From a rural teacher to a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he has been constantly tinkering with his dream pursuit for 20 years, dedicated to tackling depression and other mental illnesses, and working hard to explore depression, Alzheimer's disease, etc. through brain imaging. New methods for diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases. He is Yan Chaogan, director of the Cognitive and Developmental Psychology Research Office of the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and director of the International Research Center for Depression Big Data.
The young scientist’s dream continues to burn and he resolutely embarks on the road to pursue his dream
Becoming a scientist is a dream that Yan Chaogan planted when he was 6 years old. He had loved reading since childhood and had excellent grades. He thought he would move forward smoothly towards his dream, but fate dealt him a heavy blow. When Yan Chaogan was 14 years old, his father died unexpectedly, putting the family in trouble. In order to reduce the burden on his family, he gave up the opportunity to attend high school and went to a normal college, thinking that after graduating from the normal college, he could earn money to support his family early. In 2001, when he was under 17 years old, he was assigned to teach in a middle school and became a rural teacher.
Yan Chaogan has never felt that teaching is not good, but his dream of being a scientist as a boy has always been burning in his heart. He wants to try it out, see a bigger world, and have a more distant future. So he took action. In 2002, he was admitted to the University of Science and Technology Beijing to major in automation. After graduating from undergraduate degree, Yan Chaogan's ideal place is to go to Tsinghua University to study for graduate school. But just when he thought he had a chance to take another step toward his dream, fate played another little joke on him. He has always had excellent grades, but he missed , Tsinghua and by a few points. The huge gap caused Yan Chaogan to hit rock bottom, and he felt unprecedentedly confused.
After failing the postgraduate entrance examination, Yan Chaogan did not give up. Recalling the situation at that time, he said he was very lucky. At that time, Yan Chaogan left a message on the EPS message board of the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, informing him of his test scores. It happened that his supervisor saw the email and wrote him back, asking if he wanted to engage in brain science research. This made Yan Chaogan, who had longed to become a scientist since childhood, very excited, so he came to Beijing Normal University from Beijing Normal University to continue pursuing his dream of being a scientist.
In the five years from 2006 to 2011, he studied for a master's degree and a Ph.D., and learned a lot of new knowledge, laying a solid foundation for his dream of being a scientist. A message or an email can change a person's destiny. It may sound dramatic, but Beijing is a city full of infinite hope and possibility. Opportunities always come to those who are prepared. Yan Chaogan's luck is due to his down-to-earth efforts over the years.
has been working hard for many years and has been trying to tackle mental illnesses such as depression
Depression is a mental illness with a high recurrence rate, high suicide rate and high disability rate. It causes an extremely heavy social and economic burden every year, and also brings The serious consequences of death by suicide. According to World Health Organization estimates, there are more than 300 million patients with depression worldwide. According to the China Mental Health Survey, the lifetime prevalence rate of depressive disorders in China is 6.8%, of which major depressive disorder , commonly known as depression, is 3.4%. About one in every 30 Chinese people has depression. patient.
But even today, diagnosing depression is still very difficult. Since the basic pathological mechanism of depression is still unclear, researchers are trying to find the biomarker that can diagnose depression, both clinically and in the laboratory. Yan Chaogan believes that perhaps brain imaging can be a breakthrough in solving the problem.
uses high-field magnetic resonance equipment to clearly display the MRI image of the human brain. This way of studying human brain function is called resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, and it is Yan Chaogan’s area of expertise. Now, Yan Chaogan is trying to use this technology to observe abnormal brain activity in patients with depression and find biological objective criteria for depression diagnosis.
Analysis of brain imaging results shows that there are changes in the areas of the brain responsible for emotions and executive functions in patients with depression. This discovery provides ideas for Yan Chaogan's depression research. However, individual samples are accidental. Only multi-center, large-sample studies can find common and generalizable clinical biological indicators of depression.
Due to the high cost of MRI and privacy issues, the source of brain imaging samples has become Yan Chaogan’s biggest problem. But he is not depressed and firmly believes that as long as the goal is clear, the problem will be solved. This is his belief and his experience. This is how he walked step by step.
Yan Chaogan was inspired by his daily passion for basketball. The stranger athletes who constantly participated in the game made him realize that if other brain scientists united to share big data, wouldn't the sample problem be solved? To this end, Yan Chaogan promoted the DPABI software he developed to brain science expert groups around the world. The powerful DPABI software was easy to use and immediately attracted many brain scientists. Everyone shares this software and data, forming an extensive brain imaging big data alliance for depression. The establishment of this alliance has solved the problem of difficulty in obtaining brain imaging samples, and has also benefited Yan Chaogan and many scientists in the same field as him.
Brain scientific research needs cases. With case data, scientific comparisons and judgments can be made, thereby obtaining more accurate results. This has great significance for the study of depression. For Yan Chaogan, it is also a leap forward.
" There is no failure in life, only no more trying. " From a rural teacher to a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yan Chaogan's career as a scientist has lasted twenty years. No matter how long the road to your dream is, it has an end. As long as you keep your feet on the ground and run forward, you will eventually reach the other side of your dream!
