Prof. YUNG Wing Ho (容永豪)

Professor Wing Ho Yung received his BSc and MPhil from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He was a recipient of the Commonwealth Scholarship and the Croucher Foundation Fellowship that supported his DPhil study and post-doctoral training at the University of Oxford, under the supervision of Prof. Julian Jack, FRS. He also obtained a first-class honour in BSc in computing science and information system, University of London.

Prof. Yung has broad research interests in understanding mechanisms underlying various brain functions as well as their aberrations in different brain disorders. He has made significant contributions in elucidating the nature of synaptic transmission in the basal ganglia circuitry and their involvements in both motor and cognitive deficits in neurodegenerative disorders. He also pioneered the antidromic activation hypothesis to explain the therapeutic mechanism of deep brain stimulation for treating Parkinson’s disease. More recently, he focuses on the neural circuits and plasticity mechanisms responsible for the expression of cognitive and behavioral flexibility in animals.

Prior to joining CityU, Prof. Yung had served as the founding director of the Gerald Choa Neuroscience Centre, CUHK. Apart from being a core member of the Hong Kong Society of Neuroscience and Hong Kong Brain Foundation for many years, he has been active in serving international neuroscience bodies, including the Governing Council of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO), as Secretary General of the Federation of Asian-Oceanian Neuroscience Societies and member of the IBRO Asia-Pacific Regional Committee.

1. In higher animals, adaptive behaviours in response to the constantly changing environment rely largely on flexibility in cognition, a complex higher brain function that underpins intelligence and creativity. The laboratory aims to decipher the neural circuits and mechanisms underlying this important cognitive function as well as its malfunction in various neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.
2. The capability to master novel, complex motor skills is a remarkable ability, which is essential for daily lives and survival. The laboratory is interested in deciphering the cellular and network mechanisms underlying the emergence of neuronal assembly in the brain for the encoding as well as the transfer of motor memory. The aberrations in these processes and pathways in brain disorders like Parkinson’s disease are also explored.

To tackle the above questions, a multitude of cutting-edge neuroscience and computational techniques are employed, including virus-assisted neural circuit mapping, multi-array electrophysiological recording, two-photon imaging, optogenetics, network analysis and machine learning.