“THE MAN, UNKNOWN”-- A physiologist, who was also a 1912 Nobel Prize winner, once expressed his feeling of awe and wonder toward human beings in this way, choosing the words as the title of his work.
　　In the field of science as well, human beings remain virtually unknown as a subject of research. It is really no wonder that this is so. We are unconsciously able to bring a massive quantity of information into our brain through the five senses, and then conduct advanced data processing to make appropriate movements, quite matter-of-factly, in the space of an instant. Completing this sequence of actions feels only natural to us, because we do it virtually every minute of the day. But wait... Why and how do we do this? Judging not only from a scientistﾕs point of view but from that of a layman, this mechanism is full of mystery when we actually come to think of it.
　　A number of researchers here at ATR are actively exploring human frontiers in order to clear up these mysteries, and we have introduced some of their research in this issue. These research processes are very close to our daily lives since they focus on the mechanisms of our eyes, ears, mouth and other sensory organs.
　　We trust that you find the promising future of this research to be a highly interesting topic, and we hope that you will look forward to seeing it evolve into practical use after reading this issue.
　　In closing, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to Dr. Hirose, professor at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, for contributing to this issue as our guest author.

HOMAE Kanako
ATR UptoDate Editorial Staff