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Research > Research Group

Meet our researchers

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While the research prospect of VCL is primarily based on theoretical studies, but with years of research accomplishments, we have been progressively applying our research findings to educational learning and issues on attention targeting specific group of people, such like the self-control ability and attention development of preschoolers. With fundamental theories on learning knowledge, combined with meticulous research design, advanced technology and proper equipment, we may comprehend the operations of the human mind & brain as well as their correlation to cognitive behaviors.

We aim to acquire leading academic development and the latest research techniques through international collaborations and cross-continental research opportunities in order to continuously strive for the best. It is our sincere expectation to promote Taiwan’s research development in cognitive neuroscience while giving back to the society through the efforts of both individuals and the academic community alike.

Research focus areas

  1. Neural Mechanism of Visual Selection and Eye Movement 
  2. Visual Short-Term Memory
  3. Neural Mechanisms of Cognitive Control
  4. Development of Attention and Cognitive Control
  5. Cognitive Neuroscience and Crime Sciences 
  6. Sport and Human Cognitive Performance
  7. Human Brain Stimulation Techniques and their Applications

Research focus areas

Neural Mechanism of Visual Selection and Eye Movement 

The mechanism of attention covers a broad range of effects. Factors including emotions, inhibitory control, self-control, eye movement and visual search are all important components that contribute to the intricate correlation of such mechanism.  Over the years, our laboratory has devoted profoundly to a series of research in the field of attention, eye movement as well as their neuro-mechanisms. We incorporate the use of TMS to confirm the key role that the frontal eye fields (FEF) play when modulated target appears in the probability of specific location. In recent years, we have been progressively combining theoretical models of mathematics and physics to analyze brain regions that are relevant to eye movement and attention in order to formulate new-found models and theories. Meanwhile, we apply fMRI, tDCS and MRS to investigate the neural mechanism of attention.


Selected Papers
  1. Chang, CF., Hsu, TY., Tseng, P., Liang, WK., Tzeng, OJL., Hung, DL. & Juan, C.H*. (April, 2013) Right Temporoparietal Junction and Attentional Reorienting. Human Brain Mapping 34(4):869-77. PDF
  2. Chiau HY, Tseng P, Hsu WY, Su JH, Tzeng OJL, Hung, DL, Muggleton NG, Juan CH* (Aug, 2011) Trial type probability modulates the cost of antisaccades. Journal of Neurophysiology 106(2):515-526. PDF
  3. Chao CM, Tseng, P., Hsu, TY, Su JH, Tzeng, OJL., Hung, DL., Muggleton NG, Juan, CH* (Nov, 2011) Predictability of Saccadic Behaviors is Modified by Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Over Human Posterior Parietal Cortex. Human Brain Mapping, 32(11):1961-72. PDF
  4. Muggleton, N. Juan, C-H. Cowey, A. Walsh, V. O’Breathnach, U (Feb, 2010) Human frontal eye fields and target switching. Cortex. 46(2):178-84. PDF
  5. Juan, C-H*. Muggleton, N. Hung, D. Tzeng, O, Cowey, A and Walsh, V. (Oct, 2008) Segregation of visual selection and saccades in human frontal eye fields. Cerebral Cortex, 18(10):2410-2415. PDF
  6. Juan, C-H. Shorter-Jacobi, S.M. and Schall, JD (Oct, 2004). Dissociation of Spatial attention and saccade preparation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 101 (43), 15541-15544. PDF
(* denotes the corresponding author)
Disclaimer: The copyright of these articles belong to their publishers. You may download these PDFs for personal use in a manner consistent with the fair use provision of the copyright law. Please do not distribute the PDFs to others for profit gain or commercial purposes.

Visual Short-Term Memory

Visual attention and short-term memory have a high relevance to fluid intelligence. Recent studies have shown that the capacity of short-term memory may be regulated by attention. Therefore, we apply transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) to posterior parietal cortex, one of the brain regions responsible to spatial attention, and observe the discrepancies in cognitive behavior performance before and after the stimulation. We measure and record the brain waves of test subjects during the visual short-term memory experiments and found that tDCS was not only able to improve the performance in visual short-term memory but also received positive feedbacks on N2 posterior contralateral (N2pc), the attentional component of event-related potential.

