Clinical Studies & Reviews

Quantifying consciousness through intrinsic probability density function

Huang NE, Yuan WS, Yang AC, Kuo TBJ, Tang WX, … Liang WK (8 authors). Biological psychology200:109101.

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109101

Our findings reveal that active neural interactions or modulations during wakefulness and REM sleep are characterized by super-Gaussian iPDF patterns.

Unsupervised subtyping of motor dysfunction of Parkinson's disease and its structural brain imaging correlates

Lin YF, Fuh JL, Yang AC. Neuroimage. Reports5(1):100246.

Full text · PMCdoi:10.1016/j.ynirp.2025.100246

MRI analysis revealed significant differences in brain regions, including the posterior cingulate gyrus, lenticular nucleus, olfactory cortex, and cerebellum.

Learning pathways composed of core subjects with features of reducing cognitive load have better learning outcomes

Huang SS, Huang AY, Lin YF, Lin SM, Webster CS, … Lin CH (12 authors). Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA87(7):714-721.

Full text · PMCdoi:10.1097/JCMA.0000000000001116

We found nine core subjects, constituting four different learning pathways.

Ten-year trends in depression care in Taiwan

Wang HH, Chang CM, Chang SS, Yang AC, Liu YH, … Wu CS (7 authors). Journal of the Formosan Medical Association = Taiwan yi zhi121(10):2001-2011.

doi:10.1016/j.jfma.2022.02.011

Patients with depressive disorders were identified based on International Classification of Diseases codes.

The moderating effect of personality traits on acute tinnitus sensation in idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss

Huang CY, Cheng YF, Yang AC, Lin CJ, Ieong PI, Hsueh CY. Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA85(5):633-638.

Full text · PMCdoi:10.1097/JCMA.0000000000000710

People may experience tinnitus after sudden hearing impairment.

Phenotyping Neuropsychiatric Symptoms Profiles of Alzheimer's Disease Using Cluster Analysis on EEG Power

Liu F, Fuh JL, Peng CK, Yang AC. Frontiers in aging neuroscience13:623930.

Full text · PMCdoi:10.3389/fnagi.2021.623930

Conclusion: The present study suggests that EEG power correlates to behavioral and psychological symptoms among patients with mild Alzheimer's disease.

CUX2, BRAP and ALDH2 are associated with metabolic traits in people with excessive alcohol consumption

Chen IC, Kuo PH, Yang AC, Tsai SJ, Liu TH, … Liu YL (11 authors). Scientific reports10(1):18118.

Full text · PMCdoi:10.1038/s41598-020-75199-y

We found that one or two copies of the G allele in rs671 (ALDH2) increased the risk of excessive alcohol consumption, while one or two copies of the C allele in rs3782886 (BRAP) reduced the risk of excessive alcohol consumption.

Role of Interleukin-6 in Depressive Disorder

Ting EY, Yang AC, Tsai SJ. International journal of molecular sciences21(6).

Full text · PMCdoi:10.3390/ijms21062194

Major depressive disorder (MDD), which is a leading psychiatric illness across the world, severely affects quality of life and causes an increased incidence of suicide.

Combining multi-modality data for searching biomarkers in schizophrenia

Guo S, Huang CC, Zhao W, Yang AC, Lin CP, … Tsai SJ (7 authors). PloS one13(2):e0191202.

Full text · PMCdoi:10.1371/journal.pone.0191202

Our results show that, among these modalities, fMRI has the most significant featureby calculating the Jaccard similarity coefficient (0.7416) and Kappa index (0.4833).

Risk stratification for the early diagnosis of borderline personality disorder using psychiatric co-morbidities

Shen CC, Hu LY, Tsai SJ, Yang AC, Chen PM, Hu YH. Early intervention in psychiatry12(4):605-612.

doi:10.1111/eip.12364

Using psychiatric co-morbidities, we identified four variables as significant risk predictors of BPD and permitted identification of subjects with low, intermediate or high risk for BPD.

New Targets for Schizophrenia Treatment beyond the Dopamine Hypothesis

Yang AC, Tsai SJ. International journal of molecular sciences18(8).

Full text · PMCdoi:10.3390/ijms18081689

Schizophrenia has been primarily associated with dopamine dysfunction, and treatments have been developed that target the dopamine pathway in the central nervous system.

Association and interaction of APOA5, BUD13, CETP, LIPA and health-related behavior with metabolic syndrome in a Taiwanese population

Lin E, Kuo PH, Liu YL, Yang AC, Kao CF, Tsai SJ. Scientific reports6:36830.

Full text · PMCdoi:10.1038/srep36830

Additionally, we found the interactions of APOA5 rs662799, BUD13 rs11216129, BUD13 rs623908, CETP rs820299, LIPA rs1412444, alcohol consumption, smoking status, or physical activity on MetS and its individual components.

