Hengyi Cao MB, PhD

Dr. Hengyi Cao is an assistant professor at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and Zucker Hillside Hospital. He has been conducting neuroimaging research in psychiatry for more than 10 years and has extensive experience in psychiatric neuroimaging and clinical neuroscience. Dr. Cao has published more than 30 first-authored papers in leading journals and has served as a reviewer for more than 40 journals in the field. He has received awards from multiple research societies and foundations, including the Schizophrenia International Research Society, the Society of Biological Psychiatry, and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation.

Dr. Cao's research aims to understand the neural mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of major mental disorders, and to develop useful imaging-based biomarkers that can predict the illness onset, progression, and treatment response, with a particular focus on psychotic disorders. Research strategies include structural and functional neuroimaging, genetics, neurocognitive assessments and neuromodulations such as TMS.

Cao present studies broadly follow three research streams: 1) the investigation of imaging-based predictors for psychosis onset among high-risk individuals and treatment response among first-episode patients; 2) the cerebellar structure and function and their correlates with cognitive functioning in healthy individuals and patients; and 3) the cerebellum-based clinical interventions and their mechanisms for the treatment of psychosis.