Graduate Department of Psychological Clinical Science - Rutsuko Ito

Rutsuko Ito is interested in the neurobiology of schizophrenia, drug addiction and depression, with a particular focus on the function and dysfunction of brain regions comprising the cortico-limbic-striatal circuitry, and associated neurotransmitter systems. Her laboratory combines the use of pharmacological interventions in rodent models and human neuroimaging to examine the neural circuitries underlying incentive motivational systems, with one central hypothesis of her research being that a dysregulation in incentive motivational salience attribution to various internal and external stimuli can lead to manifestations of psychological disease. She is also interested in extending and applying her research to patient neuropsychology (patients with schizophrenia, depression, etc).