This article explores the cognitive potential of “indeterminacy,” its relationship with adversity, and its empirical testability. It begins by revisiting the notion of “quasi-magical thinking,” illustrating how indeterminacy can underlie the belief that one’s actions and decisions may influence others and the world. The discussion then incorporates empirical findings from quantum probabilistic modeling, cognitive experiments, and neuroscience, highlighting new directions and a broader scope for cognitive research.

The term maemuki is a commonly used and straightforward expression in Japanese. However, our research reveals that it carries unexpectedly profound philosophical implications. This paper first presents the fundamental hypothesis that maemuki is closely related to adversity. Second, we empirically examine this hypothesis through a corpus-based analysis of Japanese texts. Third, we undertake a philosophical investigation of the relationship between adversity and maemuki across various contexts. To illustrate this relationship, we analyze the maemuki attitudes of athletes, adventurers, and terminal cancer patients as significant examples. Athletes and adventurers, by deliberately immersing themselves in adversity, attain a higher-order form of maemuki. Terminal cancer patients, despite their limited life expectancy, can still embody maemuki. These cases suggest that adversity and maemuki are not merely opposing forces that negate each other. Instead, adversity acts as a driving force for maemuki, while maemuki integrates adversity into one’s life through a dynamic process of mutual mediation. Furthermore, drawing on Han-Pile’s study of the medio-passive nature of hope and linguistic analyses of the middle voice, we characterize maemuki as a mental attitude that is neither purely active nor purely passive but possesses a middle-voice-like structure. Through this analysis, we contend that maemuki is a complex and multilayered concept of positivity—one that does not reject adversity but is mediated and conditioned by it, revealing a depth beyond simple optimism.

Sports constitute activities characterized by inherent uncertainty and adversity, with such indeterminacy serving as a fundamental source of their appeal. In confronting these uncertainties, elite athletes achieve superior performance through the optimal regulation of both their physical and mental states. To elucidate the bodily and neural mechanisms underlying this ability, we have conducted measurements of athletes’ behaviors and physiological states during actual competitions or equivalent high-pressure settings across various sports. In this article, we first address the management of extremely short-term uncertainties inherent in the execution of motor skills, using gaze behavior during baseball batting as a representative example. We then discuss electroencephalographic (EEG) activity during competitive fighting games in esports as an illustration of how athletes cope with broader uncertainties spanning an entire match. Furthermore, we describe blink patterns observed during Formula car driving as a case study suggesting the potential use of indirect indicators when direct measurement of brain activity in naturalistic settings is not feasible. Finally, we introduce ongoing research employing multimodal physiological measurements in snowboard big air competitions and rifle shooting, aiming to analyze the relationships among brain and bodily states, their coordination, and athletic performance. The findings derived from these investigations are expected to contribute not only to the domain of sports science but also to broader efforts to enhance human well-being across diverse fields.

“Flow” stands for a mental state where one is absorbed into some activity, thus into immersion. Ever since Csikszentmihalyi proposed this concept, it has influenced various fields in the real-world, including sports and arts, game and entertainment, marketing, etc., and driving Happiness Psychology. Yet, very little experimental and neuroscientific evidence were available until very recently. The current paper reviews the author’s own studies with collaborators, as well as related other studies, to answer (albeit tentatively) the following questions. 1) What is flow? 2) Can flow be measured? - Issues to overcome. 3) Can flow be reproduced in laboratory? 4) Are solo and team flow different? 5) Would bodies and brains be in synchrony during team flow? 6) Can flow experiences contribute to formation of “Maemuki” (positive) attitude? via training, changes of life style, and game development, etc. 7) Individual differences, and personal affinity/match in flow. With these, the topic is finally ready to bloom with more basic scientific understanding and real-world applications.

Patients with advanced cancer face the psychological and cognitive challenges of receiving “Bad News,” which includes confronting death, processing complex medical information, and making critical treatment decisions. These high-stress situations can lead to cognitive biases that impair rational decision-making, yet some patients remain optimistic and engaged in treatment. While many patients seek discussions that balance hope with reality, individual differences in hope make these conversations challenging for healthcare providers. Understanding the psychological and cognitive mechanisms underlying decision-making is essential for supporting informed choices that enhance survival and quality of life. In Japan, cancer remains the leading cause of death, with an increasing incidence due to population aging. While medical advancements have improved survival rates, psychological distress, such as depression and anxiety among cancer patients remains a significant issue. Suicide risk is elevated, particularly within the first year post-diagnosis. The psychological process of accepting a terminal illness follows a non-linear trajectory, influenced by cognitive biases such as status quo bias, loss aversion, and optimism bias. These biases impact patients’ and physicians’ decision-making, sometimes leading to unrealistic expectations or treatment refusals. Effective patient-provider communication, particularly in delivering Bad News, is crucial in mitigating the negative aspects of cognitive bias and supporting shared decision-making. Communication strategies that foster trust, provide balanced information, and encourage collaborative discussions can help patients align treatment choices with personal values. The psychological and cognitive factors influencing decision-making in advanced cancer are explored, and strategies to improve SDM and patient well-being are highlighted.

