{
  "name": "Ryota Kanai",
  "url": "https://kanair-gif.github.io/cv/",
  "description": "Ryota Kanai is a neuroscientist, Founder and CEO of Araya, Inc., and Project Manager of Japan's Moonshot R&D Program, working on consciousness science, artificial intelligence, brain-machine interfaces, and neurotechnology ethics.",
  "headline": "Building a science of consciousness across brains, machines, and society.",
  "role_line": "Founder and CEO, Araya, Inc. / Project Manager, Japan's Moonshot R&D Program",
  "affiliation": "Araya, Inc.",
  "location": "Tokyo, Japan",
  "email": "kanair@araya.org",
  "image": "https://kanair-gif.github.io/cv/assets/kanai_headshot.jpg",
  "themes": [
    "Consciousness science",
    "Artificial intelligence",
    "Neuroscience",
    "Brain-machine interfaces",
    "Neurotechnology ethics",
    "Computational neuroscience",
    "Visual perception",
    "Active inference",
    "Scientific entrepreneurship"
  ],
  "metrics": [
    {
      "label": "Academic papers",
      "value": "200+",
      "note": "CV source, July 2026"
    },
    {
      "label": "H-index",
      "value": "74",
      "note": "Google Scholar, 2026-08-30"
    },
    {
      "label": "Citations",
      "value": "21,840",
      "note": "Google Scholar, 2026-08-30"
    },
    {
      "label": "i10-index",
      "value": "159",
      "note": "Google Scholar, 2026-08-30"
    }
  ],
  "public_bios": [
    {
      "label": "One-sentence bio",
      "text": "Ryota Kanai is a neuroscientist and scientific entrepreneur connecting consciousness science, artificial intelligence, brain-machine interfaces, and neurotechnology ethics."
    },
    {
      "label": "Short bio",
      "text": "Ryota Kanai, Ph.D., is Founder and CEO of Araya, Inc. and Project Manager of Japan's Moonshot R&D Program. His work connects neuroscience and artificial intelligence to understand consciousness in brains and machines, and to develop next-generation AI-assisted brain-machine interfaces."
    },
    {
      "label": "Speaker introduction",
      "text": "Ryota Kanai is Founder and CEO of Araya, Inc., Project Manager of Japan's Moonshot R&D Program, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness. Trained at Kyoto University, Utrecht University, Caltech, UCL, and the University of Sussex, he works across consciousness science, AI, neurotechnology, and the ethics of brain-machine interfaces."
    }
  ],
  "external_profiles": [
    {
      "label": "Official CV site",
      "url": "https://kanair-gif.github.io/cv/"
    },
    {
      "label": "GitHub",
      "url": "https://github.com/kanair-gif"
    },
    {
      "label": "Google Scholar",
      "url": "https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zaAL6YEAAAAJ&hl=en"
    },
    {
      "label": "Researchmap",
      "url": "https://researchmap.jp/7000018601"
    },
    {
      "label": "ORCID",
      "url": "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0186-2687"
    },
    {
      "label": "OpenAlex",
      "url": "https://openalex.org/A5049957600"
    },
    {
      "label": "ScienceDirect / Scopus author page",
      "url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/author/35570064300/ryota-kanai"
    },
    {
      "label": "DBLP",
      "url": "https://dblp.org/pid/60/8699.html"
    },
    {
      "label": "arXiv search",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/search/?query=ryota+kanai&searchtype=all&source=header"
    },
    {
      "label": "ARAYA Research profile",
      "url": "https://research.araya.org/member/ryota-kanai-phd"
    },
    {
      "label": "ARAYA Research publications",
      "url": "https://research.araya.org/publications"
    },
    {
      "label": "Moonshot Goal 1 project",
      "url": "https://www.jst.go.jp/moonshot/en/program/goal1/12_kanai.html"
    },
    {
      "label": "LinkedIn",
      "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryota-kanai-3585979/"
    },
    {
      "label": "X / Twitter (English)",
      "url": "https://x.com/kanair"
    },
    {
      "label": "X / Twitter (Japanese)",
      "url": "https://x.com/kanair_jp"
    },
    {
      "label": "Wikidata",
      "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11646396"
    },
    {
      "label": "KAKEN / e-Rad researcher number 80607177",
      "url": "https://nrid.nii.ac.jp/en/nrid/1000080607177/"
    },
    {
      "label": "J-GLOBAL",
      "url": "https://jglobal.jst.go.jp/en/detail?JGLOBAL_ID=201601006318166945"
    }
  ],
  "selected_publications": [
    {
      "title": "Identifying indicators of consciousness in AI systems",
      "authors": [
        "Butlin, P.",
        "Long, R.",
        "Bayne, T.",
        "Bengio, Y.",
        "Birch, J.",
        "Chalmers, D.",
        "Constant, A.",
        "Deane, G.",
        "Elmoznino, E.",
        "Fleming, S.M.",
        "Ji, X.",
        "Kanai, R.",
        "Klein, C.",
        "Lindsay, G.",
        "Michel, M.",
        "Mudrik, L.",
        "Peters, M.A.K.",
        "Schwitzgebel, E.",
        "Simon, J.",
        "VanRullen, R."
