Katsuki Nakamura

National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Katsuki Nakamura’s research lies at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience, social perception, and human-robot interaction, with a particular focus on how the brain processes body movements and aesthetic qualities. His most cited work, a 2009 fMRI study using a humanoid robot, reveals that motion smoothness is a critical cue for transmitting implicit information during dance observation. This study demonstrated that neural responses to smooth versus jerky movements vary significantly across individuals, shaped by personal backgrounds and expertise. By employing a humanoid robot as a controlled stimulus, Nakamura’s approach elegantly isolates motion parameters from confounding human factors, offering a powerful paradigm for studying action perception. With over 40 citations, this paper has influenced fields from social neuroscience to robotics, highlighting how subtle kinematic features shape our understanding of others’ intentions and aesthetic experiences. Nakamura’s work underscores the importance of bridging biological and artificial systems to decode the neural bases of social communication.