Yoshiko Kojima, PhD

I study how the brain controls eye movement. When the brain, muscles, or inner ear condition changes by disease, injury, or aging, eye movement becomes inaccurate and affects vision and balance. A brain mechanism called eye movement learning is one way to recover eye movement accuracy. I investigate the neural circuits of eye movement learning to assist rehabilitation.

Yoshiko Kojima, Ph.D., joined the University of Washington in 2006 as a post-doctoral fellow. Prior to joining UW, she earned her Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. In 2020, she became a research assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Washington. She is also an affiliate of Washington National Primate Research Center.

Undergraduate Education: Ibaraki Prefectural University of Health Sciences, Japan, B.S. in Occupational Therapy

Graduate Education: University of Tsukuba, Japan Ph.D. in Neuroscience

Fellowship: Postdoctoral researcher, University of Washington, Department of Physiology and Biophysics

Memberships: Society for Neuroscience, American Physiological Society, The Japan Neuroscience Society

NIH-NEI, R01
UW Royalty Research Fund
NIH Vision Training Grant, Postdoctoral
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Japan-U.S. Science and Technology Cooperation
Meiji Yasuda life foundation of health and welfare

The long-term goal of Dr. Kojima's lab is to understand neural mechanisms of eye movement learning and treat abnormal eye movements. In particular, her lab focuses on saccade, a fast eye movement to direct line of sight to an object of interest. The lab uses behavioral tests, neurophysiological recording, micro electrical stimulation, pharmacological manipulation, and optogenetics to investigate how the brain creates and adjusts the saccade signal with integrating sensory inputs, such as, vision, memory, and rotation of the head.

Yoshiko Kojima's MyNCBI Bibliography

Kojima Lab