Honors & Awards

  • Poster Presentation Award, RIKEN BDR Symposium 2025 “Towards Redesigning Lifecycles”, Kobe, Japan (2025/3/5)
  • Matsuo Research Award, the 18th GPCR Symposium, Shimadzu Tokyo Innovation Plaza, Japan (2024/5/26)
  • Presentation Award in Training School for Next Generation Scientists, the 46th Annual Meeting of the Japan Neuroscience Society, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan (2023/8/3)
  • “Like” award, the 43rd Japan Neuroscience Society (2020/8/1)
  • Presentation of Young Scientist Award, Next Generation Brain Project Winter Symposium 2019, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan (2019/12/20)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

  • Committee member, Human Resource Development Working Group, Japan Neuroscience Society (JNS) (2023 - Present)

Stanford Advisors

Contact

  • Academic
    amiyasak@stanford.edu
    University - Scholar Department: Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Position: Postdoctoral Scholar

Additional Info

All Publications

  • Sequential transitions of male sexual behaviors driven by dual acetylcholine-dopamine dynamics. Neuron Miyasaka, A., Kanda, T., Nonaka, N., Terakoshi, Y., Cherasse, Y., Ishikawa, Y., Li, Y., Takizawa, H., Hirano, A., Seita, J., Yanagisawa, M., Sakurai, T., Sakurai, K., Liu, Q. 2025; 113 (8): 1240-1258.e10

    Abstract

    The neural mechanisms underlying the sequential transitions of male sexual behaviors, including mounting, intromission, and ejaculation, remain largely unexplored. Here, we report that acetylcholine (ACh)-dopamine (DA) dynamics in the ventral shell of the nucleus accumbens (vsNAc) regulate these sexual transitions in male mice. During intromission, the vsNAc displays a unique pattern of dual ACh-DA rhythms, generated by reciprocal regulation between ACh and DA signaling via nicotinic ACh receptors (nAChRs) and DA D2 receptors (D2Rs). Knockdown of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) or D2R in the vsNAc diminishes the occurrence of intromission and ejaculation. Optogenetic manipulations demonstrated that DA signaling maintains sexual behaviors by suppressing D2RvsNAc neurons. Moreover, ACh signaling promotes the initiation of mounting and intromission and facilitates the intromission-ejaculation transition by inducing a slowdown in DA rhythm. Together, these findings reveal that coordinated ACh-DA dynamics in the vsNAc play a critical role in orchestrating the sequential transitions of male sexual behaviors.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.01.032

    View details for PubMedID 40112814

  • Rapid eye movement sleep is initiated by basolateral amygdala dopamine signaling in mice. Science (New York, N.Y.) Hasegawa, E., Miyasaka, A., Sakurai, K., Cherasse, Y., Li, Y., Sakurai, T. 2022; 375 (6584): 994-1000

    Abstract

    The sleep cycle is characterized by alternating non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleeps. The mechanisms by which this cycle is generated are incompletely understood. We found that a transient increase of dopamine (DA) in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) during NREM sleep terminates NREM sleep and initiates REM sleep. DA acts on dopamine receptor D2 (Drd2)-expressing neurons in the BLA to induce the NREM-to-REM transition. This mechanism also plays a role in cataplectic attacks-a pathological intrusion of REM sleep into wakefulness-in narcoleptics. These results show a critical role of DA signaling in the BLA in initiating REM sleep and provide a neuronal basis for sleep cycle generation.

    View details for DOI 10.1126/science.abl6618

    View details for PubMedID 35239361

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8231-4358