Ryutaro
Uchiyama
内山隆太郎
Research Fellow, Nanyang Techological University
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.
Research interests
Cultural evolution, cognitive plasticity, developmental psychobiology
Update: I'm writing for a popular audience at Psychology Today.
The mind lives in culture
Education
2021 PhD, Psychological and Behavioural Science
London School of Economics and Political Science
Thesis title: Cultural evolutionary production of human psychobiological
variation and function
2017 MA, Psychology (Behavioral and Evolutionary Neuroscience)
Cornell University, US
2013 BSc with Greatest Honors, Psychology
University of Lethbridge, Canada
2006 Technical Diploma in Spatial Design
Kuwasawa Design School, Japan
Research positions
2021– Research Fellow
NTU–Cambridge Centre for Lifelong Learning and Individualised
Cognition (CLIC),
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
2017 Research Programmer
Section of Brain Function Information,
National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Japan
Other employment
2003–2013 Freelance Japanese–English translator/editor for art and design
publications (list of translated works below)
2006–2007 Junior interior & furniture designer
Design Office IMA
Tokyo, Japan
Publications
Uchiyama R, Spicer R, & Muthukrishna M. (in press). Cultural evolution of genetic heritability. Behavioral and Brain Sciences (Target Article) [PDF] [journal] [press release]
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]
Finlay BL & Uchiyama R. (2020). The timing of brain maturation, early experience and the human social niche. In J. Kaas (Ed.), Evolutionary Neuroscience, Second Edition, 815-843. San Diego: Elsevier Academic Press. [PDF]
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. (2015). Developmental mechanisms channeling cortical evolution. Trends in Neurosciences, 38, 69–76. [PDF]
Pre-publication
Pham TQ, Yoshimoto T, Niwa H, Takahashi H, Uchiyama R, Matsui T, Anderson AK, Sadato N, & Chikazoe J. (under review). Vision-to-value transformation of art in artificial neural networks and human neural networks.
Uchiyama R, Spicer R, & Muthukrishna M. (under review). Cultural variance reduces the heritability of psychological, behavioral, and psychiatric traits.
Conference presentations
2019 Poster— Uchiyama R & Muthukrishna M. "The cultural evolution of cultural
learning". Early-career Social Learning Researchers workshop (Lepizig, Germany)
2018 Talk— Uchiyama R & Muthukrishna M. "General intelligence as an emergent
product of cultural complexity: Explaining the Flynn Effect".
Cultural Evolution Society (Tempe, AZ, USA)
2018 Poster— Uchiyama R & Muthukrishna M. "Testing the Cultural Brain
Hypothesis using phylogenetic path analysis".
Early-career Social Learning Researchers workshop (St Andrews, Scotland, UK)
2017 Talk— Uchiyama R & Muthukrishna M. "Testing the cultural brain hypothesis".
Cultural Evolution Society inaugural conference (Jena, Germany)
2016 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)
2015 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
2018–2020 LSE PBS PhD Committee member
Member of a PhD committee responsible for academic self-
governance in the department of Psychological and Behavioural Science
2015 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/
2014–2015 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
2021 Claremont Graduate University, seminar speaker for Prof. Robert
Kiltgaard's course "Cultural Competence"
2020 盐 (Yan) Talk, Human Psychology Seminar Series
(online talk for an audience in the People’s Republic of China)
2019 Meiji University, School of Interdisciplinary Mathematical Sciences, Joe
Wakano Lab (Japan)
2019 LSESU Behavioural Sciences Society Annual Conference (London)
Translated and co-translated publications (non-academic)
Books
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The Album, BNN Publishing, 2005
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Japanese Motion Graphic Creators [映像作家100人], BNN Publishing, 2006
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Design Tide: A Message From Tokyo, BNN Publishing, 2006
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GAS BOOK 24: Hideki Inaba "~NEWLINE", Gas as Interface, 2006
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Logo a Lot, BNN Publishing, 2007
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Japanese Motion Graphic Creators 2008, BNN Publishing, 2008
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Think Globally, Act Locally. Think Locally, Act Globally., Bueno! Books, Tokyo, 2008
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Japanese Motion Graphic Creators 2009, BNN Publishing, 2009
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Printed Matter in Fashion, BNN Publishing, 2009
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The Front Line of Fashion: 100 Japanese Fashion Brands, BNN Publishing, 2009
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Japanese Motion Graphic Creators 2010, BNN Publishing, 2010
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Japanese Motion Graphic Creators 2011, BNN Publishing, 2011
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Japanese Motion Graphic Creators 2012, BNN Publishing, 2012
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Graphic Fashion, BNN Publishing, 2012
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Japanese Motion Graphic Creators 2013, BNN Publishing, 2013
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Poster Graphics, BNN Publishing, 2013
Print Periodicals
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SIM, issue 3, Asukashinsha Publishing, 2003
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Massage, issues 3 & 4, skratch.jp, 2004
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SAL magazine, issues 10–12 & 14, Daiichi Kosho, 2003-2005
Online Periodicals
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salmagazine.org, issues 1–11, 2004-2005
Artwork
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Untitled fractal sculpture, based on the golden ratio
Constructed with heat-reflective glass, mirrors, and paint-coated steel
121 × 75 × 46 cm
2009
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![]() | ![]() Drawing Exhibition"The basal Mediterranean sport" at Schildpatt Gallery, Sengawa, Tokyo, May 20 & 21, 2017 |
![]() Drawing Exhibition"The basal Mediterranean sport" at Schildpatt Gallery, Sengawa, Tokyo, May 20 & 21, 2017 |
Drawings, 2007 onward