Selected Papers
  1. 5. Yi-Jen Wu, Philip Tseng, Chi-Fu Chang, Ming-Chyi Pai, Kuei-Sen Hsu, Chou-Ching Lin, Chi-Hung Juan (2014, Aug). Modulating the Interference Effect on Spatial Working Memory by Applying Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation over the Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex. Brain and Cognition, 91: 87–94. (SCI). MOST 103-2410-H-008-023-MY3.
  2. Tzu-Yu Hsu, Philip Tseng, Wei-Kuang Liang, Shih-Kuen Cheng, and Chi-Hung Juan (2014, Apr). Transcranial direct current stimulation over right posterior parietal cortex changes prestimulus alpha oscillation in visual short-term memory task . Neuroimage, 98:306–313. (SCI, 2/14 (Neuroimaging), 26/251 (Neurosciences) & 3/120(Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical imaging)).MOST 101-2628-H-008-001-MY4. 
  3. Tseng, P., Hsu, TY, Chang, CF, Tzeng, OJL, Hung, DL, Muggleton, NG, Walsh, V, Liang, WK, Cheng, SK & Juan, CH*. (Aug, 2012) Unleashing potential: tDCS over the right posterior parietal cortex improves change detection in low-performing individuals. Journal of Neuroscience 32(31):10554 –10561 PDF
  4. Tseng, P., Hsu, TY., Muggleton, NG., Tzeng, OJL., Hung, DL. & Juan, C.H*. (Mar, 2010) Posterior Parietal Cortex Mediates Encoding and Maintenance Processes in Change Blindness. Neuropsychologia, 48(4):1063-70. PDF
(* denotes the corresponding author)
Disclaimer: The copyright of these articles belong to their publishers. You may download these PDFs for personal use in a manner consistent with the fair use provision of the copyright law. Please do not distribute the PDFs to others for profit gain or commercial purposes.

Neural Mechanisms of Cognitive Control

Fundamental cognitive abilities such as visual attention and short-term memory have a close correlation to the executive function of the frontal lobe and one’s self-control ability. We used stop signal paradigm, combined with TMS and brain-imaging techniques, to investigate the key neuro-mechanism of adult’s impulse control. We noted an effect in the impulse control ability when applying TMS to the interior frontal lobe. Moreover, after a brief stimulation of tDCS’ positive current is applied to the Pre-SMA, the test subjects showed an improvement in their impulse control. This study marks significant attributions in both theory and application and contributes greatly to the theoretical establishment & modification of impulse control and in areas of clinical therapies, crime prevention and education.


Selected Papers
  1. Wei-Kuang Liang; Men-Tzung Lo; Albert C Yang; Chung-Kang Peng; Shih- Kuen Cheng; Philip Tseng; Chi-Hung Juan* (2014, Apr). Revealing the brain's adaptability and the transcranial direct current stimulation facilitating effect in inhibitory control by multiscale entropy. Neuroimage, 90 (2014) 218–234. (SCI, Ranking:2/14 (Neuroimaging), 26/251 (Neurosciences) & 3/120(Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical imaging); ). NSC 99-2410-H-008-022-MY3.
  2. Yu, JX, Hung, DL, Tseng, P., Tzeng, OJL, Muggleton, NG & Juan, CH*. (Aug, 2012). Sex differences in how erotic and painful stimuli impair inhibitory control. Cognition 124(2):251-255. PDF
  3. Hsu, TY., Tzeng, LY., Yu, JX., Kuo, WJ., Hung, DL., Tzeng, OJL., Walsh, V., Muggleton NG., & Juan, C.H*. (Jun, 2011) Modulating inhibitory control with direct current stimulation of the superior medial frontal cortex. Neuroimage, 15;56(4):2249-57. PDF
  4. Muggleton, NG. Chen, C-Y. Tzeng, OJL. Hung, DL. & Juan, C-H*. (Dec, 2010). Inhibitory control and the frontal eye fields. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(12): 2804-2812. PDF
  5. Chen, C-Y. Muggleton, NG. Tzeng, OJL. Hung, DL. & Juan, C-H*. (Jan, 2009). Control of prepotent responses by the superior medial frontal cortex. Neuroimage, 44(2): 537-545. PDF
(* denotes the corresponding author)
Disclaimer: The copyright of these articles belong to their publishers. You may download these PDFs for personal use in a manner consistent with the fair use provision of the copyright law. Please do not distribute the PDFs to others for profit gain or commercial purposes

Development of Attention and Cognitive Control

Early childhood (preschool) and adolescence are important stages in human’s growth development; this time also happens to be a sensitive period for brain and attention development. In this study, we observe 5 and 6-year old preschool children’s behavioral ability in impulsive control and its relevant brainwaves. Using attentional network test (ANT), coupled with brainwave data, we probe the subjects’ performance, record brainwave during the task, and evaluate their attention efficacy and its discrepancy before & after the training.


