Dr. Raymond Chan and his team have recently been awarded a NSFC-RGC Joint Research Scheme for supporting them to develop virtual-reality assessment of social cognition impairment and to examine the underlying neural mechanism of theory of mind in patients with schizophrenia and at-risk individuals with psychosis. This work will provide an innovative approach for us to understand the nature of social cognition impairment in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, and is important to clarify areas involved in theory of mind and empathy in patients with established schizophrenia and at-risk individuals with psychosis.

It is a 4-year joint research funded by the NSFC in mainland China and the RGC in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China. Prof. David Shum is the Principal Investigator of the Hong Kong team. Both Dr. Chan and Prof. Shum will be funded by the NSFC and RGC, respectively to work on a coherent topic. Dr. Raymond Chan and Prof. Shum have been collaborating with each other for more than 10 years and they have worked on many projects that focused on neurocognitive functions in different clinical groups and they have obtained research grants and published journal papers together.