      ],
      "year": "2025",
      "venue": "Trends in Cognitive Sciences",
      "doi": "10.1016/j.tics.2025.10.011",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2025.10.011",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W4416083181",
      "source": "openalex_araya"
    },
    {
      "title": "Toward a universal theory of consciousness",
      "authors": [
        "Kanai, R.",
        "Fujisawa, I."
      ],
      "year": "2024",
      "venue": "Neuroscience of Consciousness",
      "volume": "2024",
      "issue": "1",
      "doi": "10.1093/nc/niae022",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/niae022",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W4399200679",
      "source": "openalex_araya"
    },
    {
      "title": "Deep learning and the Global Workspace Theory",
      "authors": [
        "VanRullen, R.",
        "Kanai, R."
      ],
      "year": "2021",
      "venue": "Trends in Neurosciences",
      "volume": "44",
      "issue": "9",
      "pages": "692-704",
      "doi": "10.1016/j.tins.2021.04.005",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2021.04.005",
      "arxiv_id": "2012.10390",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W3163072874",
      "source": "openalex_araya"
    },
    {
      "title": "Information generation as a functional basis of consciousness",
      "authors": [
        "Kanai, R.",
        "Chang, A.",
        "Yu, Y.",
        "Magrans de Abril, I.",
        "Biehl, M.",
        "Guttenberg, N."
      ],
      "year": "2019",
      "venue": "Neuroscience of Consciousness",
      "volume": "2019",
      "issue": "1",
      "pages": "niz016",
      "doi": "10.1093/nc/niz016",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/niz016",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W2990775060",
      "source": "openalex_legacy_cv"
    },
    {
      "title": "Time Adaptation Shows Duration Selectivity in the Human Parietal Cortex",
      "authors": [
        "Hayashi, M.J.",
        "Ditye, T.",
        "Harada, T.",
        "Hashiguchi, M.",
        "Sadato, N.",
        "Carlson, S.",
        "Walsh, V.",
        "Kanai, R."
      ],
      "year": "2015",
      "venue": "PLoS Biology",
      "volume": "13",
      "issue": "9",
      "pages": "e1002262",
      "doi": "10.1371/journal.pbio.1002262",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002262",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W2156758452",
      "source": "openalex_legacy_cv"
    },
    {
      "title": "Cerebral hierarchies: predictive processing, precision and the pulvinar",
      "authors": [
        "Kanai, R.",
        "Komura, Y.",
        "Shipp, S.",
        "Friston, K."
      ],
      "year": "2015",
      "venue": "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B",
      "volume": "370",
      "issue": "1668",
      "pages": "20140169",
      "doi": "10.1098/rstb.2014.0169",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.0169",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W1973845142",
      "source": "openalex_legacy_cv"
    },
    {
      "title": "The structural basis of inter-individual differences in human behaviour and cognition",
      "authors": [
        "Kanai, R.",
        "Rees, G."
      ],
      "year": "2011",
      "venue": "Nature Reviews Neuroscience",
      "volume": "12",
      "pages": "231-242",
      "doi": "10.1038/nrn3000",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3000",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W2016876321",
      "source": "openalex_legacy_cv"
    },
    {
      "title": "Political orientations are correlated with brain structure in young adults",
      "authors": [
        "Kanai, R.",
        "Feilden, T.",
        "Firth, C.",
        "Rees, G."
