Noriaki Kanayama

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Hiroshima University, Saitama University

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About

Noriaki Kanayama is a leading researcher in the cognitive neuroscience of bodily self-consciousness, with a particular focus on how touch and movement shape our sense of self. His work explores the neural mechanisms underlying body ownership and self-awareness, primarily through the use of bodily illusions like the rubber hand illusion (RHI) and the full body illusion (FBI). Kanayama has made significant contributions by demonstrating how simple actions—such as a finger movement—can induce the RHI in a static hand, revealing the powerful role of motor signals in body perception. He has also investigated the "feeling of a presence," an anomalous body perception that bridges healthy experience and neuropsychiatric conditions. Methodologically, Kanayama has advanced the field by developing controlled paradigms for emotional tactile stimulation during fMRI and EEG, enabling more precise studies of touch and emotion in the brain. With over 20 citations across his most influential works, his research is foundational for understanding how the brain constructs the bodily self and how this can be altered in clinical populations.