Raymond C.K. Chan

YNIMG Journal 2026 Journal Article

Neural correlates of autobiographical memory deficits across psychiatric disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis

• Xu-chen Yu
• Wan-ting Ran
• Gui-fang Chen
• Tao Chen
• Ji-fang Cui
• Ya Wang
• Raymond C.K. Chan

Dysfunction of autobiographical memory (AM) is one of the core markers of psychiatric disorders such as major depressive disorder and schizophrenia. However, it remains unclear whether there is a common neural basis underlying AM impairment across psychiatric patients. In this study, a systematic review and meta-analysis using both Seed-based d Mapping with Permutation of Subject Images (SDM-PSI) and Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) approaches were conducted to examine brain activation differences between psychiatric populations and healthy controls during AM. A computerized search was performed using the databases Web of Science, PubMed, APA PsycInfo and EBSCO to identify relevant studies published from inception to 31 October 2025. Twenty-four studies (1385 participants) were identified for the qualitative synthesis and 12 studies (547 participants) for the meta-analysis. The qualitative analysis revealed widespread abnormalities in psychiatric patients in both activation and functional connectivity (FC) across default mode network, salience and attentional network, control network and visual network. Meta-analysis results indicated that patients with psychiatric disorders exhibited hyperactivations in the cingulate cortex, and subsequent meta-analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) analysis demonstrated its widespread co-activation with large-scale functional networks. These findings suggest the network-level dysfunction across psychiatric disorders during AM process and provide insights for future clinical research.

YNIMG Journal 2025 Journal Article

Predicting cognitive aging through brain structural covariance networks: A decade of longitudinal insights using source-based morphometry

• Xingsong Wang
• Christina J. Herold
• Li Kong
• Raymond C.K. Chan
• Johannes Schröder

Cognitive aging presents significant challenges to public health as the global population ages. While functional connectivity changes in aging have been extensively studied, the predictive value of structural covariance networks remains understudied. This longitudinal study investigated whether baseline structural covariance networks could predict cognitive decline over a 10-year period using Source-Based Morphometry (SBM). Thirty-seven participants (23 males; mean age 54.97 ± 1.14 years) underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (T3) and cognitive assessments at baseline (T3) and follow-up (T4). SBM analysis identified twelve independent components (ICs) representing distinct structural covariance networks. After controlling for demographics and APOE genotype, IC1 strongly predicted working memory (β = -3.12, p< 0.001), while IC2 predicted global cognitive function (β = 0.37, p= 0.047). Brain-cognition relationships were significantly moderated by baseline cognitive performance, with key interactions observed for working memory and IC1 (β = 0.50, p< 0.001), executive function and IC7 (β = -0.25, p< 0.001), and processing speed and IC8 (β = 0.28, p= 0.003). Sex-specific effects emerged for IC8 in relation to verbal memory (β = 1.99, p= 0.007) and IC10 in relation to processing speed (β = 2.17, p= 0.022). APOE genotype demonstrated pronounced moderation effects between IC8 and processing speed (β = -7.68, p< 0.001) and for IC2 and global cognitive function (β = 0.37, p= 0.018). These findings demonstrate that structural covariance networks can serve as predictive markers for cognitive aging trajectories, potentially informing early intervention strategies for preserving cognitive health.

YNICL Journal 2019 Journal Article

Associations of cortical thickness, surface area and subcortical volumes with insight in drug-naïve adults with obsessive-compulsive disorder

• Wanting Liu
• Jun Gan
• Jie Fan
• Hong Zheng
• Sihui Li
• Raymond C.K. Chan
• Changlian Tan
• Xiongzhao Zhu

Poor insight in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with several adverse clinical outcomes. However, the neurobiological basis of this insight deficit is not clearly understood. The present study thus aimed to investigate associations of cortical thickness, cortical surface area and subcortical volumes with insight in a sample of drug-naïve adults with OCD. Forty-seven OCD patients and 42 healthy controls (HCs) underwent MRI scanning, depression and anxiety assessments. The Brown Assessment of Beliefs Scale (BABS) measured insight levels and patients were divided into two groups: poor insight (OCD-PI; n = 21), and good insight (OCD-GI; n = 26). Cortical thickness and surface area between groups were compared with whole-brain exploratory vertex-by-vertex analyses, while subcortical volumes were compared on a structure-by-structure basis. Partial correlation analyses were then performed to assess associations between regional cortical and subcortical measures and insight levels. OCD-GI and OCD-PI groups displayed partly shared, but also partly distinct brain structural alterations. Strikingly, OCD-PI showed decreased cortical thickness in the left superior frontal gyrus, left anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and right inferior parietal gyrus, compared to both OCD-GI and HCs. Average cortical thickness extracted from these areas was further negatively correlated with BABS scores in the OCD-PI patients. Our findings suggest that poor insight in patients with OCD may have a neural substrate involving the left medial frontal and the right inferior parietal cortices.

