Ryutaro

Uchiyama

内山隆太郎

Doctoral Researcher

London School of Economics

r.uchiyama@lse.ac.uk

@RyutaroUchiyama

given name first syllable rhymes with queue

You can't make cheesecakes out of snow —Yiddish proverb

About

How do population-level cultural dynamics and individual psychology mutually shape each other? And what does this cyclic interaction reveal about human evolution and development? I use computational modeling, data science, behavioral experiments, and theoretical analysis to study these problems.

I am preparing a PhD dissertation in the field of Psychological and Behavioural Science under the guidance of Dr. Michael Muthukrishna at the London School of Economics and Political Science

Areas of expertise

Cultural & cognitive evolution, cultural psychology, behavioral biology

Education

2021

(expected)

2017

2013

2006

PhD, Psychological and Behavioural Science

London School of Economics and Political Science

Dissertation title:

The role of cultural dynamics in the construction of human mental functions

MA, Psychology (in Behavioral and Evolutionary Neuroscience)

Cornell University, US

BSc with Greatest Honors, Psychology

University of Lethbridge, Canada

Technical Diploma in Spatial Design

Kuwasawa Design School, Japan

Research positions

2017

Research programmer

Section of Brain Function Information

National Institute for Physiological Sciences

Okazaki, Japan

Other employment

2003–2013

2006–2007

Freelance Japanese–English translator/editor for art and design publications (list of translated works below)

Junior interior & furniture designer

Design Office IMA

Tokyo, Japan

Publications

Uchiyama R & Muthukrishna M. (in press). Cultural evolutionary neuroscience. In J Chiao, S Li, B Turner, SY Lee-Tauler, B Pringle (Eds.), Handbook of Cultural Neuroscience and Global Mental Health. Oxford University Press. [PsyArXiv]

Uchiyama R & Muthukrishna M. (2019). Archetypes are a poor primitive for a theory of mental representations. Psychological Inquiry, 30. 87–92. [PDF]

Smolla M, Invernizzi E, Bazhydai M, Casoli M, Deffner D, Faria GS, Jones N, Kanwal J, Staehler AM, Uchiyama R. (2018). Second annual workshop of the Association of Early-Career Social Learning Researchers in St Andrews, Scotland. Evolutionary Anthropology, 27, 184-187. [PDF]

Finlay BL & Uchiyama R. (2017). The timing of brain maturation, early experience and the human social niche. In J. Kaas (Ed.), Evolution of Nervous Systems, 2nd Edition, Vol. 3, 123-148. San Diego: Elsevier Academic Press. [PDF]

Finlay BL & Uchiyama R. (2015). Developmental mechanisms channeling cortical evolution. Trends in Neurosciences, 38, 69–76. [PDF]

Pre-publication

Uchiyama R, Spicer R, & Muthukrishna M. (under review). Cultural evolution of genetic heritability. [bioRxiv]

Pham TQ, Yoshimoto T, Niwa H, Takahashi H, Uchiyama R, Anderson AK, Sadato N, & Chikazoe J. (in preparation). Tracing the representational architecture of subjective valuation with fMRI-neural network correspondence mapping

Uchiyama R, Spicer R, & Muthukrishna M. (in preparation). Cultural tightness inflates genetic heritability: a cross-national analysis.

Conference presentations

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

Poster— Uchiyama R & Muthukrishna M. "The cultural evolution of cultural learning". Early-career Social Learning Researchers workshop (Lepizig, Germany)

Talk— Uchiyama R & Muthukrishna M. "General intelligence as an emergent product of cultural complexity: Explaining the Flynn Effect".

Cultural Evolution Society (Tempe, AZ, USA)

Poster— Uchiyama R & Muthukrishna M. "Testing the Cultural Brain Hypothesis using phylogenetic path analysis".

Early-career Social Learning Researchers workshop (St Andrews, Scotland, UK)

Talk— Uchiyama R & Muthukrishna M. "Testing the cultural brain hypothesis". Cultural Evolution Society inaugural conference (Jena, Germany)

Poster— Uchiyama R & Edelman S. "Narrative-mediated transmission of causal knowledge".

