General

Zheng Wang

Investigator

Ph.D. Tutor

Correspondence address: Room 306, 320 Yue Yang Road Shanghai, 200031 P.R.China

E-mail: zheng.wang@ion.ac.cn

Research Areas

Neural and physiological basis of brain structural and functional networks;

Neuropsychiatric mechanisms of mood disorders in primates;

Large-scale network computation for diagnosis and prognosis in brain disorders.

 

Education

09/2003 - 08/2008  Ph.D.   

Dept. Medical Biophysics, UWO, Ontario, Canada

 

09/2000 - 08/2003  M.Sc.  

Dept. Biomedical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China

 

09/1994 - 07/1998  B.Sc.   

Dept. Polymer Science & Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China

Experience

   
Work Experience

09/2011-now    Principal Investigator Director   

Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

09/2011-now    Director   

Functional Brain Imaging Platform, Shanghai Regional Center of Biology Science Instrument, CAS, China

01/2011 - 08/2011    Adjunct professor   

Dept. Psychology, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN

08/2009 – 08/2011    Research Associate 

Dept. Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

09/2008 – 07/2009    Postdoc Fellow

Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario (UWO), London, Ontario, Canada

 

 

 

Publications

   
Papers

(1) Dynamic network communication in the human functional connectome predicts perceptual variability in visual illusion, Cerebral Cortex, 2016, corresponding author.

 

(2) Dissociable Changes of Frontal and Parietal Cortices in Inherent Functional Flexibility across the Human Lifespan, The Journal of Neuroscience, 2016, corresponding author.

 

(3) Representation of illusory and physical rotations in human MST: A cortical site for the pinna illusion, Hum Brain Mapp, 2016, corresponding author.

 

(4) Large-scale Persistent Network Reconfiguration Induced by Ketamine in Anesthetized Monkeys: Relevance to Mood Disorders., Biol Psychiatry, 2015, corresponding author.

 

(5) Discriminative Structured Feature Engineering for Macroscale Brain Connectomes., IEEE Trans Med Imaging, 2015, corresponding author.

 

(6) Functional signature of recovering cortex: dissociation of local field potentials and spiking activity in somatosensory cortices of spinal cord injured monkeys, Experimental Neurology, 2013, first author.

 

(7) The relationship of anatomical and functional connectivity to resting state connectivity in primate somatosensory cortex, Neuron, 2013, first author.

 

(8) Clinical fMRI: a pre-surgical test in patients with medically intractable epilepsy (invited editorial), Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences, 2012, first author.

 

(9) Spontaneous EEG-functional MRI in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy: implication for the neural correlates of consciousness, Epilepsy Research and Treatment, 2012, first author.

 

(10) Columnar specificity of microvascular oxygenation and blood flow responses in primary visual cortex: evaluation by local field potential and spiking activity, Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism, 2012, first author.

 

(11) Trial-to-trial noise cancellation of cortical field potentials in awake monkeys by autoregession model with exogenous input (ARX), Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 2011, first author.

 

(12) In vivo mapping brain microcirculation by laser speckle contrast imaging: a magnetic resonance perspective of theoretical framework, Journal of Innovative Optical Health Sciences, 2008, first author.

 

(13) Theoretical and experimental optimization of laser speckle contrast imaging for high specificity to assess brain microcirculation, Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism, 2007, first author.

 

(14) Linear aspects of transformation from interictal epileptic discharges to BOLD fMRI signals in an animal model of occipital epilepsy, NeuroImage, 2006, second author.

 

(15) Blood flow activation in rat somatosensory cortex under sciatic nerve stimulation revealed by laser speckle imaging, Progress in Natural Science, 2003, first author.

 

(16) Efficient characterization of regional mesenteric blood flow using laser speckle imaging, Applied Optics, 2003, third author.

Patents

1.  Central control system for nonhuman primate fMRI, Software Copyright (China), No.  0649074

 

2.  Cloud computation and storage system for functional brain imaging, Patent Pending (China), No. 201410301490.9

 

3.  Unified nonhuman primate head coil on 3T MRI, Patent Pending (China), No. 201410306478.7

 

4.  Synchronized monitoring and triggering systems for nonhuman primate fMRI, Patent Pending (China), No. 201410205450.4

Research Interests

Recent progress on MRI-based brain connectivity study such as the Human Connectome Project (HCP) and BRAIN Initiative in the United States has generated a surge of interests for understanding basic mechanisms of the working brain and potential applications in the diseased brain. The long-term scientific pursuit of our lab is to establish nonhuman primate disease models with using a molecular genetic method, and to investigate the primate brain networks in combination with MRI, electrophysiology and neuroanatomy techniques.

