r. Hikosaka received his M.D. and Ph.D. from University of Tokyo where he worked in the laboratory of Hiroshi Shimazu on the brainstem vestibulo-oculomotor system. He did postdoctoral research with Robert Wurtz at the Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, NEI on the role of the substantia nigra pars reticulata in the control of saccadic eye movements. He became Assistant Professor at Toho University School of Medicine (Tokyo) in 1979, Full Professor at National Institute of Physiological Sciences (Okazaki) in 1988, and Full Professor at Juntendo University School of Medicine (Tokyo) in 1993. In 2002, he returned to the Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, NEI as a Senior Investigator and Chief of the Section of Neuronal Networks. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2011. His main interest is the neural mechanisms of voluntary behavior. His laboratory studies the mechanisms of motivation, learning, skill, decision-making, attention, and oculomotor control.

Control of eye movements, Functions of the basal ganglia, Neural mechanisms of motivation, Neural mechanisms of procedural learning and Mechanisms of spatial attention.