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Honnma Kouichi

    Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences Professor
    Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences Professor
Last Updated :2025/06/19

Researcher Information

Affiliation

    Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences Professor
    Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences Professor

Degree

  • Ph.D（Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo）

URL

J-Global ID

Profile

  • Filial imprinting in precocial birds is the process of forming a social attachment during a sensitive or critical period, restricted to the first few days after hatching. Imprinting is considered to be part of early learning to aid the survival of juveniles by securing maternal care. We showed that the thyroid hormone 3,5,3′-triiodothyronine (T3) determines the start of the sensitive period. Imprinting training in chicks causes rapid inflow of T3, converted from circulating plasma thyroxine by Dio2, type 2 iodothyronine deiodinase, in brain vascular endothelial cells. The T3 thus initiates and extends the sensitive period to last more than 1 week via non-genomic mechanisms and primes subsequent learning. Even in non-imprinted chicks whose sensitive period has ended, exogenous T3 enables imprinting. Our findings indicate that T3 determines the start of the sensitive period for imprinting and has a critical role in later learning (Nature Communications 3, 1081 (2012)).


    Cognitive flexibility is the ability to recognize changes in situations and switch to an appropriate response to a new environmental stimulus. It is generally assumed that such flexibility develops with age and experience, and that high cognitive flexibility is acquired over several years of experience after birth in mammals and birds. However, this study devised a series of switching or reversal task experiments on newborn chicks to assess cognitive flexibility to switch between color and position. As a result, imprinted chicks showed higher cognitive flexibility than those unimprinted in each task. In a surprising discovery, the authors found that injection of thyroid hormone directly into the brain endowed similar flexibility in chicks that had not been imprinted. The avian brain region analogous to the mammalian prefrontal system is proposed to be critical for the cognitive flexibility. The findings of this study lead to the possibility that thyroid hormone can be substituted for maternal attachment, replacing missing social attachment, i.e., imprinting, as a stimulator for the cognitive ability. Cognitive development driven by the thyroid hormone appears to be a vertebrate tactic for adapting to environmental and evolutionary changes that require high cognitive abilities. This concept is supported by the timing of the thyroid hormone surge in vertebrates, at hatching in precocial birds and reptiles, fledging in altricial birds, onset of pulmonary respiration in humans, weaning in mice and rats, and metamorphosis in amphibians (Science Advances 10, eadr5113 (2024)).

Research Interests

  • T3/T4   Thyroid peroxidase（TPO)   Thyroid hormone   Filial imprinting   包括脳ネットワーク   Domestic chick   Behavior   Memory   Antibacterial peptide   IDGF   calreticulin   Growth hormone   Neutrophil   Imprinting behavior   Dendritic spine   Immediate early gene   Luciferase   Gene expression   LTP   Cathepsin L   BDNF   Imaging   Memory priming   Critical period   Cell growth   LTD   c-fos   CECR1   Adenosine deaminase   Pyramidal cell   U937   slingshot   Sensitive period   Hippocampus   

Research Areas

  • Life sciences / Pharmaceuticals - health and biochemistry
  • Life sciences / Animals: biochemistry, physiology, behavioral science
  • Life sciences / Developmental biology
  • Life sciences / Structural biochemistry
  • Life sciences / Molecular biology

Academic & Professional Experience

  • 2023/04 - Today  Teikyo UniversityGraduate Degree Program of Health Data Science
  • 2008/04 - Today  Teikyo UniversityFaculty of Pharmaceutical SciencesProfessor
  • 2005/05 - 2008/03  Teikyo UniversityFaculty of Pharmaceutical SciencesAssociate professor
  • 2004/04 - 2005/05  Teikyo UniversityFaculty of Pharmaceutical SciencesLecturer
  • 2002/05 - 2004/03  UC Berkeley, USADepartment of Molecular & Cell BiologyVisiting researcher
  • 2000/04 - 2002/04  Max-Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, GermanyVisiting researcher
  • 1993/04 - 2000/03  The University of TokyoGraduate School of Pharmaceutical SciencesAssistant professor

Education

  • 1993/03 -   The University of Tokyo  Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences  Ph. D.
  • 1990/03 -   The University of Tokyo  Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences  M. A.
  • 1988/03 -   The University of Tokyo  Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences  B. A.

Association Memberships

  • Japanese Association of Neuroethologists, JAN   Society for Neuroscience   PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN   THE JAPANESE BIOCHEMICAL SOCIETY   THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN   THE JAPAN NEUROSCIENCE SOCIETY   THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN   Japanese Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, JSBN   Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology (SBN)   FAOBMB, The Federation of Asian and Oceanian Biochemists and Molecular Biologists   Japan Society for Avian Endocrinology   

Research Activity Information

Published Papers

MISC

Industrial Property Rights

Research Grants & Projects

Teaching Experience

  • Molecular and Cellular BiologyMolecular and Cellular Biology Teikyo University
  • Infection and ImmunityInfection and Immunity Teikyo University
  • ChemotherapyChemotherapy Teikyo University
  • InfectiologyInfectiology Teikyo University
  • MicrobiologyMicrobiology Teikyo University
  • ImmunologyImmunology Teikyo University
  • Molecular BiologyMolecular Biology Teikyo University

Committee Membership

  • The Japanese Biochemical Society   FAOBMB(Federation of Asian and Oceanian Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), Japanese delegate
  • Associate Editor on the Editorial Board of Learning and Memory (specialty section of Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience)
  • THE ASSOCIATION OF PRIVATE PHARMACEUTICAL SCHOOL OF JAPAN   Council on Pharmaceutical Education, Japan
  • The Japanese Biochemical Society   Representative
  • The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan   Committee
  • Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry   Committee
  • Review Editor on the Editorial Board of Avian Physiology (specialty section of Frontiers in Physiology)

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