This review examines how contemporary changes in social environments influence adolescent development. We begin by outlining major societal shifts—such as increased digital connectivity and rising social uncertainty—and their psychological and behavioral impacts during adolescence. We then focus on social sensitivity, a cognitive trait that peaks during this period, and consider its role in both adaptive and maladaptive outcomes, including risk-taking and prosocial behavior. Additionally, we address the growing prevalence of mental health challenges among adolescents, particularly in the context of social isolation and environmental stressors such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, we introduce emerging frameworks for understanding resilience and adaptation under adversity, including deficit-based and strength-based approaches such as the Hidden Talents framework that highlights mental abilities enhanced or adapted through adversity. Drawing on recent empirical findings, we discuss how social relationships, lifestyle factors, and physical fitness may contribute to positive adolescent functioning. Taken together, these insights underscore the importance of viewing adolescent development as a dynamic process shaped by complex interactions between individual traits and rapidly evolving social contexts.

Recent technical advances provide an opportunity to study the cultural evolution of music using quantitative methods. Previous computational social science research of popular music mainly examined the history of the Billboard hit chart. However, Japanese popular music remains underexplored despite its large market and distinct cultural context. The present study examined pitch and rhythm feature trajectories using Music instrument digital interface (MIDI) melodic transcriptions of Japanese hit songs (1977–2024), employing methods consistent with prior Billboard analyses (Hamilton & Pearce, 2024). The result identified significant quantitative turning points, or “melodic revolutions,” around 2008, distinct from the revolution in Billboard hits. The revolution aligns with the rise of idol-group popularity, which may reflect specific production and consumption patterns. Further derivative analysis revealed that recent Japanese hits showed rapidly increasing pitch melodic unpredictability, possibly coinciding with the growing influence of Vocaloid culture on mainstream Japanese popular music. Cross-cultural comparisons with vocal melody in the Billboard chart revealed that pitch features evolved uniquely within Japanese popular music, while rhythm features exhibited similar trends in both cultures. Moreover, Japanese hit charts showed higher information content values representing unpredictability than Billboard hit charts from 1996. These findings shed light on Japan’s distinctive musical evolution, and rising preferences for complex and unpredictable melodies may enhance the uniqueness and creativity of Japanese popular music.

Social interaction plays an essential role in human life, and it shapes the dynamics of society as a whole, transcending individual behavior and cognition. Many researchers who are exploring the neural basis of social interaction are focusing on inter-brain synchronization (IBS). Previous research has shown that IBS is associated with a high degree of performance on interpersonal tasks or social bonding. However, on the other hand, there are also studies that have shown association with inter-brain desynchronization (IBD), and accordingly the research findings on the neural basis of social interaction are not consistent. In this paper, in order to resolve such contradictions, we introduce an irruption theory of action and apply it to the case of active engagement in social interactions. When agents act consciously and voluntarily on a task (active involvement in a behavior), the behavior cannot be predicted by its underlying physiological factors alone and behavioral uncertainty increases. The irruption theory suggests that as increasing with the level of active involvement (or social engagement), the uncertainty (entropy) of neural and physiological activity may also increase. We introduce the theory of irruption and reinterpret the complementary relationship between interpersonal familiarities and IBS/IBD. Furthermore, we provide a complementary perspective on the possibility that switching (phase transition) between IBS and IBD over time is the neural basis of social interaction.

ADHD has been, like many other psychiatric disorders, considered a brain disorder. In mainstream scientific research on ADHD, the roles of body systems other than the brain, such as the autonomic nervous system or musculoskeletal system, have largely been neglected despite the possibility that they may play an important role. An even more problematic issue in ADHD research than the tendency to neglect the objective physical body is that the lived and subjective bodily experiences of people with ADHD have received little attention. In this review paper, the authors put forward a more embodied view on ADHD from the Merleau-Pontian perspective of the “lived body.” From this perspective, we summarize existing psychological/rehabilitation-scientific/philosophical/anthropological research on the “embodiment” (in a broader sense) of ADHD, and propose a new way to understand people with ADHD: they are those who have dysfunctions in their body schema, and because of that, they tend to struggle more and to experience less smoothness than their non-ADHD peers when trying to perform a task in their daily life, or, more generally, when acting in the environment around them. Finally, based on this new understanding of ADHD, the authors suggest that motor learning through mindful movement interventions, such as the Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education, may be useful in the context of developmental support for individuals with ADHD.

Ambiguity in artistic contexts can be appreciated, despite being typically avoided in daily life. Previous research has shown that ambiguity generally reduces aesthetic appreciation of haiku, but the role of individual differences in this relationship remains unclear. We examined how the three dimensions of attitude toward ambiguity—Discomfort with Ambiguity, Absolutism, and Need for Complexity and Novelty—moderate the relationship between perceived ambiguity and aesthetic evaluation. One hundred and ten university students rated 24 haiku poems for beauty and ambiguity, and completed the Multidimensional Attitude toward Ambiguity Scale. Linear mixed-effects models revealed that while ambiguity generally had a negative effect on aesthetic evaluation, this relationship was moderated by Discomfort with Ambiguity and Need for Complexity and Novelty, but not by Absolutism. Specifically, individuals high in both Discomfort with Ambiguity and Need for Complexity and Novelty showed more moderate decreases in aesthetic evaluation as ambiguity increased, compared to their low-scoring counterparts. These findings suggest that sensitivity to ambiguity, whether manifested as discomfort or appreciation, may help maintain aesthetic appreciation in the face of ambiguity. The results contribute to our understanding of how individual differences shape artistic appreciation and have implications for art education and the cultivation of ambiguity tolerance through artistic engagement.