Research Scientist

Dr. Toshiya Miyatsu joined IHMC as a Research Scientist in January 2020. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Psychological and Brain Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis and his B.A. in Psychology from University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Miyatsu’s research focuses on cognitive and technological tools that can enhance human learning, instruction, performance, and assessment.  He is a co-PI on Virtual Integrated Social Task (VISTa): A novel, impactful technology to assess Traumatic Brain Injury in Special Operations Forces funded by the United States Special Operation Command (US SOCOM) and leads a CRADA with Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) on Optimization of Cognitive Performance. He has served as the on-site lead scientist for the Learning through Electrical Augmentation of Plasticity (LEAP) project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) leading the execution of experiments examining the efficacy of non-invasive brain stimulation on foreign-language acquisition. He has also served as key personnel in the Peerless Operator Biological Aptitude (PEERLESS) project funded by DARPA functioning as a core member of the cognitive behavioral team that conducted cutting-edge assessments for elite operator selection incorporating cognitive testing, speech and natural language processing, and machine learning-based EEG analyses.

Prior to joining IHMC, Dr. Miyatsu served as a graduate research associate for Washington University in St. Louis and as a laboratory manager/research technician for UCLA. In these roles, he initiated, managed, and successfully completed cognitive psychological research funded by the National Science Foundation, James S. McDonnell foundation, and other agencies. He led projects from a wide variety of subject areas in cognition (e.g., retrieval-induced forgetting, category learning, multi-media learning, study strategies, mnemonics) to publications at top journals in psychology, such as Psychological Bulletin, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, and Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.

Originally from Tokyo, Japan, Toshi came to US in 2006 and became a US citizen in 2018. When not at work, you can find him growing his brain through a generalist movement practice, practicing Brazilian jiu jitsu and other martial arts, or spending time with his wife Rose and pet tortoise Chekhov.