      ],
      "year": "2011",
      "venue": "Current Biology",
      "volume": "21",
      "pages": "677-680",
      "doi": "10.1016/j.cub.2011.03.017",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.03.017",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W2165646521",
      "source": "openalex_legacy_cv"
    },
    {
      "title": "Human parietal cortex structure predicts individual differences in perceptual rivalry",
      "authors": [
        "Kanai, R.",
        "Bahrami, B.",
        "Rees, G."
      ],
      "year": "2010",
      "venue": "Current Biology",
      "volume": "20",
      "pages": "1626-1630",
      "doi": "10.1016/j.cub.2010.07.027",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2010.07.027",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W2028990540",
      "source": "openalex_legacy_cv"
    },
    {
      "title": "Frequency-Dependent Electrical Stimulation of the Visual Cortex",
      "authors": [
        "Kanai, R.",
        "Chaieb, L.",
        "Antal, A.",
        "Walsh, V.",
        "Paulus, W."
      ],
      "year": "2008",
      "venue": "Current Biology",
      "volume": "18",
      "pages": "1839-1843",
      "doi": "10.1016/j.cub.2008.10.027",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2008.10.027",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W2033046997",
      "source": "openalex_legacy_cv"
    },
    {
      "title": "The scope and limits of top-down attention in unconscious visual processing",
      "authors": [
        "Kanai, R.",
        "Tsuchiya, N.",
        "Verstraten, F.A.J."
      ],
      "year": "2006",
      "venue": "Current Biology",
      "volume": "16",
      "pages": "2332-2336",
      "doi": "10.1016/j.cub.2006.10.001",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2006.10.001",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W1973148612",
      "source": "openalex_legacy_cv"
    },
    {
      "title": "Steady-state misbinding of colour and motion",
      "authors": [
        "Wu, D.-A.",
        "Kanai, R.",
        "Shimojo, S."
      ],
      "year": "2004",
      "venue": "Nature",
      "volume": "429",
      "pages": "262",
      "doi": "10.1038/429262a",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/429262a",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W2064388146",
      "source": "openalex_legacy_cv"
    }
  ],
  "recent_publications": [
    {
      "title": "A Control-Theoretic Formulation of Global Workspace Theory",
      "authors": [
        "Ryota Kanai"
      ],
      "year": "2026",
      "date": "2026-08-16",
      "venue": "arXiv",
      "doi": "10.48550/arXiv.2608.15926",
      "arxiv_id": "2608.15926",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.15926",
      "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.15926",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W7203665611",
      "source": "arxiv_openalex_araya"
    },
    {
      "title": "Large-Scale Data Practicalizes EEG-Based Speech Decoding",
      "authors": [
        "Motoshige Sato",
        "Kenichi Tomeoka",
        "Ilya Horiguchi",
        "Kai Arulkumaran",
        "Ryota Kanai",
        "Shuntaro Sasai"
      ],
      "year": "2026",
      "date": "2026",
      "venue": "Brain-Computer Interface Research",
      "pages": "123-129",
      "doi": "10.1007/978-3-032-25828-1_13",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-25828-1_13",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W7172385368",
      "source": "openalex_araya"
    },
    {
      "title": "The Stream of Computation: Temporal Continuity as a Missing Ingredient for Artificial Consciousness",
      "authors": [
        "Ryota Kanai",
        "Yuwei Sun",
        "Manuel Baltieri"
      ],
      "year": "2026",
      "date": "2026",
      "venue": "Journal of Consciousness Studies",
      "volume": "33",
      "issue": "7-8",
      "pages": "35-60",
      "doi": "10.53765/20512201.33.7.035",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.53765/20512201.33.7.035",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W4415498824",
      "source": "openalex_araya"
    },
    {
      "title": "Active inference for action-unaware agents",
      "authors": [
        "Filippo Torresan",
        "Keisuke Suzuki",
        "Ryota Kanai",
        "Manuel Baltieri"
      ],
      "year": "2026",
      "date": "2026-07-07",
      "venue": "Neurocomputing",
      "doi": "10.1016/j.neucom.2026.134399",
      "arxiv_id": "2508.12027",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2026.134399",
      "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.12027",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W4414460082",