Cyclic Cushing's syndrome mimicking bipolar disorder

Tsai WT, Tsai SJ, Yang AC. Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences70(1):71.

doi:10.1111/pcn.12363

Case report of cyclic Cushing's syndrome presenting with mood instability that mimicked bipolar disorder, highlighting endocrine causes of psychiatric presentations.

Resting-state EEG power and coherence vary between migraine phases

Cao Z, Lin CT, Chuang CH, Lai KL, Yang AC, … Wang SJ (7 authors). The journal of headache and pain17(1):102.

Full text · PMCdoi:10.1186/s10194-016-0697-7

Migraine is characterized by a series of phases (inter-ictal, pre-ictal, ictal, and post-ictal).

Association of depression and loneliness with specific cognitive performance in non-demented elderly males

Tzang RF, Yang AC, Yeh HL, Liu ME, Tsai SJ. Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research21:100-4.

Full text · PMCdoi:10.12659/MSM.891086

Our findings suggest that loneliness and depression may have negative impacts on global and specific domains of cognitive function in non-demented elderly males.

Patients with migraine are right about their perception of temperature as a trigger: time series analysis of headache diary data

Yang AC, Fuh JL, Huang NE, Shia BC, Wang SJ. The journal of headache and pain16:533.

Full text · PMCdoi:10.1186/s10194-015-0533-5

This diary-based study provides evidence to link the perception of temperature sensitivity and headache incidence in migraine patients.

Association of CD8 T cells with depression and anxiety in patients with liver cirrhosis

Ko FY, Tsai SJ, Yang AC, Zhou Y, Xu LM. International journal of psychiatry in medicine45(1):15-29.

doi:10.2190/PM.45.1.b

Our findings are the first to show that depression and anxiety may be associated with increased levels of CD8 in T-lymphocyte subsets in cirrhosis patients, suggesting that an imbalance of T-lymphocyte subsets may be a factor facilitating depression and anxiety in cirrhotic patients.

Complexity of mental illness: a new research dimension

Yang AC, Tsai SJ. Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry45:251-2.

doi:10.1016/j.pnpbp.2013.01.018

Editorial proposing 'complexity' — quantified across behaviour and brain dynamics — as a new research dimension for understanding mental illness.

Reversible skin rash in a bipolar disorder patient on first use of lithium

Wang EH, Yang AC. Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences67(5):365.

doi:10.1111/pcn.12058

Case report of a reversible skin rash in a bipolar patient on a first-generation antipsychotic, informing drug-safety monitoring.

Association of Internet search trends with suicide death in Taipei City, Taiwan, 2004-2009

Yang AC, Tsai SJ, Huang NE, Peng CK. Journal of affective disorders132(1-2):179-84.

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2011.01.019

Results show that a set of suicide-related search terms, the trends of which either temporally coincided or preceded trends of suicide data, were associated with suicide death.

Decomposing the association of completed suicide with air pollution, weather, and unemployment data at different time scales

Yang AC, Tsai SJ, Huang NE. Journal of affective disorders129(1-3):275-81.

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2010.08.010

This study comprehensively assesses the temporal relationship between suicide and air pollution, weather, and unemployment variables in Taipei City from January 1 1991 to December 31 2008.

Myasthenic crisis may mimic antipsychotic-induced extrapyramidal syndromes

Chiu YH, Yang AC, Chern CH, How CK. The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences23(2):E36-7.

doi:10.1176/jnp.23.2.jnpe36

Case report showing myasthenic crisis can mimic antipsychotic-induced extrapyramidal syndromes — an important differential-diagnosis caution.

Association between renal function and cognitive performance in elderly community-dwelling men without dementia

Yang AC, Tsai SJ, Yeh HL, Chen JY, Liou YJ, … Hong CJ (7 authors). Journal of the American Geriatrics Society58(10):2046-8.

doi:10.1111/j.1532-5415.2010.03096.x

Population study linking reduced renal function to poorer cognitive performance in community-dwelling elderly men without dementia.

Multimodal pressure-flow method to assess dynamics of cerebral autoregulation in stroke and hypertension

Novak V, Yang AC, Lepicovsky L, Goldberger AL, Lipsitz LA, Peng CK. Biomedical engineering online3(1):39.

Full text · PMCdoi:10.1186/1475-925X-3-39

This study evaluated the effects of stroke on regulation of cerebral blood flow in response to fluctuations in systemic blood pressure (BP).

Reply to Comment on 'Linguistic analysis of the human heartbeat using frequency and rank order statistics'

Yang AC, Hseu SS, Yien HW, Goldberger AL, Peng CK. Physical Review Letters93.

Reply defending the information-based dissimilarity index for heartbeat dynamics, clarifying that it captures structure beyond conventional mean/variance statistics of heart rate.