Biology Seminar on May 27, 2020

On 27 May, Ayaka Kato, The University of Tokyo, gave a talk at the 6th iTHEMS Biology Seminar. In this seminar, Ayaka talked about the results of the research on mathematical modeling of dopamine-related phenomena. It was not previously known how dopamine is involved in motivation, but in Ayaka's previous studies, the mathematical model from several previous experiments was proposed. In this seminar, Ayaka presented a new model that incorporates learning decay and successfully reproduces the real behavior on a computer simulation based on her new model. Since modeling the relationship between dopamine and motivation is very important both psychologically and medically, I felt that the results of these studies would not only benefit basic research but would also serve as a basis for general-purpose practical science and improve their research motivation.