      "source": "openalex_researchmap_arxiv"
    },
    {
      "title": "Intrinsic Computational Functionalism and Simulated Consciousness",
      "authors": [
        "Ryota Kanai",
        "Shuqin Ma"
      ],
      "year": "2026",
      "date": "2026-06-13",
      "venue": "arXiv",
      "doi": "10.48550/arXiv.2606.15348",
      "arxiv_id": "2606.15348",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.15348",
      "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.15348",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W7164886052",
      "source": "arxiv_openalex_araya"
    },
    {
      "title": "Intrinsic Computational Functionalism: From Observer-Relative Maps to Observer-Independent Structures",
      "authors": [
        "Shuqin Ma",
        "Ryota Kanai"
      ],
      "year": "2026",
      "date": "2026-06-04",
      "venue": "arXiv",
      "doi": "10.48550/arXiv.2606.06424",
      "arxiv_id": "2606.06424",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.06424",
      "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.06424",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W7163684776",
      "source": "arxiv_openalex_araya"
    },
    {
      "title": "What are the Indecomposable Phenomenal Units of Qualia Structures?",
      "authors": [
        "Naotsugu Tsuchiya",
        "Ryota Kanai"
      ],
      "year": "2026",
      "date": "2026-05-20",
      "venue": "PsyArXiv",
      "doi": "10.31234/osf.io/nbxdk_v1",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/nbxdk_v1",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W7161815268",
      "source": "openalex_researchmap_araya"
    },
    {
      "title": "Canonical Functionalism: Defining Functional Structure without Observer-Relative Semantic Maps",
      "authors": [
        "Ryota Kanai",
        "Shuqin Ma"
      ],
      "year": "2026",
      "date": "2026-05-09",
      "venue": "arXiv",
      "doi": "10.48550/arXiv.2605.21506",
      "arxiv_id": "2605.21506",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.21506",
      "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2605.21506",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W7162067390",
      "source": "arxiv_openalex_araya"
    },
    {
      "title": "Multi-modal Ensemble Approach for Decoding Player Intentions in Table Tennis",
      "authors": [
        "Trung Quang Pham",
        "Shotaro Shiba Funai",
        "Ryota Kanai",
        "Junichi Chikazoe"
      ],
      "year": "2026",
      "date": "2026-05-07",
      "venue": "bioRxiv",
      "doi": "10.64898/2026.05.04.721564",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.05.04.721564",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W7160508677",
      "source": "openalex_researchmap"
    },
    {
      "title": "A Japan-origin motivational framework for diversive and specific curiosity: development of the English version of the Japanese Epistemic Curiosity scale",
      "authors": [
        "Kazuji Nishikawa",
        "Ryota Kanai",
        "Hiro Taiyo Hamada",
        "Jamie Ward",
        "Takashi Kusumi"
      ],
      "year": "2026",
      "date": "2026-04-20",
      "venue": "Frontiers in Psychology",
      "volume": "17",
      "doi": "10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1762069",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1762069",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W4415555637",
      "source": "openalex_researchmap_araya"
    },
    {
      "title": "Prior preferences in active inference agents: soft, hard, and goal shaping",
      "authors": [
        "Filippo Torresan",
        "Ryota Kanai",
        "Manuel Baltieri"
      ],
      "year": "2025",
      "date": "2025-12-02",
      "venue": "arXiv",
      "doi": "10.48550/arXiv.2512.03293",
      "arxiv_id": "2512.03293",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2512.03293",
      "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.03293",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W4417028159",
      "source": "arxiv_openalex_araya"
    },
    {
      "title": "Meta-representations as representations of processes",
      "authors": [
        "Ryota Kanai",
        "Ryota Takatsuki",
        "Ippei Fujisawa"
      ],
      "year": "2025",
      "date": "2025",
      "venue": "Neuroscience of Consciousness",
      "volume": "2025",
      "issue": "1",
      "pages": "niaf038",
      "doi": "10.1093/nc/niaf038",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/niaf038",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W4415855051",
      "source": "openalex_araya"
