Prof Raymond Chan

Plenary Speaker

Dr Raymond Chan has a long-standing interest in schizophrenia and related disorders, and mentally at-risk individuals. His research interests include (1) identification of biomarkers or endophenotypes for schizophrenia and related disorders; (2) developmental and experimental psychopathology of schizophrenia and related disorders, especially for anhedonia; and (3) distinct and shared psychopathologies across clinical groups and their subclinical sample using a wide range of neuroscientific methods including structural and functional (resting-state and task-based) MRI and MRS as well as behavioural genetics.

He has received various research awards and honours including the Elected member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (Medicine), Fellow for the Association for Psychological Science, SIRS Global Schizophrenia Award, International Neuropsychological Society Arthur-Benton Mid-Career Award, the Distinguished Young Scientist Award from the National Natural Science Foundation China, and Young Investigator Award from the NARSAD.

He holds numerous competitive research grants from various funding agencies including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Natural Science Foundation China, and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. Dr Chan has published over 500 scientific peer-reviewed articles and 6 book chapters in the areas of schizophrenia, major depressive disorders and traumatic brain injury. He is currently serving as the editor-in-chief for PsyCh Journal, and on the editorial boards for Schizophrenia Research, Schizophrenia Research Cognition, Biological Psychiatry Global Open Sciences, Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, Neuropsychology, Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, and four local professional journals in China.

Abstract

Plenary Title: Negative Symptoms Assessment for Schizophrenia: Theoretical Models and Clinical Implications

Schizophrenia is a complex psychiatric disorder characterised by psychotic symptoms, negative symptoms and cognitive impairments. Negative symptoms in schizophrenia constitute a heterogeneous syndrome that comprises anhedonia, avolition, asociality, alogia and blunted affect. Recently, there is reviving interest in studying negative symptoms as these symptoms are less responsive to conventional and atypical antipsychotic medications.

With the guidance of the advanced theoretical framework of anhedonia, I will first address the issue of anhedonia paradox observed in schizophrenia and the recent reconceptualisation of negative symptoms in schizophrenia research. I will adopt the two-factor model of negative symptoms, i.e., the Motivation and Pleasure (MAP) factor and the Expression (EXP) factor, and further illustrate with a series of studies to highlight the important role of MAP factor but not EXP factor contributing to social functioning in these patients. These findings help to validate and establish a set of measures to characterise the evaluation of anhedonia and highlight potential development of intervention platform for anhedonia across clinical and subclinical populations.