Moonshot R&D Goal9

Realization of a mentally healthy and dynamic society by increasing peace of mind and vitality by 2050.

Goal 9 R&D Project

Newsletter

Maximizing well-being and agency on the basisof interpersonal comparison of brain indicators

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Report on “International Symposium for Well-beingand Agency - Integration of Brain Science and Social
Science -”On September 29 and 30, 2023, we held the "International Symposium ‘Well-being and Agency’ - Integration of Brain
Science and Social Science -" at the International Science Innovation Building in Kyoto University.
The event, with all lectures and discussions in English, was a great success with 55 attendees in person and 70 participants
online.
This symposium was organized by the Moonshot 9 project "Maximizing well-being and agency on the basis of interpersonal
comparison of brain indicators" (hereinafter referred to as "Well-being and Agency MS Project").
The "Well-being and Agency MS Project" was launched on May 31, 2022, with the goal of “maximizing people’s well-CONTENTS

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Report on “International Symposium

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Neuroeconomics symposium

for Well-being and Agency

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Papers-Integration of Brain Science and06

PapersSocial Science -”07

Papers / Award01

being and agency by creating brain indicators that enable interpersonal comparisonsof pleasure and aspiration by 2050.” These brain indicators will make it possible toevaluate and compare various policies on a scientific basis in terms of the "well-being"and "agency" of the people. In order to achieve this goal, the "Well-being and Agency
MS Project" will (1) identify “well-being" and “agency" from various objective data(including potential factors) in the real world, and (2) aggregate their psychologicalaspects that would be accurately decoded from the brain activities of people acting
in the virtual reality world in a scientifically valid manner, and (3) clarify the dynamic computational processes in the brain
through simultaneous large-scale measurements of multiple neuronal activities. The "integration of brain science and social
science" will be realized in this way. In order to publicize this challenging project and to share its starting point with many
people who are interested in improving human "well-being" and "agency" all over the world, we held the "International
Symposium for Well-being and Agency - Integration of Brain Science and Social Science -".
The symposiasts were all nine Principal Investigators of the “Well-being and Agency MS Project" (Reiko Gotoh (TeikyoUniv.), Hiroki Takikawa (Univ. of Tokyo), Tetsunari Inamura (Tamagawa Univ.), Kaosu Matsumori (Tamagawa Univ.), Madoka
Matsumoto(NCNP (Kyoto Univ., currently)), Ralph Adolphs (Caltech), Hiroshi Yamada (Univ. of Tsukuba), Mineki Oguchi(Tamagawa Univ.), Yasuhiro Tanaka (Tamagawa Univ.)), and also included eight world-leading researchers in related
research fields (Marc Fleurbaey (CNRS, Princeton University), Paul Glimcher (New York University), Marc Erich Latoschik(Würzbrug University), Yunzhe Liu (Beijing Normal University), Adina L. Roskies (Dartmath College, UCSB), William Stauffer(University of Pittsburgh), Agnieszka Tymula (University of Sydney), and Naoshige Uchida (Harvard University)), who wereinvited from abroad. It was a marvelous opportunity to bring together the leading researchers in such a wide range of fields
to discuss not only neuroscience with rodents, monkeys, and humans, but also virtual reality technology and the socialsciences.
At the beginning of the firstday, Kenji Matsumoto, ProjectManager (PM), introduced thegoals and vision of the “Wellbeing and Agency MS Project"in his opening remarks, andexpressed his hope that future
generations would remember
the symposium as a landmark
event that would have ushered in a new stage of science. Then, Prof. Seiji Kumagai (Faculty of Human and Socio-EconomicStudies, Kyoto University), Program Director of the Moonshot Program Goal 9 "Realization of a mentally healthy anddynamic society by increasing peace of mind and vitality by 2050" gave a speech. He explained the overall program and hisexpectations for the "Well-being and Agency MS Project" to form breakthroughs.
The main session began with interesting talks by Profs. Tanaka andUchida specializing in rodent neuroscience, Profs. Oguchi and Stauffer
specializing in monkey decision making, Prof. Yamada specializing
in monkey neuroeconomics, Profs. Glimcher and Tymula specializingin neuroeconomics, and Prof. Adolphs specializing in human02

