On Friday, November 14, 2025, students from Gyosei High School visited IRCN as part of their Career Exploration Program.

　This program aims to provide students with opportunities to visit, experience, and reflect on cutting-edge research environments. Many highly motivated students participated as part of exploring their future academic and career paths.

　The central component of this year’s program was a career-focused lecture by Dr. Takamitsu Watanabe (IRCN PI, Professor). He shared how he began experimental research on human higher cognitive functions while studying at the University of Tokyo’s School of Medicine, continued his basic neuroscience research in London while working clinically as a psychiatrist, and eventually returned to the University of Tokyo in 2020 to establish his own laboratory at IRCN. His talk illustrated how clinical practice and scientific inquiry can be combined in a single career, offering students valuable insights as they consider their own future paths.

　Dr. Watanabe also introduced his research on brain dynamics related to neurodevelopmental traits, such as ADHD, and discussed how these studies connect to current developments in AI and large language models (LLMs). He explained, in an accessible manner, his laboratory’s efforts to explore the similarities and differences between humans and artificial intelligence by examining the dynamics of neural and computational networks.

　Following the lecture, students toured IRCN’s research facilities, where they were introduced to equipment and methods used to analyze changes in neural activity. By encountering a range of topics such as: AI-assisted brain research, the mechanisms underlying consciousness, attention, and language, and LLM-based intelligence augmentations; students gained perspectives and research approaches rarely seen in everyday school settings.

　Through this career experience program, students came to appreciate that scientific research is an activity that connects classrooms to the wider world, and that curiosity, the desire to understand, is a powerful force that shapes the future. IRCN remains committed to supporting the learning and career development of younger generations while continuing to deepen dialogue with society as a research institution.


[References]
▶ Dr. Takamitsu Watanabe, IRCN Principal Investigator, Professor：
https://ircn.jp/en/mission/people/takamitsu_watanabe
▶ Takamitsu Watanabe Lab：
https://sites.google.com/site/takamitsuwatanabesite/