ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6120-2971
Scopus Author ID: 10144195900
Google Scholar Profile: vag2nbEAAAAJ

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I received my PhD in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 2010. I worked as a research scientist (Post-doctoral fellow) at Temasek Laboratories, The National University of Singapore for three years before joining The Department of Psychology of The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2013. I joined the City Univeristy of Hong Kong since 2020. I apply multi-modal brain imaging and stimulation methods, including electroencephalography (EEG), event-related optical signals (FOS/EROS), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), to study the cognitive and neural architecture of the automatic/pre-attentive change detection system in human (which is also known as the mismatch negativity signal) for the normal, aging, and clinical populations.

Cognitive neuroscience: brain dynamics in change detection and prediction violation
Brain imaging and stimulation methods: multimodal imaging methods, optical brain imaging, magnetic and electric brain stimulation, and functional connectivity.

My research focuses on both the methodological development of an integrated brain stimulation and multimodal brain imaging method, and the application of this method to study the spatiotemporal dynamics of the brain in change detection and prediction violation processes. Specifically, I examines the memory and attention processes involved in detecting changes in environmental stimulation (i.e., deviance or change detection), and the neural substrates underlying those processes. Stimulus deviance ranges from simple physical anomalies (e.g., tone change) to violation of abstract rules (e.g., syntactic violations) and, in conjunction with appropriate brain imaging techniques, can be used as a tool to investigate how the brain processes information across the continuum of complexity from simple stimulus perception to abstract pattern comprehension (e.g., language). In order to investigate the interactions and causal connections between different brain regions across time, I apply multimodal imaging methods, where I use an optical brain imaging method, the event-related optical signals (EROS), primarily, and combine it with electroencephalography (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), functional near-infra red spectroscopy (fNIRS), or transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) where suitable.

https://sites.google.com/view/brain-dyn-cog-lab