Kyushu University Academic Staff Educational and Research Activities Database
Researcher information (To researchers) Need Help? How to update
Kazufumi Yoshihara Last modified date:2023.11.22



Other Organization


Homepage
https://kyushu-u.elsevierpure.com/en/persons/kazufumi-yoshihara
 Reseacher Profiling Tool Kyushu University Pure
https://www.chc.kyushu-u.ac.jp/~webpage/english/index.html
Center for Health Sciences and Counseling, Kyushu University .
http://www.cephal.med.kyushu-u.ac.jp/
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Kyushu University Hospital .
Phone
092-802-5881
Academic Degree
Ph.D
Field of Specialization
Psychosomatic Medicine
Outline Activities
Health Counseling, Health support
Occupational safety and health activities
Basic research on psycho-neuro-immunology
Neuroimaging in psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy
Clinical study of medical treatments for psychosomatic disorder
Supervising graduate students
Research
Research Interests
  • The neural basis of the relation between reward systems and the self-control
    keyword : reward、self-control、neural basis
    2014.04.
  • Resting state brain function of psychosomatic disorders
    keyword : Psychosomatic disorder、Resting state brain function
    2014.04.
  • The neural basis of the attachment
    keyword : attachment、neural basis
    2012.04.
  • Neural substrate of Mentalization and Cognitive reappraisal
    keyword : Neural substrate, Mentalization, Cognitive reappraisal
    2012.01.
  • Neural substrate of Mind-Body interaction
    keyword : Neural substrate, Mind-Body interaction
    2010.04.
  • Pathological mechanisms of chronic fatigue and its development of treatments
    keyword : chronic fatigue, pathological mechanisms, development of treatments
    2009.05.
  • Asthma and Stress
    keyword : Asthma, Stress
    2008.04.
  • Enterobacterium and Stress
    keyword : Enterobacterium, Stress
    2007.04.
  • The effect of aromatherapy for psychological stress
    keyword : Yoga, Stress
    2006.10Effect of stress reduction by Yoga.
  • Effect of aromatherpy for stress response
    keyword : stress, aromatherpy
    2005.04~2013.03.
  • Basic research of inflammatory bowel disease
    keyword : Inflammatory bowel disease
    2003.04~2010.03Basic research of inflammatory bowel disease.
  • Basic research of rheumatoid arthritis
    keyword : Rheumatoid arthritis
    2004.04~2010.03Basic reserach of rheumatoid arthritis.
Academic Activities
Books
1. Hiroaki Kawamichi, Kazufumi Yoshihara, Ryo Kitada, Masahiro Matsunaga, Akihiro Sasaki, Yumiko Yoshida, Haruka Takahashi, Norihiro Sadato, Sense of Acceptance: Key Factor of Social Learning. Dynamics of Learning in Neanderthals and Modern Humans Volume 2 Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans Series, Springer, 2014.02.
Reports
1. Kazufumi Yoshihara, Psychosomatic treatment for allergic diseases, BioPsychoSocial Medicine, 18;9:8., 2015.03.
Papers
1. Hiroaki Kawamichi, Ryo Kitada, Kazufumi Yoshihara, Haruka K. Takahashi, Norihiro Sadato, Interpersonal touch suppresses visual processing of aversive stimuli, FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE, 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00164, 9, 164-164, 2015.04, Social contact is essential for survival in human society. A previous study demonstrated that interpersonal contact alleviates pain-related distress by suppressing the activity of its underlying neural network. One explanation for this is that attention is shifted from the cause of distress to interpersonal contact. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a functional MRI (fMRI) study wherein eight pairs of close female friends rated the aversiveness of aversive and non-aversive visual stimuli under two conditions: joining hands either with a rubber model (rubber-hand condition) or with a close friend (humanhand condition). Subsequently, participants rated the overall comfortableness of each condition. The rating result after fMRI indicated that participants experienced greater comfortableness during the human-hand compared to the rubber-hand condition, whereas aversiveness ratings during fMRI were comparable across conditions. The fMRI results showed that the two conditions commonly produced aversive related activation in both sides of the visual cortex (including V1, V2, and V5). An interaction between aversiveness and hand type showed rubber-hand-specific activation for (aversive > non-aversive) in other visual areas (including Vi, V2, V3, and V4v). The effect of interpersonal contact on the processing of aversive stimuli was negatively correlated with the increment of attentional focus to aversiveness measured by a pain-catastrophizing scale. These results suggest that interpersonal touch suppresses the processing of aversive visual stimuli in the occipital cortex. This effect covaried with aversiveness-insensitivity, such that aversive-insensitive individuals might require a lesser degree of attentional capture to aversive-stimulus processing. As joining hands did not influence the subjective ratings of aversiveness, interpersonal touch may operate by redirecting excessive attention away from aversive characteristics of the stimuli..
2. K. Yoshihara, Toshiki Yajima, C. Kubo, Y. Yoshikai, Role of interleukin 15 in colitis induced by dextran sulphate sodium in mice, Gut, 10.1136/gut.2005.076000, 55, 3, 334-341, 2006.03, Background and aims: Interleukin (IL)-15 is a member of the IL-2 family, stimulating dendritic cells, natural killer (NK) cells, NK T cells and memory CD8+ T cells. IL-15 levels were elevated in the intestinal mucosa of inflammatory bowel diseases. Here we investigated the involvement of IL-15 in the pathogenesis of acute and chronic dextran sulphate sodium (DSS) induced colitis. Methods: IL-15 knockout (KO) mice and control C57BL/6 mice were used to induce colitis with DSS in their drinking water. Survival rate, clinical activity of diseases, extent of tissue damage, leucocyte population, and cytokine production of lamina propria (LP) cells of the large intestines were assessed. Results: IL-15 KO mice exhibited resistance to DSS induced acute colitis, as reflected by lower lethality, weight loss, clinical scores, and histological scores compared with those in control mice (phigh CD8+ T cells and NK cells in LP cells and levels of interferon (IFN)-γ, tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and IL-12p40 in culture supernatants of LP cells were reduced in IL-15 KO mice (p+ T cells and NK cells decreased levels of IFN-γ, TNF-α, and IL-12p40 in culture supernatants of LP cells in C57BL/6 mice (p
Presentations
1. K.Yoshihara, AN IMPORTANT ROLE OF ANTERIOR CINGULATE CORTEX AND INSULA IN MIND-BODY INTERACTION, 世界心身医学会 ICPM 2019, 2019.09.
2. Yoshihara K, Sudo N, Neural basis of anger control when mentalizing: a functional MRI study, 17th Asian Congress on Psychosomatic Medicineosomatic Medicine, 2016.08, 相手の気持ちを推察することによって怒りをコントロールすることができること、および機能的MRIを用いてその脳内のネットワークの変化を明らかにした.
3. Yoshihara K, Eto S, Nozaki T, Sudo N, Relation between personality traits, including sensitivity to reward, and self-control, 23rd World Congress on Psychosomatic Medicene, 2015.08.
4. kazufumi Yoshihara, FUNCTIONAL NEUROIMAGING STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FEAR AND THE SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM, 22nd World Congress on Psychosomatic Medicine, 2013.09.
Membership in Academic Society
  • Japanese Society for Fatigue Science