Curriculum Vitae
Education
- Ph.D in Cognitive Sciences with a Concentration in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of California Irvine, 2022
- M.S. in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of California Irvine, 2020
- M.A. in Geography, University of California Santa Barbara, 2019
- B.S. in Psychology, South China Normal University, 2014
Work experience
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Massachussets General Hospital (MGH) & Harvard Medical School (HMS) July. 2022 – present
Data Science Instructor for Guided Projects, Coursera Inc. Aug. 2020 – Feb. 2022
Machine Learning Research Intern, Max Planck Institute for Software System. Aug. 2021 – Oct. 2021
Instructor of Record, Psychology Fundamentals, University of California Irvine. June 2021 – July 2021
Teaching Assistant, Neuromatch Academy Inc. June 2020 – July 2020
Data Science Intern, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS). June 2019 – Sept. 2019
Publications
Chrastil, E. R., Cheng, Y. (2024). Central Coordination and Integration of Diverse Information to Form a Single Map. In Collective Spatial Cognition. Routledge.
Cheng, Y. , Ling, S., Stern, C. E., Huang, A., Chrastil, E.R. (2023). (Don’t) look where you’re going: Evidence for a travel direction signal in humans that is independent of head direction. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. [preprint] (in press)
Cheng, Y. , Ling, S., Stern, C. E., Chrastil, E.R.. Navigational systems in the human brain dynamically code for past, present, and future trajectories. [preprint]
Billot, B., Magdamo, C., Cheng, Y., Arnold, S. E., Das, S., & Iglesias, J. E. (2023). Robust machine learning segmentation for large-scale analysis of heterogeneous clinical brain MRI datasets. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(9), e2216399120. [pdf]
Cheng, Y. *, He, C. *, Hegarty, M., & Chrastil, E. R. (2022). Who Believes They Are Good Navigators? A Machine Learning Pipeline Highlights the Impact of Gender, Commuting Time, and Education. Machine Learning with Applications, 100419. *denotes equal authorship [pdf] Editor’s Choice Articles
Cheng, Y.. Dissertation: Travel Direction as a Fundamental Component of Human Navigation: Integrating Psychophysics, Neuroimaging, and Computational Modeling Approaches https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9jg79944
‘t Hart, B. M., Adeyemi, A., Akrami, A., Alicea, B., Alonso-Andres, A., … Cheng, Y. , … Vishne, G. (2022). Neuromatch Academy: a 3-week, online summer school in computational neuroscience. The Journal of Open Source Education, 5(49), 118. [preprint] [pdf]
Cheng, Y.., & Chrastil, L. (2021, November 30). From Individual Cognitive Maps to a Collective Cognitive Map: Prescriptive Guidelines and Measurement of Factors that Could Distort the Mapping Process. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/7ygk2 [pdf]
Cheng, Y., Hegarty, M., & Chrastil, E. R. (2020). Telling right from right: the influence of handedness in the mental rotation of hands. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 5, 1-18. [pdf]
Sun, L., Tan, P. *, Cheng, Y. *, Chen, J., & Qu, C. (2015). The effect of altruistic tendency on fairness in third-party punishment. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 820. *denotes equal authorship [pdf]
Qu, L., Dou, W., Cheng, Y., & Qu, C. (2014). The processing course of conflicts in third‐party punishment: An event‐related potential study. PsyCh Journal, 3(3), 214-221. [pdf]
Select Conference Presentations
Oral Presentations
Cheng, Y. . Deep Learning Clinical, Cognitive, and Neuroimaging Phenotypes from the MGH Memory Disorder Unit (MDU) Patients, MGH Memory Disorder Unit (MDU) Conference, Virtual. May, 2023.
Cheng, Y. . Predicting AD Status with Brain Morphometry: Utilizing Cerebrospinal Fluid as a Biomarker, Joint UCSF/MGH REC Scholars Program Event, Virtual. April, 2023.
