She earned her Ph.D. in Physiology from Kobe University School of Medicine (Japan) and received post-doctoral training at Columbia University (New York), during which her research focused on the molecular and neural mechanisms of circadian rhythms. She joined the faculty at Michigan State University and started to investigate the modulatory effects of ambient light on emotion and cognition. Using a diurnal rodent model, her research program is aimed to understand the neural mechanisms through which light affects mood, anxiety and spatial learning, and ultimately to provide insights into how environmental lighting conditions modulate emotion and cognition in humans.