 Aside from understanding the attention development in Taiwan’s preschool children, this study aims to establish the norm and measuring scale in efforts to help the education and clinical therapy communities to identify children who have developmental delay but not up to the diagnostic standards of being attention deficient or hyperactive. With the latest theoretical findings in attention, we may provide various learning methods to help children improve their attention capacity and elevate their intelligent efficiency.
Selected Papers
  1. 徐慈妤,洪蘭,曾志朗, 阮啓弘*. (2013, Sep). 台灣認知神經科學研究的崛起:以注意力相關研究為例. 中華心理學刊, Vol.55, No.3, 343-357. (TSSCI). NSC 101-2628-H-008-001-MY4.
  2. Lee HW* and Juan CH*. (in press, 2013). What can cognitive neuroscience do to enhance our understanding of education and learning? Journal of Neuroscience and Neuroengineering.
  3. Lo, Y. H., Liang, W. K., Lee, H. W., Wang, C. H., Tzeng, O., Hung, D., Cheng, S. K., & Juan, C. H.* (July, 2013). The neural development of response inhibition in 5- and 6-year-old preschoolers: an ERP and EEG study. Developmental Neuropsychology 38(5):301-16. PDF
  4. 林宜親,李冠慧,宋玟欣,柯華崴,曾志朗,洪蘭,阮啟弘*（2011年03月）。以認知神經科學取向探討兒童注意力的發展和學習之關聯。教育心理學報，Mar; 42(3), 517-542.。PDF
(* denotes the corresponding author)
Disclaimer: The copyright of these articles belong to their publishers. You may download these PDFs for personal use in a manner consistent with the fair use provision of the copyright law. Please do not distribute the PDFs to others for profit gain or commercial purposes.

Cognitive Neuroscience and Crime Sciences 

With knowledge on the human nerves and physiological mechanism of the brain, the VCL, teaming up with Professor Daisy Lan Hung’s laboratory, hope to probe into criminal minds by examining scientific evidences to ultimately safeguard the society through crime prevention. We enter into the prison to study the cognitive behaviors of the impulsive violent (teenagers) and sexual offenders, using flanker task and stop signal tasks, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the reasons behind their repeated criminal behaviors as well as their inability to learn from wrongdoings. The key points in this study include behavioral inhibition, conflict monitoring, error detection and its redeeming process in these offenders, and how they vary from the norm.


Selected Papers
  1. Chen, C-Y. Muggleton, N.G. Juan, C-H*. Tzeng, OJL. Hung, DL*. (Mar, 2008). Time pressure leads to inhibitory control deficits in impulsive violent offenders. Behavioural Brain Research. 2 Mar 5;187(2):483-8. PDF
  2. Chen, C-Y. Tien, Y-M. Juan, C-H. Tzeng, OJL. Hung, DL. (Aug, 2005). The neural correlates of impulsive-violent behavior: An ERP study. Neuroreport, 16(11): 1213-6. PDF
(* denotes the corresponding author)
Disclaimer: The copyright of these articles belong to their publishers. You may download these PDFs for personal use in a manner consistent with the fair use provision of the copyright law. Please do not distribute the PDFs to others for profit gain or commercial purposes.

Sport and Human Cognitive Performance

From the standpoint of brain science, moderate exercise is beneficial in promoting learning, stimulating the brain to produce more brain cells and eliminating problems such as depression, hyperactivity, addiction and etc. Recent studies have shown that engaging in sports may promote human cognition (Hillman et al., 2008) and reduce the chances of getting psychological illnesses like depression (Dinas et al., 2011; Dunn et al., 2005). Therefore, we believe that by investigating the correlation between motion behaviors and the mechanism of brain and the nerves, we could establish a series of educational training and learning methods to nurture our future generations from a young age.