YNICL Journal 2015 Journal Article

Prefrontal cortex connectivity dysfunction in performing the Fist–Edge–Palm task in patients with first-episode schizophrenia and non-psychotic first-degree relatives

• Raymond C.K. Chan
• Jia Huang
• Qing Zhao
• Ya Wang
• Yun-yao Lai
• Nan Hong
• David H.K. Shum
• Eric F.C. Cheung

Neurological soft signs have been considered one of the promising neurological endophenotypes for schizophrenia. However, most previous studies have employed clinical rating data only. The present study aimed to examine the neurobiological basis of one of the typical motor coordination signs, the Fist-Edge-Palm (FEP) task, in patients with first-episode schizophrenia and their non-psychotic first degree relatives. Thirteen patients with first-episode schizophrenia, 14 non-psychotic first-degree relatives and 14 healthy controls were recruited. All of them were instructed to perform the FEP task in a 3 T GE Machine. Psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis was used to evaluate the functional connectivity between the sensorimotor cortex and frontal regions when participants performed the FEP task compared to simple motor tasks. In the contrast of palm-tapping (PT) vs. rest, activation of the left frontal-parietal region was lowest in the schizophrenia group, intermediate in the relative group and highest in the healthy control group. In the contrast of FEP vs. PT, patients with schizophrenia did not show areas of significant activation, while relatives and healthy controls showed significant activation of the left middle frontal gyrus. Moreover, with the increase in task complexity, significant functional connectivity was observed between the sensorimotor cortex and the right frontal gyrus in healthy controls but not in patients with first episode schizophrenia. These findings suggest that activity of the left frontal-parietal and frontal regions may be neurofunctional correlates of neurological soft signs, which in turn may be a potential endophenotype of schizophrenia. Moreover, the right frontal gyrus may play a specific role in the execution of the FEP task in schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

YNIMG Journal 2010 Journal Article

Alterations in the processing of non-drug-related affective stimuli in abstinent heroin addicts

• Zhao-Xin Wang
• John X. Zhang
• Qiu-Lin Wu
• Ning Liu
• Xiao-Ping Hu
• Raymond C.K. Chan
• Zhuang-Wei Xiao

Long-term exposure to drug may alter the neural system associated with affective processing, as evidenced by both clinical observations and behavioral data documenting dysfunctions in emotional experiences and processing in drug addicts. Although many imaging studies examined neural responses to drug or drug-related cues in addicts, there have been few studies explicitly designed to reveal their neural abnormalities in processing non-drug-related natural affective materials. The present study asked abstinent heroin addicts and normal controls to passively view standardized affective pictures of positive, negative, or neutral valence and compared their brain activities with functional MRI. Compared to normal controls, addicts showed reduced activation in right amygdala in response to the affective pictures, consistent with previous reports of blunted subjective experience for affective stimuli in addicts. Furthermore, in two visual cortical areas BA 19 and 37, while the controls showed greater responses to positive pictures than to negative ones replicating literature findings, the addicts showed the opposite pattern. The results reveal a complex pattern of altered processing of non-drug-related affective materials in addicts showing both heightened and blunted neural responses in different brain regions and for different stimulus valence. The present study highlights the importance of brain imaging research on drug addicts' processing of affective stimuli in understanding disruptions in their emotion circuitry.

YNIMG Journal 2010 Journal Article

Localization of cerebral functional deficits in treatment-naive, first-episode schizophrenia using resting-state fMRI

• Xiao-Qi Huang
• Su Lui
• Wei Deng
• Raymond C.K. Chan
• Qi-Zhu Wu
• Li-Jun Jiang
• Jun-Ran Zhang
• Zhi-Yun Jia

Background Spontaneous low-frequency fluctuations (LFF) in the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signal have been shown to reflect cerebral spontaneous neural activity, and the present study attempts to explore the functional changes in the regional brain in patients with schizophrenia using the amplitude of the BOLD signals. Methods A total of 66 treatment-naïve, first-episode schizophrenia (FES) patients and 66 normal age- and sex-matched controls were recruited. Resting-state fMRIs were obtained using a gradient-echo echo-planar imaging sequence. The amplitude of LFF (ALFF) was calculated using REST software. Voxel-based analysis of the ALFF maps between control and patient groups was performed with twos-sample t-tests using SPM2. Results Compared to the controls, the FES group showed significantly decreased ALFF in the medial prefrontal lobe (MPFC) and significant increases in the ALFF in the left and right putamen. Significant positive correlations were observed between ALFF values in the bilateral putamen in both the patient and control groups. Conclusions Alterations of the ALFF in the MPFC and putamen in FES observed in the present study suggest that the functional abnormalities of those areas are at an early stage of the disease.

YNIMG Journal 2008 Journal Article

A regulation role of the prefrontal cortex in the fist-edge-palm task: Evidence from functional connectivity analysis

• Hengyi Rao
• Xin Di
• Raymond C.K. Chan
• Yulong Ding
• Binbin Ye
• Dingguo Gao