Cheng, Y. , Ling, S., Stern, C. E., Chrastil, E.R.. Evidence for a distributed head direction and travel trajectory system in the human brain during active navigation, Society for Neuroscience, San Diego. Nov., 2022. [news]
Cheng, Y., Chrastil, E.R.. Sex Differences in Head Direction Signals When Learning a Complex Environment. Neuromatch Conference 4.0 Flash Talk, Virtual, Dec., 2021. [news] [video]
Cheng, Y. . Head Direction Signals in the Human Brain When Exploring in a Complex Environment, UCI Cognitive Sciences Colloquium Flash Talk. Dec., 2021.
Cheng, Y. . Head Direction Signals in the Human Brain When Exploring in a Complex Environment, UCI Cognitive Sciences Colloquium Flash Talk. Nov., 2021.
Cheng, Y. . Head Direction Signals in the Human Brain When Exploring in a Complex Environment: A Machine Learning Approach, UCI Cognitive Sciences Colloquium Flash Talk. Oct., 2021.
Cheng, Y. . Travel Direction as a Fundamental Component of Human Navigation, UCI Cognitive Sciences Colloquium Flash Talk. Oct., 2021.
Cheng, Y. , Chrastil, E.R.. Head Direction Signals During Navigation. Virtual Spring CNLM Conference - Memory: It’s About Time, Virtual. May, 2021. [news]
Cheng, Y. . Finding the Compass: Head Direction Signals in the Human Brain. UCI CNLM Awards Ceremony, Virtual. May, 2021. [news]
Cheng, Y. , Chrastil, E.R.. The Emergence of Head Direction Signals in Human Navigation, The Emergence of Head Direction Signals in Human Navigation. UCI Associated Graduate Students (AGS) Symposium, Virtual. April, 2021. Audience Choice Award [news]
Cheng, Y. , Ling, S., Stern, C. E., Huang, A., Chrastil, E.R.. Travel Direction as a Fundamental Component of Human Navigation, Neuromatch Conference 3.0, Virtual. Oct., 2020. [news] [video]
Cheng, Y. , Ling, S., Stern, C. E., Huang, A., Chrastil, E.R.. Travel Direction as a Fundamental Component of Human Navigation, Interdisciplinary Navigation Symposium (iNAV), Virtual. Oct., 2020. [news]
Cheng, Y. . Travel Direction as a Fundamental Component of Human Navigation, UCI Cognitive Sciences Department Graduate Student Presentation Bonanza, Irvine. Jan., 2020.
Cheng, Y. . What Are the Sex Differences in Navigation Training? Using Sea Hero Quest Dataset, UCSB Crossroads Symposium, Santa Barbara. Nov., 2019.
Downs, M., Davis, F., Brun, J., Huang, T., Cheng, Y. . Greater Than the Sum of the Parts: Collaboration in the U.S. LTER Network, International Long-Term Ecosystem Research Open Science Meeting (ILTER OSM), Leipzig, Germany. Sept., 2019.
Cheng, Y. . Domain-General Distance Representation, Spring Quarter UCSB Geography Department Colloquium, Santa Barbara. May, 2019.
Cheng, Y. , Chrastil, E.R.. From Individual Cognitive Maps to a Collective Cognitive Map: Prescriptive Guidelines, Collective Spatial Cognition Specialist Meeting, Santa Barbara. April, 2019.
Cheng, Y. . Left Hand, Right Hand. 2018 Spatial Lightening Talks, UCSB Center for Spatial Studies, Santa Barbara. Feb., 2018. [video]
Cheng, Y. , Liang, Y., Tang, Z.. Mixed Time-Based and Event-Based Prospective Memory: A Behavioral Study, the 16th National Academic Congress of Psychology, Nanjing, China. Nov., 2013.
Poster Presentations
Cheng, Y. ., Ho, E., Weintraub, S., Rentz, D., Gershon, R., Das, S., Dodge, H.. Predicting Brain Amyloid Status Using the NIH Toolbox for Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function, Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC), Amsterdam, Netherlands, July, 2023.
Starrett Ambrose M., Cheng, Y. , Davis, R., Tranquada-Torres, B., Chrastil, E.R.. Domain generality and specificity across egocentric and allocentric distance ratings, Society for Neuroscience, San Diego. Nov., 2022.
