Summary of our activities toward development of the ESD interdisciplinary study plans on climate and cultural understanding education with attention to the seasonal cycle and “seasonal feeling” around Japan and Europe

We have continued the interdisciplinary integration of the knowledge on climate and music and have developed the crosscutting study plans on the climate and cultural understanding education. A part of these results had been summarized in a Japanese book titled “Climate and music (Cultural understanding and ESD spreading from the “Doors of Song”)” (Kato and Kato 2019), building mainly our papers written in Japanese. This article will re-integrate our above study results, mainly for the climate and songs/traditional seasonal events around Germany, Northern Europe and Japan, with special attention to (A) asymmetric seasonal progression from autumn to next spring around Japan, (B) winter climate around Germany in association with the seasonal feeling on the traditional events “Fasnacht” for driving winter away and (C) climate around Northern Europe in association with the seasonal feeling on the summer solstice festival “Juhannus” with comparison to the summer climate around Japan

音と色との関わりを意識した季節感の比較表現に関する学際的授業 （冬を挟む日本の季節進行の非対称性に注目して）

This study is a part of the activity to develop an interdisciplinary class on the climate environment around the Japan Islands and the “seasonal feeling”, succeeding to Kato et al. (2014). In the class at the Faculty of Education, Okayama University in 2014, the comparative expression of the seasonal feelings between early winter and early spring was made, with attention to the asymmetric seasonal march from autumn to the next spring pointed out by Kato et al. (2013). The students tried the expression firstly with combination of the colored papers based on the Johannes Itten’s (1888-1967) exercise, next with use of the small percussion instruments, and finally with the colored papers again. Analyses of the students’ works suggested the deepening of the expressions on different seasonal feelings between early winter and early spring by the interaction of the art and music activities with each other, such as the music expressions with imaging colors or superposition of the tones at the second activity, the art expressions influenced by the music works in selecting the configurations or combination of the colored papers at the third activity, and so on. It is also interesting that the students’ expressions of the seasonal feelings seem to be reflected by not only the mean seasonal state but also some specified factors in the seasonal march

Interdisciplinary collaboration between climate and cultural understanding education for promoting the fundamental ESD literacy A report of the lesson practice in the university on climate and “seasonal feeling” in the northern Europe

ESD的視点を育むための学際的な指導法開発へ向けて，北欧の夏の気候と季節サイクルを中心に日々の気温の変動幅にも注目した気候背景を解析するとともに，大学での授業実践結果を分析した。北欧の冬には，平均気温だけでなく極端な低温日の気温もドイツより更に低く，極端な低温日は4月初め頃まで出現する。また，夏至〜7月一杯までが気温のピークで，その後は急降温する。授業では，絵画作品の鑑賞や，伝統的な季節の行事やくらしについての映像の視聴，伝承曲の鑑賞を行ない，夏至祭をテーマとする音楽や美術の表現活動を行った。音楽の創作活動では小物の打楽器類などを用いた。表現活動を通して，季節の特徴や移り変わり，人々の生活，気持ちなどへの自分の注目点を意識することにより，そこに住む人々の季節感と自分の感じ方とに繋がりを得る機会になったと考えられる

Joint Activity of Meteorology with Music and Art through a class on the Climate System and its relation to the Variety of “Seasonal Feeling” around Japan in the Faculty of Education

教育学部生を対象とする教科横断的な科目『くらしと環境』の集中講義を，「多彩な季節感を育む日本の気象・気候系の特徴を理解し，それに関連した音楽や絵画等の内容との学際的繋がりを考える」というテーマで行った。日本の気象・気候系に関して，モンスーンの影響を受けた梅雨や秋雨の降水環境を含む六季のサイクルを具体的に強調するとともに，秋から真冬，真冬から春への遷移期である11月頃や2月後半〜3月前半に，独特な特徴を示して現れる『中間の季節』の存在にも注目させた。それらを踏まえて，唱歌に歌われている内容と季節やその移り変わりに関する事象や気象・気候の特徴との関わりを考える活動を行った。特に，『おぼろ月夜』で歌われている春の情景を踏まえて，「オリジナルストーリー」を作成する活動も行った。また近世・近代の日本画に表された季節感を鑑賞する活動と，抽象画のような色彩の組み合わせによって微妙な季節感を表現する活動も行った。更に本稿では，講義や簡単なデータ分析作業，創作活動の結果について，学生のレポート課題の記載内容や作品に基づく分析も行った。A trial of a class on the climate system and its relation to the variety of “seasonal feeling” around Japan was performed in the Faculty of Education of Okayama University, as the joint activity of meteorology with music and art. Firstly, the characteristics of the climate system around Japan with the variety of the seasonal cycle under the great influence of the Asian monsoon were presented in this class. Not only the rainy seasons called the Baiu and the Aki-Same （autumn rainfall）, but also the transition stages from autumn to midwinter （around November） and that from midwinter to spring （late February to early March） were studied in detail. Next the expressions on the seasons in the Japanese school songs and pictures were examined, with attention to the variety of the seasonal cycle. The results of the class were also reported in the present paper

Asymmetric Seasonal March from Autumn to the next Spring around Japan (At the Viewpoint of Development of Interdisciplinary Class on the Climate Environment and the Seasonal Feeling)