    },
    {
      "title": "Steam-engine naturalism",
      "authors": [
        "Manuel Baltieri",
        "Ryota Kanai"
      ],
      "year": "2025",
      "date": "2025-10-24",
      "venue": "PsyArXiv",
      "doi": "10.31234/osf.io/m4gk3_v1",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/m4gk3_v1",
      "source": "openalex_researchmap_araya"
    },
    {
      "title": "Principal Bundle Geometry of Qualia: Understanding the Quality of Consciousness from Symmetry",
      "authors": [
        "Masafumi Oizumi",
        "Chanseok Lim",
        "Ryota Kanai"
      ],
      "year": "2025",
      "date": "2025-05-15",
      "venue": "PsyArXiv",
      "doi": "10.31234/osf.io/agupq_v4",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/agupq_v4",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W4416211851",
      "source": "openalex_researchmap_araya"
    },
    {
      "title": "Optical Neuroimage Studio (OptiNiSt): Intuitive, scalable, extendable framework for optical neuroimage data analysis",
      "authors": [
        "Yutaro Yamane",
        "Yi Li",
        "Keita Matsumoto",
        "Ryota Kanai",
        "Mark Desforges",
        "Carlos E. Gutierrez",
        "Kenji Doya"
      ],
      "year": "2025",
      "date": "2025",
      "venue": "PLOS Computational Biology",
      "doi": "10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013087",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013087",
      "source": "openalex_araya"
    },
    {
      "title": "Remembering Transformer for Continual Learning",
      "authors": [
        "Yuwei Sun",
        "Ippei Fujisawa",
        "Arthur Juliani",
        "Jun Sakuma",
        "Ryota Kanai"
      ],
      "year": "2025",
      "date": "2025",
      "venue": "IJCNN 2025",
      "doi": "10.1109/IJCNN64981.2025.11227313",
      "arxiv_id": "2404.07518",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1109/IJCNN64981.2025.11227313",
      "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2404.07518",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W4416251337",
      "source": "openalex_araya_arxiv"
    },
    {
      "title": "Decoding Vision Transformers: The Diffusion Steering Lens",
      "authors": [
        "Ryota Takatsuki",
        "Sonia Joseph",
        "Ippei Fujisawa",
        "Ryota Kanai"
      ],
      "year": "2025",
      "date": "2025-04",
      "venue": "CVPR Workshop on Mechanistic Interpretability for Vision",
      "doi": "10.1109/CVPRW67362.2025.00470",
      "arxiv_id": "2504.13763",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1109/CVPRW67362.2025.00470",
      "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2504.13763",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W4414196982",
      "source": "openalex_araya_arxiv"
    },
    {
      "title": "Associative Transformer",
      "authors": [
        "Yuwei Sun",
        "Hideya Ochiai",
        "Zhirong Wu",
        "Stephen Lin",
        "Ryota Kanai"
      ],
      "year": "2025",
      "date": "2025",
      "venue": "CVPR 2025",
      "doi": "10.1109/CVPR52734.2025.00426",
      "arxiv_id": "2309.12862",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1109/CVPR52734.2025.00426",
      "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2309.12862",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W4413145201",
      "source": "openalex_araya_arxiv"
    },
    {
      "title": "Cybernetic avatars: Teleoperation technologies from in-body monitoring to social interaction",
      "authors": [
        "Norihiro Hagita",
        "Ryota Kanai",
        "Hiroshi Ishiguro",
        "Kouta Minamizawa",
        "Fumihito Arai",
        "Fumio Shimpo",
        "Takeshi Matsumura",
        "Yoko Yamanishi"
      ],
      "year": "2024",
      "date": "2024",
      "venue": "Science Robotics",
      "doi": "10.1126/scirobotics.adg1842",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adg1842",
      "openalex_id": "https://openalex.org/W4404564575",
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    {
      "title": "Design and evaluation of a global workspace agent embodied in a realistic multimodal environment",
      "authors": [
        "Rousslan F. J. Dossa",
        "Kai Arulkumaran",
        "Arthur Juliani",
        "Shuntaro Sasai",
        "Ryota Kanai"
      ],
      "year": "2024",
      "date": "2024",
      "venue": "Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience",
      "volume": "18",
      "doi": "10.3389/fncom.2024.1352685",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2024.1352685",
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}