neuroscience. The talks covered a wide range of topics including dopamine
signals, neural signals and behavior, value, pleasure, desire, reward, andhuman neuronal activity from an economic perspective. The discussions
were very active not only during the Q&A sessions of the talks, but also
during the breaks.
On the evening of the first day, at the restaurant "La Tour" in the ClockTower Memorial Building, the symbol of Kyoto University, we continued
further frank discussions and deepened friendship within the researchcommunity approaching well-being and agency.
The morning of the second day began with a session on the humanities andsocial sciences, where Prof. Roskies (philosophy), Professor Gotoh (normativeeconomics), and Associate Professor Takikawa (computational social science)
discussed research issues that have not been adequately approached byneuroscience from their respective perspectives.
In the afternoon, there were talks by Profs. Matsumoto and Liu on humanneurophysiology, Profs. Latoschik and Inamura on virtual reality (VR)technology, and Dr. Matsumori on interpersonal comparison of utility, anddiscussions on various possibilities for integrating the humanities, socialsciences, and neuroscience. Prof. Fleurbaey wasalso scheduled to give an online lecture on themeasurement of well-being and its interpersonal
comparison, but unfortunately he was not able toconnect (we all watched his lecture video during
lunch time during the lab tour of Tamagawa University Brain Science Institute two days later), and the time was used for ageneral discussion. In particular, it was truly groundbreaking that the leading researchers in neuroscience, economics, andphilosophy discussed the interpersonal comparison of utility with brain indicators across their disciplines.
The external evaluation committee members, Profs. Takashi Hanakawa (Kyoto University) and Sayaka Oki (University ofTokyo), then gave their comments. They highly appreciated the “Well-being and Agency MS Project" for its approach to avery difficult, yet very interesting and important issue. Finally, PM Matsumoto concluded the symposum with his statementthat it is up to the agency of all the participants in the symposium whether
the "hope that this Symposium will be remembered by future generations as
a landmark event that will usher in a new phase of science” really comes tofruition, and a commemorative photo of the participants was taken.
Through the “International Symposium for Well-being and AgencyIntegration of Brain Science and Social Science - held in Kyoto, a newcommunity has sprouted that aims to integrate neuroscience with thehumanities and social sciences, while also utilizing VR technology. With thisrare community at its core, this new research trend is expected to develop
into a larger trend in the future, further enhancing the significance of sciencefor human beings.

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Neuroeconomics symposium2023/10/3（Univ of Tsukuba） 4-1 Hiroshi Yamada

We held a symposium on neuroeconomics entitled ~How does our valuation system operate in the economic sense?~"Neuroeconomics" started in USA in the early 2000s. Neuroscientists, economists, and psychologists came together tounderstand the human valuation system in the brain.
In this symposium (Fig1), Prof. Paul Glimcher, a pioneer in this field, and economist Prof. Agnieszka Tymula, President Officerof Society For Neuroeconomics in 2023, presented their latest findings. Neuroscientists, Prof. Masayuki Matsumoto, anexpert in the monkey value-based decision making, and Prof. Shinsuke Suzuki, an expert in human fMRI research on thehuman value-based decision making, also presented their latest advances. We had discussions with about 40 participants,
including undergraduate students and company employees.

Program
14:00-14:05 Opening remarks
Session I (Chair: Hiroshi Yamada)
14:05-14:35 Agnieszka Tymula
14:35-15.05 Shinsuke Suzuki
15:05-15:30 tea break
Session II (Chair: Jun Kunimatsu)
15:30-16:20 Paul Glimcher
16:20-16:50 Masayuki Matsumoto
16:50 Close

Fig.1 Speakers and program

Prof. Paul Glimcher (left) and participants (right)04

Papers
Principal Investigator (PI)1 -1

Toward Supporting System as a
"Gratitude" for People in Adversity

Reiko Gotoh

Faculty of Economics,Teikyo University
Professor

The postwar welfare state has tried to reconcile two incompatible logics: the identification (and exclusion) of evil and injusticeand the acceptance of survival as a right. The hinge of the two logics is the mechanism of compensation and reparation(usually mediated by money). The fact that humanity has created such a mechanism, along with the development of the ideaof human rights, is unquestionably a moral progress. However, under the logic of monetary centralization, this hinge wasfragile and could easily be broken. Both the absolute positive values of dignity and justice and the absolute negative valuesof evil and injustice could be compared, substituted, and traded under the principle of profit-maximizing behavior (and by thesame token, cost-minimizing behavior). The purpose of this paper is to extract the weaknesses of the liberal theory of justicecondensed in the incentive problem (fishing out the incentive to work through rewards), and to sketch out hints for resisting
the monetary centralization logic based on Rawls' chance argument, Sen's capability theory, Parfit's non-identity problem,
the Greek tragedy "Oedipus the King," etc. The purpose of this article is to sketch out some hints for resisting the logic ofmonetary centralization. In conclusion, a mechanism of "support as a thank you" to those who live in adversity is proposed,
taking Nietzsche's words, "It is not permissible to wish that it had never to have been," as a starting point for non-resistance.

Reiko Gotoh. "Prospects for theory of justice based on de-unification logic." Philosophy (Tetsugaku): Annual Review of the Philosophical Association of Japan, 74, 3146, 2023

Principal Investigator (PI)3 -2Functional Human Brain Imaging Reveals
Brain Activity for Extremely ChallengingTasks

Madoka Matsumoto
Human Brain Research Center,
Graduate School of Medicine,
Kyoto University
Specially Appointed Associate
Professor

People sometimes enjoy the challenge of extremely difficult tasks that test their skills. In collaboration with Prof. Kou
Murayama (University of Tübingen) and colleagues, we investigated brain activity during challenges of different difficulty levels
using human brain functional imaging. The ventral striatum/pallidum of the basal ganglia showed increased neural activity
when the participants performed the tasks that were almost impossible to accomplish. However, under conditions in whichmonetary rewards were given in relation to task performance, a decrease in neural activity was observed, consistent with thelevel of enjoyment felt in response to the task. These results suggest that part of the human "aspiration" to challenge oneself,even when no benefit is expected, is generated in the brain.

