Yuji Nagai

This study longitudinally assesses DREADD expression and efficacy in macaque monkeys using PET imaging and functional studies, showing peak expression at 60 days and sustained effects for two years.

This study shows that visual category learning enhances category separability in monkey inferior temporal cortex by increasing category-selective neurons and prolonging their responses.

This study identifies distinct OFC-subcortical pathways in macaques that support experience-based and inference-based value updating during adaptive decision-making.

This study develops a PET ligand to visualize α-synuclein pathologies in Parkinson's and DLB patients, showing increased signals in affected brain regions.

The paper validates and optimizes the PSAM/PSEM chemogenetic system in nonhuman primates using multimodal imaging techniques to determine optimal agonist, dose, and timing for neuronal manipulation.

The paper develops a mosaic AAV vector that achieves high transgene expression and neuron specificity in primate brains, enabling effective chemogenetic manipulation and calcium imaging.

This study shows that 5-HT1A and 5-HT1B receptor blockade separately affects motivation by altering sensitivity to cost and reward in monkeys.

This study disrupts the connection between the orbitofrontal cortex and rostromedial caudate nucleus in macaques using chemogenetics, showing it impairs reward-based motivational control of goal-directed actions.

This study evaluates orally delivered DCZ for chronic chemogenetic control of neuronal activity in macaques, showing prolonged effects and working memory impairments without desensitization.

This study uses DREADD technology in common marmosets to show that chemogenetic activation of nigrostriatal dopamine neurons induces contralateral rotation behavior.

The paper shows that neurons in the primate caudate head encode temporally discounted value for delayed rewards, essential for motivation.

This study investigates how D1-like and D2-like dopamine receptors influence cost/benefit evaluation and motivation in monkeys using pharmacological manipulation and PET imaging.

This study uses chemogenetic methods to selectively silence prefronto-subcortical pathways in monkeys, revealing distinct roles in working memory and decision-making.

This paper develops [11C]MTP38 as a PET ligand for PDE7 and demonstrates its preclinical success in imaging PDE7 in the brain.

This paper introduces deschloroclozapine (DCZ), a potent and selective DREADD agonist that rapidly modulates neuronal activity and behavior in mice and monkeys.

This paper develops a PET-based method using ecDHFR and TMP analogs to image neuronal networks in mammalian brains, enabling visualization of neuronal activity and protein dynamics.

This study investigates how the ventral pallidum and rostromedial caudate encode reward size and satiation level in macaques performing a lever-release task, showing VP has stronger coding and more severe inactivation effects on goal-directed behavior.