My name is Riki Matsumoto, and I am appointed as a professor and chair of the Department of Neurology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, as of October 1, 2024.

I was born in Nara, and graduated from Faculty of Medicine, Kyoto University in 1994. I started Neurology residency under Prof. Jun Kimura in Kyoto University Hospital. After neurology training in the affiliated hospital, I came back to Kyoto University as a graduate student at the Department of Brain Pathophysiology (currently, Human Brain Research Center) in 1998. The Department was led by Prof. Hiroshi Shibasaki, and was one of the leading laboratories in the world for studying the physiology and pathophysiology of the human brain using the state-of-the art non-invasive (fMRI, PET, magnetoencephalogram (MEG)) and invasive (electrocorticogram (ECoG), electrical cortical stimulation) systems neuroscience methods. I elucidated the motor-related functional subdivisions of human lateral premotor cortex by means of ECoG recording in conditional visuomotor task, and obtained Ph.D. in 2003.

Thanks to kind introduction by Prof. Shibasaki, I did my clinical fellowship under Prof. Hans Lüders at the Section of Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology, the Department of Neurology, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (Ohio, USA) from 2000 to 2002. I was able to develop a novel method to probe cortico-cortical connectivity using single-pulse electrical stimulation, namely, cortico-cortical evoked potential (CCEP). Although limited to patients undergoing invasive presurgical evaluations with intracranial electrodes for epilepsy surgery, small electric current is injected to a part of the cortices, and its propagation through cortico-cortical pathways is probed by recording brain evoked potentials, namely CCEP, time-locked to the electrical stimuli. CCEP provides a novel way to explore inter-areal connectivity in vivo in the living human brain to probe functional brain networks such as language and cognitive motor networks or the seizure network for each individual patient, and to construct the human brain connectome when the group data is available.

After returning to Kyoto University, I have conducted the following research by asking myself the question “What can we do for the current and future patients using the state-of-the art systems neuroscience?” – 1. Elucidating the physiology and plasticity of the higher brain functional networks, 2. Research and development of minimally invasive clinical brain mapping methods, 3. Elucidating the network pathophysiology of epilepsy. To name a few, in collaboration with the Department of Neurosurgery, we applied the CCEP method in the operation theater to develop novel intraoperative monitoring method to monitor the integrity of the language network such as the arcuate fasciculus network, which is becoming a new standard for mapping and monitoring language fibers. I also conducted the multidisciplinary and international collaborative research for elucidating the role of the anterior temporal lobe in semantic functions by integrating ECoG, neuropsychology, CCEP, modelling and machine learning.

I was appointed as a professor and chair at the Department of Neurology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine in 2018. As the last resort for Neurology in Hyogo Prefecture, our department has provided a wide range of neurology service for both the common and rare neurological diseases. I served as the director for both Epilepsy Center and Center for Cognitive and Memory Disorders and arranged the comprehensive service for both common diseases. From the research point of view, I was able to further develop our systems neuroscience research as well as the industry-academia-government collaborative research to make the wearable EEG device. I was also able to launch the new multidisciplinary research for the very early phase (Mibyo-phase) of dementia by focusing on the immune system and synaptic alternation leading to neuronal hyperexcitability.

The Department of Neurology has a long history over 40 years with more than 500 alumni members. Under great leadership of Prof. Ryosuke Takahashi, the department has further developed both for the wide range of clinical service and various basic and clinical research. I will do my best to foster both effective neurologists and physician scientists for sustainable development of the department. Disease modifying drugs are now available for some neurodegenerative disorders, and we neurologists can “treat” many neurological disorders. In collaboration with the Departments of Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, I would like to develop the neuromodulation as the third treatment option following medicine and surgery, which involves cell transplantation, deep brain stimulation, non-invasive brain stimulation and neurofeedback for various neurological disorders. Lastly, our department will celebrate 50th anniversary in 2029, and we would like to do our best for further development in clinical care, education and research for the next 50 years.