I received my Ph.D. in Neurophysiology from Tokyo Medical and Dental University in 1986. I held research associate positions at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University and then at the Rockefeller University. I joined the faculty of Toho University Medical School as an assistant professor and the as an associate professor in Physiology (1991-1999). In 1999, I returned to Tokyo Medical and Dental University as a full professor in Cognitive Neurobiology. I am now a Head of Laboratory for Symbolic Cognitive Development at RIKEN Brain Science Institute since 2004.I am an adjunct professor of Tokyo Medical and Dental University, The University of Tokyo, Keio University, and a visiting senior fellow of University College London. Based on behavioral and neurophysiological analyses on chronic macaque monkeys, which were trained to use tools and other high-tech apparatus, I try to uncover evolutionary precursors of human higher cognitive functions grounded onto physical morphologies and patterns of structured bodily actions. We extrapolate these mechanisms to constitute bases of communicatory functions by sharing above machineries among individuals, and eventually understand neural mechanism of social behaviours. Further, he is aiming at extending these mechanisms onto evolutionary as well as developmental clues of symbolic cognitive functions to subserve inference, metaphysical thoughts etc. that characterise human intelligence.