fact, be processed similarly to nonthrea
In a Simon task, participants show better performance when the irrelevant stimulus location corresponds with the response location than when it does not, and this effect is typically greater for older adults than for younger adults. To study the effect of cognitive ageing in the Simon task, we compared young and old adults using two versions of the Simon task: (a) a standard visual Simon task, for which participants respond with left and right key-presses to the red and green colours of stimuli
Food tastes better and people eat more of it when eaten with company than alone. Although several explanations have been proposed for this social facilitation of eating, they share the basic assumption that this phenomenon is achieved by the existence of co-eating others. Here, we demonstrate a similar "social" facilitation of eating in the absence of other individuals. Elderly participants tasted a piece of popcorn alone while in front of a mirror (which reflects the participant themselves eati
The present study examined age-related changes in inhibitory processes among older and younger adults in the flanker and Simon tasks in terms of behavioral performance and prefrontal brain activity by functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The flanker task requires a quick identification of a central target in the presence of surrounding distracters, whereas the Simon task requires an individual to respond with left and right key presses to nonspatial features of the stimulus presented in the le
Humans and various nonhuman primates respond negatively to inequity not in their favor (i.e., inequity aversion), when inequity between two individuals is introduced. Common marmosets, a highly prosocial species, further discriminated between human actors who reciprocated in social exchanges, and those who did not. Conversely, marmoset models of autism, induced via prenatal exposure to valproic acid (VPA marmosets), did not discriminate. Interestingly, previous studies of inequity aversion in ma
Acute subdural hematoma (SDH) is the most common mass lesion in severe head injury, and brain ischemia is the leading pathophysiological mechanism in the development of secondary brain damage following SDH. Hypothermia has been employed as an effective neuroprotective procedure in clinical and laboratory studies on cerebral ischemic and contusional injuries. In the present study, we used a rat acute SDH model to assess the effect of hypothermia on the intracranial pressure (ICP) and also on the
It has been long believed that both snakes and spiders are archetypal fear stimuli for humans. Furthermore, snakes have been assumed as stronger threat cues for nonhuman primates. However, it is still unclear whether spiders hold a special status in human perception. The current study explored to what extent spider pictures draw early visual attention [as assessed with early posterior negativity (EPN)] when compared with insects similar to spiders. To measure the EPN, participants watched a rand
Abstract In a simulated moral dilemma, most people would be willing to endorse killing a single individual to save five others, but do people show the same degree of resistance to sacrificing people of different ages? In the present study, participants were asked to choose how acceptable it was to sacrifice one individual from a number of different age groups in order to save five others in a trolley problem. The sacrificial targets were a 70‐year‐old male stranger, a 20‐year‐old male stranger,
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