簡介

西方國家和中國相繼啟動腦計劃, 澳門大學認知與腦科學研究中心計劃開展具有澳門特別行政區特色的腦科學研究。澳門是多元文化和世界娛樂之都,多種語言並存,與語言和成癮相關的腦研究資源豐富。同時,研究中心的腦計劃將著力研究認知老化和大腦疾病的神經機制,並更好地服務澳門老齡化等發展課題;另外,研究中心的腦計劃也會圍繞兒童腦認知機制和行為學、兒童神經發育疾病機理和防治展開,並促進兒童腦智發展和人格塑造。所以,研究中心主要研究方向包括:

成癮與決策

腦與語言認知

兒童發展、認知老化和腦疾病

腦影像與腦網絡圖譜

Fig. Research Directions at CCBS

Fig. Multidisciplinary Research Centre

成癮與決策

澳門是一個多元文化和世界娛樂之都,為研究成癮提供了優質的腦科學研究資源。研究中心的平台可以幫助揭示賭博成癮的神經機制,並探索新的幹預方法和治療成癮行為。

Fig. The brain activation maps exhibiting the difference between the gambling addiction and healthy control groups in the low-risk (top right) and high-risk (bottom right) task underlying losing and winning conditions

Fig. Participants in the guilty group exhibited significantly higher HbO concentration changes in response to the probe stimulus compared to that from irrelevant stimuli in (Left: fNIRS brain activation maps). For the guilty group, the probe stimulus elicited significantly larger amplitude of P300 than the irrelevant ones (Right: ERP components and EEG brain topography)

腦與語言認知

除了多元文化外,澳門也是一個多語地區,擁有豐富的語言,翻譯和認知語言學的腦科學研究資源,包括粵語,普通話,葡萄牙語和英語。研究中心平台可以幫助揭示與多語和多語翻譯相關的大腦認知機制。

Fig. T-maps of brain activation difference between Chinese orthography and checkboard (A) and between the real and pseudo-Chinese characters (B).

Fig. The mean accuracy of three Chinese-English translation tasks based on three strategies: Pairing, Non-translation and Transphrasing (p <0.01**) (Left). The brain activation maps of three Chinese-English translation strategies: Pairing, Non-translation and Transphrasing (Right).

兒童發展,認知老化和腦疾病

兒童腦智開發關乎著澳門未來,研究中心將圍繞兒童腦認知機制和行為學、兒童神經發育疾病機理和防治展開,並促進腦智發展和人格塑造。澳門平均壽命世界第二,人類壽命的延長導致人腦的固有結構和神經生理功能發生變化,並表現不同程度的認知老化和腦疾病發病率升高。

Fig. Brain regions showing altered local resting-state network properties in the insomnia group as compared that from the non-insomnia group. The aberrant nodal betweenness centrality (A) nodal degree (B) and nodal efficiency (C) were identified in the insomnia group

Fig. The brain activation difference maps associated with various arithmetic calculations (Add, subtraction, division, multiply and comparison) for Macau students

Fig. The EEG signals and brain topography for cerebral palsy (left) and healthy control (right) children groups

Fig. The t map of activation in the prefrontal cortex associated with cognitive flexibility for Down Syndrome (top) and normal children (bottom)

腦影像與腦網絡圖譜

研究中心的核心設施是功能性磁共振成像(fMRI)系統。除了fMRI,研究中心的綜合研究平台還包括腦電圖儀(EEG)和功能性近紅外光譜儀(fNIRS)以及其它融合的多模腦功能成像設備。研究中心使用腦網路和腦啟動模式研究腦認知和腦疾病的神經機制。