Michiko Sakaki, Stefanie Meliss, Kou Murayama, Yukihito Yomogida, Kaosu Matsumori, Ayaka Sugiura, Madoka Matsumoto, Kenji Matsumoto. “Motivated for near
impossibility: How task type and reward modulate task enjoyment and the striatal activation for extremely difficult task.” Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience
2023 Feb;23(1):30-41. doi: 10.3758/s13415-022-01046-4.

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Papers
Principal Investigator (PI)

4 -1

Unexpected Wins in Both Humans andMonkeys Increase Risk Taking

Hiroshi Yamada
University of Tsukuba,
Institute of Medicine
Associate Professor

Researchers from the University of Tsukuba developed "Dynamic Prospect Theory," which integrates the most popular modelin behavioral economics - prospect theory and a well-established model from neuroscience - reinforcement learning theory.
In doing so, we created a dynamic model that successfully explains decision-to-decision changes in the gambling behaviorof humans and monkeys. Inparticular, we found that after
unexpected wins both humans
and monkeys tend to behave
as if they thought that they
are more likely to win again.
Using the dynamic prospect
theory model, we were able todetermine that the change inbehavior, driven by a change inthe perception of probabilities
rather than by a change invaluation of rewards.

Gambling task : A sequence of events in choice trials. Two pie charts representing the available options
were presented to the monkeys and humans on the left and right sides of the screen. Monkeys chose either
target by fixating on the side where it appeared to obtain juice rewards (0.1-1.0 ml). Humans chose either
target to obtain money ($1~$5).
Tymula A, Wang X, Imaizumi Y, Kawai T, Kunimatsu J, Matsumoto M, Yamada H. Dynamic prospect theory: Two coredecision theories coexist in the gambling behavior of monkeys and humans. Sci Adv. 2023 May 19;9(20):eade7972.

Principal Investigator (PI)4 -2

Proselfs deliberate more than prosocials−an approach to the mechanism ofprosociality

Mineki Oguchi

Tamagawa University,
Brain Science InstituteProject Associate Professor

In social decision-making, proself individuals prioritize their own gain, while prosocial individuals respect the others’ interests.
In this paper, we tested the hypothesis that these individual differences in social preference are due to differences in the"learning styles" on which they depend. After measuring participants' social preferences, we asked them to perform a "twostep choice state transition task" to assess the balance between model-free (related to intuitive judgments) and model-based(related to deliberative judgments) learning systems, and found that proselfs tended to rely on model-based and prosocials onmodel-free learning systems. This finding supports the hypothesis that individual differences in social preference depend on
those in learning styles and has important implications for understanding the mechanisms of prosocial behavior.

Oguchi, M., Li, Y., Matsumoto, Y., Kiyonari, T., Yamamoto, K., Sugiura, S., & Sakagami, M. (2023). Proselfs depend more on model-based than model-free learning in a
non-social probabilistic state-transition task. Scientific reports, 13(1), 1419. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-27609-006

Papers
Principal Investigator (PI)5 -1

Rodent: cortical representation of skilled
movement is stable over several days off

Yasuhiro Tanaka
Tamagawa University,
Brain Science Institute
Associate Professor

In the primary motor cortex, certain neurons became correlated with the extensively trained movement. Some of theseneurons well retained this correlation even after training cessation. When these neurons were suppressed, the learned motorskills became unstable. This collaborative study, conducted with Professor Masanori Matsuzaki from the Graduate School of
Medicine at The University ofTokyo, suggests that certain
cortical neurons may play along-term role in coordinating
learned movements. The refinedmathematical methodologies
and innovative techniquesdeveloped in this study will befurther employed to explore thesubjective value and agency
inferred from behavioral andneural data.

T Shinotsuka*, YR Tanaka*, S-I Terada*, N Hatano, and M Matsuzaki. “Layer 5 Intratelencephalic Neurons in the Motor
Cortex Stably Encode Skilled Movement.” Journal of Neuroscience 43, no. 43 (October 25, 2023): 7130–48.
https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0428-23.2023

AwardPI Yamada won the Impact Award at the MS9 Retreat Conference
poster session.
PI Hiroshi Yamada received the Impact Award at
the poster session of the Moonshot Goal 9 retreat
held on 28 May 2023.

Moonshot R&D Goal9

Maximizing well-being and agency on the basis of interpersonal comparison of brain indicators
Published by : Well-being and agency Moon Shot Office (within Tamagawa University Brain Science Institute)
6-1-1 Tamagawagakuen, Machida, Tokyo 194-8610, Japan
E-mail：ms9_matsumoto@tamagawa.ac.jp https://wellbeing-agency.jp/en/07