Doctor Oscar WONG Wing Ho

Biography
Developmental trajectories of cognitive processes in children provide indispensable insight in understanding the complex aetiologies of psychiatric disorders. While cognitive dysfunctions are common presentations of psychiatric disorders, they could also precede the onset by acting as an endophenotype. In addition, cognitive function has a major role in the physiological basis of resilience in face of stress and challenges. Remediation of the early-identifiable developmental aberrations of cognition may therefore be preventive against mental illness development in later life. This is of particular relevance to autism spectrum disorder, of which the determinant to the broad range functional outcome remains a mystery. As a common neurodevelopmental disorder, the modulation of neural network maturation by epigenetic factors could result in major individual differences in cognitive ability to alter the eventual degree of functional and clinical impairment.

Positions

• Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Roles in WORK HEART

• Co-Investigator
• Key coordinator of the study (cognition & ASD)