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A fundamental goal of psychiatry is the ability to control emotion and anxiety. Despite its importance, basic causal links relating to how the brain’s emotional circuit affects mood and anxiety have yet to be elucidated in primates. To address this, Ken-ichi developed a behavioral paradigm called “approach-avoidance conflict,” to quantitatively characterize the role of brain circuit in value judgment, and to understand the internal state related to pessimistic and optimistic decisions. His overarching goal is to identify the causative role of specific brain regions involved in anxiety and emotional conflict by manipulating specific brain circuits in primates and measuring the resulting changes in internal states. He plans to combine physiological and anatomical methods to characterize the anxiety-related network in the cortico-basal ganglia system. These studies will be imperative for establishing a basic understanding of methods for emotional regulation, as well as identifying targets for therapeutic procedures for depression and anxiety disorder in humans.