Hikari Otabi, PhD

ABOUT ME

I have been interested in the nest-building behavior and the underlying brain functions in mice. Nest building is an instinctive behavior that animals and insects can do without learning how to build a nest. Even humans can arrange their dwellings. It is a very important behavior for animals and insects to build nests in various situations such as sleep, nurturing, temperature regulation, defense from enemies, and courtship.

I am also interested in how motivation is restored from a depressed state. When people are stressed, they can regain their motivation even if they are depressed. If this recovery mechanism can be elucidated, it may be possible to prevent the onset of depression. Furthermore, symptoms of depression vary from person to person, and there are patients for whom existing drugs are ineffective. Therefore, it is necessary to develop drugs with a different type of mechanism from existing drugs.

Recently, we discovered that deficit of nest-building behavior in mice after social defeat stress.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Why is nest-building behavior impaired in stressed mice?
    The social defeat stress model is widely used in depression research. We found that nest-building behavior was delayed in mice exposed to social defeat stress (Otabi et al., 2016).
  • Development of rapid screening method for psychotropic drugs
    We believe that the nest-building delay phenomenon in mice may be a powerful evaluation for depression-like behavior to evaluate "motivation". A simple and rapid screening method for psychotropic drugs was developed (Otabi et al., 2017).
  • Development of animal behavior analysis system
    An objective nest-building analysis system was developed using a 3-D depth camera that can observe behavior even in 24-hour darkness to analyze the full extent of the nesting deficit. Nest building was assessed by nest volume to determine differences in nesting patterns between control and stressed mice (Otabi et al., 2020).
  • Elucidation of the neural basis of “nest-building behavior”
    I’m also interested in the neural basis of nest-building behavior in mice and other animal species.

EDUCATION

  • 2011 - 2015
    Bachelor of Agriculture March, 2015
    Department of Biological Production Science (Animal science),
    College of Agriculture, Ibaraki University, Ibaraki, Japan
  • 2015 - 2017
    Master of Agriculture March, 2017
    Department of Biological Production Science (Animal science),
    Graduate School of Agriculture, Ibaraki University, Ibaraki, Japan
  • 2017 - 2021
    Ph.D in Agriculture March, 2021
    Department of Biological Production Science (Animal science),
    United Graduate School of Agricultural Science Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo, Japan

Work Experience

  • 2017 - 2020
    Research Fellow
    Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (DC1)
  • 2021 - 2022
    Project Assistant Professor
    Laboratory of Animal Science, Department of Applied Biological Sciences, Fuculty of Agriculture,
    Setsunan University
  • 2022 - present
    Assistant Professor
    Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Faculty of medicine,
    Kagawa University