Emergent Meaning: Neural, Social, & Computational Perspectives (Bethlehem, PA), a workshop associated with Cognitive Science Society (Philadelphia, PA, US)

Poster— Uchiyama R & Finlay BL. "Situating social learning in an evolutionarily conserved program of brain development".

Mechanisms of Learning in Social Contexts, a workshop at ICDL-EPIROB (Providence, RI, US)

Organization

2019–ongoing

2015

2014–2015

LSE PBS Deep Reading Seminar

Founder of a PhD student-centered seminar that invites prominent psychological researchers to discuss their recent work

Cognitive and evolutionary approaches to human culture

Lead organizer and panel moderator of a cross-disciplinary symposium (March 12, 2015, at Cornell University) – http://cogevo.weebly.com/

Collective Behavior Study Group, Cornell University

Co-founder and organizer of an inter-departmental graduate student journal club and speaker series – http://collectivebehavior.weebly.com/

Teaching and outreach

Course Design

Co-designed with another graduate student the full syllabus for HD 6400–Emergent Collective Behavior, offered by the Department of Human Development, Cornell University (Spring 2014)

Teaching Assistantships

• London School of Economics—

MSc Social and Public Communication (Martin Bauer & Bradley Franks, 2018–2020), Foundations of Psychological Science (Michael Muthukrishna, 2018–2019)
• Cornell University—

Developmental Psychology (Michael Goldstein, 2014)

Computational Psychology (Shimon Edelman, 2015)

Introduction to Biopsychology (Tim Devoogd, 2015)

Psychology of Language (Morten Christiansen, 2016)

Human Perception (David Field, 2016)

Neuroanatomy instruction

Managed brain dissection wet labs and neuroanatomy tutorials for PSYCH4250–Cognitive Neuroscience (Barbara Finlay), Cornell University, 2014–2015

Neuroscience outreach

2014–2016, Assistant Curator for the Wilder Brain Collection, Cornell University

Sample coverage [ media ] [ youtube ] (Oct 7, 2016)

Invited talks

2020

2019

盐 (Yan) Talk, Human Psychology Seminar Series
(online talk for an audience in the People’s Republic of China)

Meiji University, School of Interdisciplinary Mathematical Sciences, Joe Wakano Lab (Japan)

LSESU Behavioural Sciences Society Annual Conference (London)

Translated and co-translated publications (non-academic)

Books

The Album, BNN Publishing, 2005
Japanese Motion Graphic Creators [映像作家100人], BNN Publishing, 2006
Design Tide: A Message From Tokyo, BNN Publishing, 2006
GAS BOOK 24: Hideki Inaba "~NEWLINE", Gas as Interface, 2006
Logo a Lot, BNN Publishing, 2007
Japanese Motion Graphic Creators 2008, BNN Publishing, 2008
Think Globally, Act Locally. Think Locally, Act Globally., Bueno! Books, Tokyo, 2008
Japanese Motion Graphic Creators 2009, BNN Publishing, 2009
Printed Matter in Fashion, BNN Publishing, 2009
The Front Line of Fashion: 100 Japanese Fashion Brands, BNN Publishing, 2009
Japanese Motion Graphic Creators 2010, BNN Publishing, 2010
Japanese Motion Graphic Creators 2011, BNN Publishing, 2011
Japanese Motion Graphic Creators 2012, BNN Publishing, 2012
Graphic Fashion, BNN Publishing, 2012
Japanese Motion Graphic Creators 2013, BNN Publishing, 2013
Poster Graphics, BNN Publishing, 2013

Print Periodicals

SIM, issue 3, Asukashinsha Publishing, 2003
Massage, issues 3 & 4, skratch.jp, 2004
SAL magazine, issues 10–12 & 14, Daiichi Kosho, 2003-2005

Online Periodicals

salmagazine.org, issues 1–11, 2004-2005

Artwork

Untitled fractal sculpture, based on the golden ratio

Constructed with heat-reflective glass, mirrors, and paint-coated steel

121 × 75 × 46 cm

2009

Drawings, 2007 onward