The purpose of this research is to evaluate the vibration comfort by measuring brain functions using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Generally discomfort is induced as vibration ride comfort. On the other hand, when vibration exposure was used as a presentation stimulus, emotional surprises were often evoked by the vibrating bodily sensation when the vibration stimulus was started, which proved to affect brain function measurement data. Therefore, we analyzed the surprising influence on brain function measurement data obtained by NIRS and evaluated the ride comfort considering that surprise. As a result, it was revealed that there was a significant difference in oxygenated hemoglobin change between the groups with surprised at the beginning of the vibrations and the group without surprise at the start of the vibrations. Furthermore, it was suggested that the discomfort assessment by the brain function measurement can be performed with higher accuracy by considering the surprise during vibration sensation.

Replacement of the culture medium is an important part of the cell culture process. Furthermore, sometimes, the culture medium needs to be supplemented with nutrients or drugs for cell culture. Replacement of the culture medium and addition of substances to the culture medium is typically done manually, which can introduce various complications during cell culture. Therefore, we aimed to develop a new unique medium exchange system with ANSI/SBS standard size (width 128mm × depth 85mm × height 40mm) for the perfusion and infusion of cell culture media or other solutions into a culture dish placed on the microscope stage for long-term time-lapse imaging. Using the newly developed system, we successfully maintained HeLa cells seeded on a 35-mm culture dish placed on the system on the microscope stage and infused drugs into the medium during time-lapse imaging. This system eliminated the need for manual handling, thus avoiding the problems associated with it. Moreover, this auto-exchanger could be installed with one touch and was within the ANSI/SBS standard size, which made it possible to use this system along with a microscope. We expect our unique medium exchange system to be used extensively for time-lapse imaging in the future.