The present study is a part of the activity to develop an interdisciplinary class on the climate environment around the Japan Islands and the “seasonal feeling” there, with attention to the relation to the phase difference among seasonal marches of the Asian monsoon subsystems. As an interesting example for that, we compared detailed features from autumn to midwinter with those from midwinter to spring around the Japan Islands, with focus on the asymmetric seasonal march between them. Comparison of “seasonal feeling” expressed in the Japanese classic poems called “Wa-Ka” and in the Japanese artistic songs between those seasons was made, at the viewpoint of the above asymmetric seasonal march

Visual instrumental learning in blindsight monkeys

盲視マカクサルは視覚意識が無くても自発的行動を学習できる. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2021-09-14.Using visual information to learn voluntary behavior while blind. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2021-09-14.Blindsight is the residual visuo-motor ability without subjective awareness observed after lesions of the primary visual cortex (V1). Various visual functions are retained, however, instrumental visual associative learning remains to be investigated. Here we examined the secondary reinforcing properties of visual cues presented to the hemianopic field of macaque monkeys with unilateral V1 lesions. Our aim was to test the potential role of visual pathways bypassing V1 in reinforcing visual instrumental learning. When learning the location of a hidden area in an oculomotor search task, conditioned visual cues presented to the lesion-affected hemifield operated as an effective secondary reinforcer. We noted that not only the hidden area location, but also the vector of the saccade entering the target area was reinforced. Importantly, when the visual reinforcement signal was presented in the lesion-affected field, the monkeys continued searching, as opposed to stopping when the cue was presented in the intact field. This suggests the monkeys were less confident that the target location had been discovered when the reinforcement cue was presented in the affected field. These results indicate that the visual signals mediated by the residual visual pathways after V1 lesions can access fundamental reinforcement mechanisms but with impaired visua

Interdisciplinary Class on the Asymmetric Seasonal March from Autumn to the next Spring around Japan in Association with the Seasonal Feeling (Joint Activity with Art and Music Expression of the Seasonal Feeling)

This study is a part of the activity to develop an interdisciplinary class on the climate environment around the Japan Islands and the “seasonal feeling”, succeeding to Kato et al. (2013) [1] which examined detailed comparison between the transitional season from autumn to midwinter and that from midwinter to spring there, paying attention to the asymmetric seasonal march. This paper reports the results of the joint activity of the art and the music with meteorology for the class at the Faculty of Education, Okayama University, with attention to the analyses of the students’ works expressing the above two transitional seasons. Finally, a discussion was also made on how to use the art education for deeper understanding of the climate environment such as the seasonal cycle around Japan

Interdisciplinary Class in Okayama University on the Climate Environment around Japan in Association with the Variety of Seasonal Feeling (with Attention to the Seasonal Cycle of Rainfall in the Warm Season)

The present study is a part of the activity to develop an interdisciplinary class on the climate environment around the Japan Islands in association with the “seasonal feeling”, with attention to the seasonal cycle of the weather systems and the rainfall characteristics during the warm season. Firstly, the school song “Wa-ka-ba” (which means the deep green leaves) was analyzed as a typical song expressing the season just between the spring and the Baiu, for developing study materials for the joint activity of meteorology to music. Next, seasonal difference of the rainfall characteristics around the Japan Islands was reviewed together with the new preliminary analyses, with attention to the contribution of the “heavy rainfall days” to the total precipitation amount. Finally, the joint activity of the art with meteorology for the class at the Faculty of Education, Okayama University was reported, together with the analyses of the students’ works expressing the rainfall event in a specified season by themselves

The posterior parietal cortex contributes to visuomotor processing for saccades in blindsight macaques

Patients with damage to the primary visual cortex (V1) lose visual awareness, yet retain the ability to perform visuomotor tasks, which is called "blindsight." To understand the neural mechanisms underlying this residual visuomotor function, we studied a non-human primate model of blindsight with a unilateral lesion of V1 using various oculomotor tasks. Functional brain imaging by positron emission tomography showed a significant change after V1 lesion in saccade-related visuomotor activity in the intraparietal sulcus area in the ipsi- and contralesional posterior parietal cortex. Single unit recordings in the lateral bank of the intraparietal sulcus (lbIPS) showed visual responses to targets in the contralateral visual field on both hemispheres. Injection of muscimol into the ipsi- or contralesional lbIPSs significantly impaired saccades to targets in the V1 lesion-affected visual field, differently from previous reports in intact animals. These results indicate that the bilateral lbIPSs contribute to visuomotor function in blindsight

Interdisciplinary Class on the Climate Environment around the Japan Islands in Association with the Seasonal Feeling (with Attention to the Transition Stage from Autumn to Winter)

The complicated seasonal variations are found in East Asia influenced by the Asian monsoon, resulting in the variety of “seasonal feeling”. For example, although the air temperature around the Japan Islands is still rather higher from November to early December than in the midwinter, the wintertime weather pattern often appears then due to the development of the Siberian high. In the Hokuriku District, the Japan Sea side of the central Japan, the shallow convective rainfall called the “Shi-gu-re” frequently occurs associated with the air mass transformation process over the Japan Sea in the cold air outbreak situation from the continent. It is also well known that the “Shi-gu-re” is often used for expression of the “seasonal feeling” in the Japanese classical literature. Thus the present study tried to develop an interdisciplinary class on the climate environment around the Japan Islands in association with the “seasonal feeling”, with attention to the transition stage from autumn to winter. The present paper will discuss on the joint activity of meteorology with the Japanese classical literature, the music and the art, for the class at the Faculty of Education, Okayama University, and that at the Okayama-Ichinomiya High School