RESEARCHERID

Azusa Kamikouchi

Principal Investigator, Professor

Website：https://www.bio.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~NC_home/index3.htm
E-mail：kamikouchi [at] bio.nagoya-u.ac.jp　(Please replace [at] with @ when sending an email.)

Neuroscience, Insect Physiology, Neuroethology, Acoustic communication
Kamikouchi conducts pioneering research using fruit flies as a model for studying hearing. Utilizing neuroanatomical, neuroimaging, and behavioral analyses, she has led ground-breaking investigations into the functional properties of the fruit-fly auditory system, uncovering a number of similarities to equivalent mammalian systems. At the ITbM, she will extend these findings to mosquito hearing research. Mosquitoes carry infectious diseases that kill hundreds of thousands of people each year. Hearing plays an essential role during the mating behavior of these mosquitoes, and thus provides a promising target for controlling their behaviors. At ITbM she will be involved in developing molecules that can effectively disrupt hearing function by elucidating the fundamental molecular bases underlying mosquito hearing.

Selected Awards and Honors

Sep. 2012 The Japan Neuroscience Society Young Investigator Award, Japan Neuroscience Society
Apr. 2010 The Young Scientists' Award, The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

Selected Publications

  • Differences in male Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus hearing systems facilitate recognition of conspecific female flight tones. Yu Min M. Loh, Yifeng Y.J. Xu, Tai Ting Lee, Takuro S. Ohashi, Yixiao D. Zhang, Daniel F. Eberl, Matthew P. Su, Azusa Kamikouchi, iScience, 2024, 27(7). DOI:(doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.110264)
  • Neural-circuit basis of song preference learning in fruit flies. Keisuke Imoto, Yuki Ishikawa, Yoshinori Aso, Jan Funke, Ryoya Tanaka, Azusa Kamikouchi, iScience, 2024, 110266-110266. DOI:(doi.10.1016/j.isci.2024.110266)
  • Piezo-mediated mechanosensation contributes to stabilizing copulation posture and reproductive success in Drosophila males. Hayato M. Yamanouchi, Ryoya Tanaka, Azusa Kamikouchi, iScience, 2023, 26(5) 106617. DOI:(doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.106617)
  • Serotonin modulation in the male Aedes aegypti ear influences hearing. Yifeng YJ Xu, YuMin Loh, Tai-Ting Lee, Takuro S. Ohashi, Matthew P Su, Azusa Kamikouchi, Frontiers in Physiology, 2022, 13(931567). DOI:(doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2022.931567)
  • A feedforward circuit regulates action selection of pre-mating courtship behavior in female Drosophila. Hiroshi Ishimoto, Azusa Kamikouchi, Current Biology, 2020, 30(3) 396-407. DOI:(doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.11.065)
  • GABAergic local interneurons shape female fruit fly response to mating songs. Yamada D., Ishimoto H., Li X, Kohashi T., Ishikawa Y., Kamikouchi A., The Journal of Neuroscience, 2018, 38(18) 4329-4347. DOI:(doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3644-17.2018)
  • Auditory experience controls the maturation of song discrimination and sexual response in Drosophila. Xiaodong Li, Hiroshi Ishimoto, Azusa Kamikouchi, eLife, 2018, 7(e34348). DOI:(doi.org/10.7554/eLife.34348)