Our institute has rich clinical resources, and is the leading research center of neuropsychiatry in Taiwan. We cooperates closely with Taipei Veterans General Hospital, and connects clinical professionals related to brain medicine across the country. We aim to deepen the research on brain imaging, sleep physiology, molecular neuroscience, and pathogenesis of neuropsychiatric disorders.
The Institute of Brain Science of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University was proposed by Professor Jen-Chuen Hsieh in 2003. In September 2005, the proposal was approved by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan to set up a master's program to recruit students of clinical medicine and neuroinformatics. The institute was officially founded and operated in August 2006. The doctoral program was later approved by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan in 2007, and enrollment began in 2008. Our Institute is located on the eighth floor of the Library and Information Building of Yang Ming Campus of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. The former chair professors included Professor Terry B.J. Kuo, Professor Yung-Yang Lin, and Professor Ding-I Yang, and the current chair professor is Professor Albert C. Yang. All faculties and students of the Institute of Brain Science work together for the innovative development of the Institute, and strive to make the Institute become the top international research site.
The Institute of Brain Science emphasizes the integration of interdisciplinary science and technology to answer the research issies raised from neuro-psychiatric disorders, and to create a new field of brain research. We focus equally on theory and practice, parallelled with the all-round research in neural engineering, neurobiology and brain medicine.
Clinical Brain Science Group: We use advanced neuroimaging and functional examination tools such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, multi-channel EEG, multi-channel intracranial nerve potential recorder, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and transcranial direct current stimulation to conduct research on neurological and psychiatric diseases and relevant pathophysiologic mechanism.
Neural Engineering and Neuroinformatics Group: We combine neural information, imaging and engineering to conduct integrated research and application of brain function and structure, and actively develop various analytical and modelling methods as well as computational models for delineating the brain connectomes and its changes in neuropsychiatric disorders.
Molecular Neuroscience Group: We combine the basic neuroscience fields of physiology, molecular cell biology and systems biology to explore the mechanisms of sleep physiology, heart rate variability, neurodegeneration and neurodevelopmental disorders through non-invasive human experiments, animal models and stem cell techniques.
Our teaching includes three aims:
1. The firsm aim is to cultivate neuroinformatics professionals to engage in medical-related interdisciplinary research, to enable communication with scholars engaged in brain science, and to produce software to analyze medical images and signal data, and to develop cross-disciplinary brain science knowledge.
2. The second aim is to cultivate clinicians or cognitive neuroscientists with information science knowledge and research skills to conduct in-depth research on relevant clinical issues, thereby developing advanced diagnosis and treatment techniques and research topics in neuroscience.
3. The third aim is to cultivate medical imaging technology talents that are very lacking in major teaching hospitals in Taiwan, to improve domestic medical imaging technology, and to promote related research and development.