 

Diffusion MRI (MRI)
Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging is an emerging magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method ever since the mid-1980s, which allows the detecting of the diffusion process of water molecules in biological tissues, in vivo and non-invasively. By calculating the biophysical trajectory of water diffusion to infer the architecture of the white matter, Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging and its derivative methods have become one of the most valuable MRI techniques of pursuing the working mechanism of brain architecture. Furthermore, assessment of the microstructural integrity of the axonal fibers using a variety of diffusion indices has absorbed an increasing attention in the study of neurological diseases or psychiatric disorders.

In essence, diffusion MRI measures the dephasing of spins of protons in the presence of a spatially-varying magnetic field (‘gradient’), which changes their Larmor frequency. The intuitive mechanism here is the phase change resulting from components of incoherent displacement of spins along the axis of the applied field gradient. We are interested in the sampling scheme in diffusion-encoding space (namely q-space) and algorithms that enable fiber tractography in the whole brain scale, with the use of our specialized gradient-insert system (AC88, 80mT/m gradient strength; 880mT/m/s, slew rate). Our aim is to probe the structural foundation of the brain reward circuitry through network-level comparison of monkey model and human patients. Diffusion image-based prognostic indicators of disease course and response to therapy would be extremely valuable to assess the responsiveness of patients to specific therapeutic interventions.

 

Neural and physiological basis of brain structural and functional networks
There are multiple parallel functional areas (neural networks) existing in the mammalian brain that are coordinated to process diversified sensory inputs. Although the existence of interaction (communication) across many areas has been implicated by the correlation of fMRI signals, the neural and physiological correlates are not entirely clear and controversial. During the past few years, the concept of resting-state brain networks has stimulated a flurry of fMRI publications because it appears to generate a revolutionizing view of brain working mode and functional imaging per se. It has also stirred hot debates on the interpretation and significance of the functional connectivity inferred by fMRI. We are planning to combine fMRI with multi-channel extracellular recording to investigate neural and physiological interaction in the monkey brain. With using the network-level analysis methods, we will place an emphasis on unveiling the modulatory effects of external interventions including pharmaceutical and surgical treatments on the brain.

 

Neuropsychiatric mechanisms of mood disorders in primates
Mood disorders including major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), eating disorders (ED), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorder are likely accompanied by distributed system-level disturbances in brain reward circuitry. We plan to apply molecular neurobiology and gene therapy to various monkey disease models (depression-like, drug-addiction etc.), and investigate the structural and functional networks with MRI and neurophysiological recordings. In parallel, we conduct various kinds of MR studies (MRI-based morphometry, diffusion MRI, functional MRI, and MR spectroscopy etc.) on human patients. Such multi-dimensional methodogical integration could provide more insights into the relationship between neural circuit activity and genetic manipulation, and how abnormalities in neural network may contribute to the pathogenesis of psychiatric illnesses.

 

Large-scale network computation for diagnosis and prognosis in brain disorders
One research objective of structural and functional neuroimaging in primates is to undertake outreach work aimed at potential aid in diagnosis and prognosis in a variety of brain disorders. High-resolution mapping of the whole brain in nonhuman and human primates allows us to apply and develop a wide range of simulation and prediction algorithms to statistically identify the core features of certain brain disease, which can further help to evaluate therapeutic outcomes of clinical interventional treatments. We are dedicated to collect a large sample of comparable human-monkey imaging datasets, develop specialized machine learning algorithms that are applicable to brain research for improved understanding of the diseases and guidance to new treatment means.  

Conferences

Society for Neuroscience 2016 Annual Meeting    Nov.12-Nov.17

Conference Report Title:

Increased gamma band activity in transgenic monkeys overexpressing MeCP2 associated with autism-like behaviors

Students

已指导学生

吕骞  博士研究生  071006-神经生物学  

现指导学生

王志伟  博士研究生  071006-神经生物学  

吕启明  博士研究生  071006-神经生物学  

薄婷婷  博士研究生  071006-神经生物学  

鄢明超  博士研究生  071006-神经生物学  

陈潇宇  博士研究生  071006-神经生物学  

高乐   硕士研究生  071006-神经生物学  

詹亚峰  博士研究生  071006-神经生物学  

刘忆霖  博士研究生  071006-神经生物学  

鄢盛尧  博士研究生  071006-神经生物学  

Honors & Distinctions

10/2013

06/2011

04/2007

Fellowship of Hundred Talent Program of CAS

Postdoctoral Fellowship of Natural Sciences   and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada

Chinese Government Award for Outstanding   Students Abroad

05/2006

Ontario Graduate Scholarship (International   Student, top 50)

05/2005

Western Graduate Research Scholarship, UWO

09/2004

Strategic Training Fellowship in Vascular   Research, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

09/2003

Special University Scholarship, UWO

04/2003

Research Scholarship, Graduate Programme in   Bioengineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore (declined)

09/2002

Graduate Assistantship, Dept. Biomedical Engineering,   Case Western Reserve University, USA (Visa   rejected)

10/2001

Visiting Scholarship, Medical Diagnostics   Research Foundation, University of Pennsylvania, USA, invited by Dr. Britton   Chance (Visa rejected)