Profile

I live in Oxford with my wife and our little one. My favourite fruit is Durian. But it is not easy to get one here in Oxford. I am a big fan of a Japanese animation named “One Piece” and I have followed it for more than ten years already. Before being here, I lived in Guangzhou, a city in south mainland China, and did my PhD in engineering. My graduate study has been focused on developing brain-computer interface (BCI) using human EEG.

My work is related to brain signal analysis. There are many studies suggested that a specific brain activity, named beta oscillation, is associated with the severity of motor symptoms on patients with Parkinson’s disease. When the patient receives dopaminergic medication or deep brain stimulation treatment, this brain activity is well suppressed and at the same time the symptoms are improved. My work is to investigate whether we can train the patients to suppress this specific brain activity by themselves through neurofeedback training, and whether this improves the motor symptoms. Neurofeedback training is just like playing a computer game, but here the subject uses the brain signals to control the characters in the game, rather than using hands or voice.

After arriving at the office, the first thing is turn on my desktop, as most of my work is carried out in my computer. I usually first check my emails to see if there are anything waiting for my reply. After that, I will start my coding work. This can include developing new experimental paradigm. For example, for the neurofeedback training project, I need develop the computer game myself. When the paradigm is ready, I need test it myself which means using my own brain signals, i.e., EEGs, to control the characteristics in the game. After that, I need go to the hospital in London to test it on patients with Parkinson’s disease who agreed to do so. After I recorded some data, I will analyse it using some signal processing techniques and mathematical methods. When I get some preliminary results I will discuss them with my supervisor or colleagues, to see if everything is correct and if there are anything we can improve. When the findings are clearer, I usually give a presentation in the lab, and then write a research paper for publication.