On July 28, 2026, Specially Appointed Professor Satoshi Shioiri of the AI So-Go-Chi Center delivered a presentation at the 61st CHAIN Academic Seminar, organized by the Center for Human Nature, Artificial Intelligence, and Neuroscience (CHAIN) at Hokkaido University. The seminar, titled “Exploring the Origins of Voluntary Attention,” was held in a hybrid format at Hokkaido University’s Central Campus.

The seminar was held as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen collaboration between CHAIN and the AI So-Go-Chi Center. Professor Shioiri introduced the Center’s interdisciplinary research activities and presented recent findings on predicting internal states and insights from facial expressions, the spatial characteristics of attention, and the mechanisms underlying voluntary attention—namely, what occurs in the brain when people intentionally direct their attention.

The presentation stimulated an active discussion on the relationships among vision, attention, consciousness, and brain function, as well as on related research challenges in visual science and psychophysics. Following the seminar, representatives of both centers exchanged views on future institutional collaboration and potential joint research activities, reaffirming their intention to deepen cooperation between the two organizations.