Akiyoshi Kitaoka

Akiyoshi Kitaoka (Japanese北 冈 明 佳, Akiyoshi Kitaoka; born August 19, 1961 in the prefecture Kōchi, Japan) is a professor of psychology at the Faculty of Humanities at the Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto Japan.

He studied biology at the University of Tsukuba, where he dealt with animal psychology, as well as the Tokyo Institute for Neuroscience. In 1991 he obtained his doctorate at the Institute of Psychology of the University of Tsukuba and dealt with after intense optical illusions concerning shape, color and brightness differences, and shape perception. After his graduation, he went first to the Tōkyō-to Shinkei Kagaku Sogo Kenkyujo (东京 都 神 経 科学 総 合 研究所, Institute of Neuroscience Tokyo) and 2001 as an assistant professor (since 2006 Professor ) at the Ritsumeikan University.

He became famous for his image Rotating Snakes. In 2006 he was awarded the Gold Prize of the 9th L'Oreal Art and Science of Color competition. In 2007 he received the Award for Original Studies of the Japanese Society for Cognitive Psychology.