The International Congress on Schizophrenia Research (ICOSR) is a biennial conference where scientists representing the broad range of disciplines involved with discovery in schizophrenia gather to exchange data, techniques, and ideas. This is one of the most influential and important conferences for scholars and researchers in the field of schizophrenia research to attend and share ideas. Dr. Raymond Chan of the NACN Lab and Key Lab of Mental, Institute of Psychology, led his team members Drs. Ya Wang, Simon Lui, and Ms. Yu-na Wang, Ting Xu, to attend the 13th International Congress on Schizophrenia Research (ICOSR) during April 2nd – 6th 2011 in Colorado Springs. During the conference, Drs. Ya Wang and Simon Lui had presented two posters on their current findings of prospective memory (the ability to remember for the future) deficits in patients with schizophrenia and their non-psychotic siblings. In particular, Dr. Wang focused on the aging effect of schizophrenia upon prospective memory performance, and Dr. Lui (a psychiatrist and a first-year doctoral student) had examined the similarity of prospective memory deficits found in patients with schizophrenia and their non-psychotic siblings as compared to healthy controls. Ms. Yu-na Wang (a second-year doctoral student) and Ms. Ting Xu (a first-year doctoral student) also presented parts of their dissertation findings on schizophrenia. Ms. Wang made a poster presentation to illustrate the neural basis of self in healthy people and the implications for the study of self awareness impairment in schizophrenia. Ms. Xu made another poster presentation to focus on the heritability of neurological soft signs (neurological abnormalities such as poor motor coordination) in healthy adolescent twins and their implications for schizophrenia research. These signs are considered to be biomarkers for schizophrenia and are importance for early detection and identification purposes. Moreover, Dr. Raymond Chan also made an oral presentation to compare the similarity and difference of neurocognitive impairments between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder at the Cognition Satellite Meeting during the ICOSR.

A snapshot for Ms. Yu-na Wang at her poster booth.

A photo for Ms. Ting Xu in front of her poster for heritability of neurological soft signs

A smile of Dr. Ya Wang to get start for the poster presentation.