Profile
Prof Annabel Shen-Hsing CHEN
Principal Investigator and Director
Prof Annabel Chen is a clinical neuropsychologist (licensed in Clinical Psychology, USA; Singapore Registry of Psychologists) and has worked with both adult and child populations. She received her Doctorate in Clinical Rehabilitation Psychology from Purdue University at Indianapolis. After completing her clinical psychology internship at West Virginia University School of Medicine, she went on to pursue a post-doctoral clinical residency in adult clinical neuropsychology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She subsequently worked as a post-doctoral research affiliate at the Lucas MRS/I Center at Stanford University School of Medicine, and was an assistant professor at the National Taiwan University in the Graduate Clinical Psychology programme. She joined NTU as an associate professor and served as the Associate Chair for Research for the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. She is currently the Director of the Centre of Research and Development in Learning (CRADLE) and is a co-Director for CLIC along with Cambridge PI Prof Zoe Kourtzi.
Prof Chen is an Editorial Board Member for Psychology Research and Behaviour Management, Neuropsychology Review, Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition; and an Associate Editor for Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, and Human Brain Mapping.
Singapore - NTU
Researchers
CLIC
Research Interest
Prof Chen has a diverse research background, including animal drug studies, human neuropsychological research and cognitive rehabilitation. She has applied Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to study individuals with post-concussion sequelae from mild traumatic brain injury, and has been involved in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) research examining language processing, executive functions, and affective memory in healthy and clinical populations (e.g. stroke, anxiety, schizophrenia, dementia), as well as, assessing neural systems used in motor timing/timing perception in patients with Parkinson's Disease.
Her main research interests are to investigate underlying neural substrates involved in higher cognition in the cerebellum, as well as changes in cognitive processes in healthy, aging, and dementia patients through the application of neuroimaging techniques, such as fMRI, diffusion MRI and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). The goal of her research is to apply these paradigms to study and to develop neuroimaging markers in the cerebro-cerebellar circuitry for clinical groups, and to further understand the processes of neurodevelopmental (e.g. schizophrenia, dyslexia, autism) and neurodegenerative (e.g. dementia, healthy aging) conditions that would be informative to evidence-based interventions.
Research Interest in the Neuroscience of Learning and Education:
1. Neurophysiological changes in the aging brain for learning in
1.1 Language, memory and executive control networ
1.2 Neuromodulation to optimize and/or enhance brain functions through
1.2.1 Cognitive training (including motor control training)
1.2.2 Non-invasive Brain Stimulation (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS), Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
(tDCS)
2. Contribution of the cerebellum to higher cognitive functions in learning
2.1 Working memory, emotion and motivation, and music in healthy and atypical groups (ASD, Dyslexia, ADHD)
2.2 Developing interventions using cognitive training and brain-computer interface (BCI)
Key Publications
Google Scholar link
Makowski, D., Pham, T., Lau, Z.J., Brammer, J.C., Lespinasse, F., Pham, H., Scholzel, C., & Chen, S.H.A. (2021) NeuroKit2: A Python toolbox for neurophysiological signal processing. Behav Res. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-020-01516-y
Kashyap, R., Eng, G.K., Bhattacharjee, S., Gupta, B., Ho, R., Ho, C.S.H., Zhang, M., Mahendran, R., Sim, K., & Chen, S.H.A. (2021). Individual-fMRI-approaches reveal cerebellum and visual communities to be functionally connected in obsessive compulsive disorder. Sci Rep 11, 1354, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80346-6
Bhattacharjee, S., Kashyap, R., O’Brien, B.A., McCloskey, M., Oishi, K., Desmond, J. E., Rapp, B., Chen, S.H.A. (2020). Reading proficiency influences the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation: Evidence from selective modulation of dorsal and ventral pathways of reading in bilinguals. Brain and Language 210 (104850) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2020.104850
Kashyap, R., *Bhattacharjee, S., *Arumugam, R., Oishi, K., Desmond, J. E., & Chen, S. A. (2020). 𝓲-SATA: A MATLAB based toolbox to estimate Current Density generated by Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in an Individual Brain. Journal of Neural Engineering doi: 10.1088/1741-2552/aba6dc
Kashyap R, Bhattacharjee S, Yeo BTT, Chen SHA (2019). Maximizing dissimilarity in resting state detects heterogeneous subtypes in healthy population associated with high substance use and problems in antisocial personality. Hum Brain Mapp.1–13. https://doi.org/10. 1002/hbm.24873
Sobczak-Edmans M, Lo Y-C, Hsu Y-C, Chen Y-J, Kwok F, Chuang K-H, Tseng W-YI and Chen SHA (2018) Cerebro-Cerebellar Pathways for Verbal Working Memory. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 12:530. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00530
Archer, J. A., Lee, A., Qiu, A., Chen, S-H. A. (2018) Working memory, age and education: A lifespan fMRI study. PLoS ONE 13(3): e0194878. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0194878
Heng, G.J., Wu, C.Y., Archer, J.A., Miyakoshi,M., Nakai, T., Chen, S.H.A. (2017). The role of regional heterogeneity in age-related differences in functional hemispheric asymmetry: an fMRI study. Aging Neuropsychology and Cognition, 9, 1-24.
Lee, S.-H., Walker, Z.M., Hale, J.B., & Chen, S.H. A. (2017). Frontal-subcortical circuitry in social attachment and relationships: a cross-sectional fMRI ale meta-analysis. Behavioural Brain Research, 325(Pt B): 177-130. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.02.032.
Hale, J. B., Chen, S. H. A., Tan, S. C., Poon, K., Fitzer, K. R., & Boyd, L. A. (2016). Reconciling individual differences with collective needs: the juxtaposition of sociopolitical and neuroscience perspectives on remediation and compensation of student skill deficits. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 5(2), 41-51.
Ng, H. B. T., Kao, K. L. C., Chan, Y. C., Chew, E., Chuang, K. H., & Chen, S. H. A. (2016). Modality specificity in the cerebro-cerebellar neurocircuitry during working memory. Behavioural Brain Research, 305, 164-173.
Archer, J. A., Lee, A., Qiu, A., & Chen, S. H. A. (2016). A Comprehensive Analysis of Connectivity and Aging Over the Adult Life Span. Brain connectivity, 6(2), 169-185
Eng, G. K., Sim, K., & Chen, S. H. A. (2015). Meta-analytic investigations of structural grey matter, executive domain-related functional activations, and white matter diffusivity in obsessive-compulsive disorder: an integrative review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 52, 233-257.
E, K. H., Chen, S. H. A., Ho, M. H. R., & Desmond, J. E. (2014). A meta‐analysis of cerebellar contributions to higher cognition from PET and fMRI studies. Human Brain Mapping, 35(2), 593-615.