Selected Papers
  1. Chun-Hao Wang; Chia-Liang Tsai; Kuo-Cheng Tu; Neil G. Muggleton ; Chi-Hung Juan; Wei-Kuang Liang (2014, Oct). Modulation of Brain Oscillations during Fundamental Visuo-spatial Processing: A Comparison between Female Collegiate Badminton Players and Sedentary Controls . Psychology of Sport & Exercise. (Accepted). (SCI). MOST 103-2410-H-008-023-MY3.
  2. Chun-Hao Wang; Chia-Liang Tsai; Philip Tseng; Albert C. Yang; Men-Tzung Lo;Chung-Kang Peng; Hsin-Yi Wang; Neil G. Muggleton; Chi-Hung Juan;Wei-Kuang Liang (2014, Oct). The association of physical activity to neural adaptability during visuo-spatial processing in healthy elderly adults: A mulitscale entropy analysis. Brain and Cognition. (Accepted). (SCI). MOST 103-2410-H-008-023-MY3.
  3. Wang, C. H., Chang, C. C., Liang, Y. M., Shih, C. M., Chiu, W. S., Tseng, P., Hung, D. L., Tzeng, O.J.L., Muggleton, N., & Juan, C. H*. (Feb, 2013). Open vs. closed sports and the modulation of inhibitory control. PLoS ONE, Volume 8, Issue 2, e55773, 1-10. PDF
  4. Wang, C. H., Chang, C. C., Liang, Y. M., Shih, C. M., Muggleton, N., & Juan, C. H*. (Feb, 2013). Temporal preparation in athletes: A comparison of tennis players and swimmers with sedentary controls. Journal of Motor Behavior, Vol. 45, No. 1, 55-63. PDF
  5. 張武業、施俊名、王駿濠、阮啟弘。(Mar, 2013)。優秀足球運動員動作控制能力的特性─有氧運動能力的重要性。大專體育學刊。第15卷 第1期，40-53. 
  6. 王駿濠, 張哲千, 梁衍明,  邱文聲, 洪蘭, 曾志朗, 阮啟弘* (June, 2012) 運動對孩童認知功能及學業表現的影響：文獻回顧與展望。教育科學研究期刊 2012 年，57（2），65-94. PDF
(* denotes the corresponding author)
Disclaimer: The copyright of these articles belong to their publishers. You may download these PDFs for personal use in a manner consistent with the fair use provision of the copyright law. Please do not distribute the PDFs to others for profit gain or commercial purposes.

Human Brain Stimulation Techniques and their Applications

 The VCL introduced the techniques of TMS to Taiwan in 2003. In recent years, we have incorporated the use of transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) in our research studies. Our research topics include decision-making, impulse inhibition, visual working memory and visual attention. Over the years, we have accumulated vast study results and findings and have been progressively applying them into different study fields. In the near future, we aim to use our studies as a base to develop an integrated application comprised of various cognitive techniques in order to investigate deeper into the operational mechanism of the human brain.

Selected Papers
  1. Lin-Yuan Tseng; Philip Tseng; Wei-Kuang Liang; Daisy L Hung; Ovid Tzeng;Neil G Muggleton; Chi-Hung Juan (2014, Sep). The role the superior temporal sulcus in the control of irrelevant emotional face processing: a transcranial direct current stimulation study . Neuropsychologia, 64:124-133. (SCI, 13/49,Behavioral Sciences). MOST 103-2410-H-008-023-MY3.
  2. Liang, W. K*., Juan, C. H*. (In press, 2013). Changes when the brain is stimulated by current. Journal of Neuroscience and Neuroengineering.
  3. Tseng, P, & Juan, CH*. (in press, 2013). Virtual reality in the neuroscience of multisensory integration and consciousness of bodily self. Journal of Neuroscience and Neuroengineering.
  4. Juan, CH* and Muggleton, NG*. (Apr, 2012) Brain stimulation and inhibitory control. Brain Stimulation Apr; 5(2):63-69. PDF
  5. Juan, C-H*. Chen, C-Y and Lu, D-H. (Winter, 2005). The application of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Cognitive Neuroscience. Research in Applied Psychology, 28(4), 51-74
(* denotes the corresponding author)
Disclaimer: The copyright of these articles belong to their publishers. You may download these PDFs for personal use in a manner consistent with the fair use provision of the copyright law. Please do not distribute the PDFs to others for profit gain or commercial purposes.

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