Tyagi T., Magdamo C., Cheng, Y. , West M., Noori A., Liu X., Serrano-Pozo A., Hyman B., Mukerji S., Westover M.B., Blacker D., Das S.. Deep Learning Natural Language Processing to Detect Cognitive Impairment in Charts from Electronic Health Records. MGH Annual Clinical Research Day, Virtual. Oct., 2022. Team Science - Honorable Mention
Cheng, Y. , Chrastil, E.R., Krichmar, J.. A Recurrent Neural Network Model of Travel Direction in Humans, Women in Machine Learning (WiML) Un-Workshop, International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), Virtual. July, 2022. [news] [video]
Cheng, Y. , Chrastil, E.R., Krichmar, J.. A Recurrent Neural Network Model of Travel Direction in Humans, Interdisciplinary Navigation Symposium (iNAV), Virtual. June, 2022. [news]
Cheng, Y. , Ling, S., Stern, C. E., Huang, A., Chrastil, E.R.. Travel Direction as a Fundamental Component of Human Navigation, Harvard Women in Psychology’s Annual Trends in Psychology Summit (TiPS), Virtual. Nov., 2021. [news]
Cheng, Y., Chrastil, E.R.. Sex Differences in Head Direction Signals When Learning a Complex Environment. Society for Neuroscience, Virtual. Nov., 2021. [news]
Cheng, Y.* , He C. *, Spiers H., Coutrot A., Hornberger M., Hegarty M., Chrastil, E.R.. Self-Evaluations of Navigation Ability: A Big Data Approach. Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting, Virtual. Nov., 2021. *denotes equal authorship [news]
Cheng, Y., Chrastil, E.R.. Head Direction Signals During Navigation: Comparing Movement And Stationary Periods. Spatial Cognition, Virtual. Aug., 2021. [news]
Cheng, Y. , Chrastil, E.R.. The Emergence of Head Direction Signals in a Complex Environment. Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), Virtual. June, 2021. [news]
Cheng, Y. , Chrastil, E.R.. The Emergence of Head Direction Signals in Human Navigation. spatial@ucsb.global2021: Spatial Data Science for a Sustainable Future, Virtual. June, 2021. [news]
Cheng, Y. , Chrastil, E.R.. The Emergence of Head Direction Signals in Human Navigation, Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS) Annual Meeting, Virtual. March, 2021. [news]
Cheng, Y. , Chrastil, E.R.. The Emergence of Head Direction Signals in Human Navigation, Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program (INP) recruitment session, Virtual. Jan., 2021. [news]
Cheng, Y. , Chrastil, E.R.. The Emergence of Head Direction Signals in Human Navigation, Society for Neuroscience Global Connectome, Virtual. Jan., 2021. [news]
Cheng, Y. , Chrastil, E.R.. The Emergence of Head Direction Signals in Human Navigation, Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting, Virtual. Nov., 2020. [news]
Downs, M., Brun, J., Huang, T., Cheng, Y. . Greater Than the Sum of the Parts: Collaboration in and Beyond the U.S. LTER Network, Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Virtual. Aug., 2020.
Cheng, Y. , Ling, S., Stern, C. E., Huang, A., Chrastil, E.R.. Travel Direction as a Fundamental Component of Human Navigation, Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program (INP) recruitment session, Irvine. Jan., 2020.
Cheng, Y. , Ling, S., Stern, C. E., Huang, A., Chrastil, E.R.. Travel Direction as a Fundamental Component of Human Navigation, Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada. Nov., 2019.
Cheng, Y. , Hegarty, M., Chrastil, E.R.. Embodied Experience of the ‘Wrong’ Hand, Not World Knowledge, Supports the Mental Rotation of Hands, Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting, New Orleans, USA. Nov., 2018.
Cheng, Y. , Hegarty, M., Chrastil, E.R.. Performance Discrepancy Between Left-handers and Right-handers Reveals Multisensory Integration in the Mental Rotation of Hands, Spatial Cognition, Tübingen, Germany. Aug., 2018.
Cheng, Y. , Ling, S., Stern, C. E., Huang, A., Chrastil, E.R.. Travel Direction as a Fundamental Component of Human Navigation, Interdisciplinary Navigation Symposium (iNAV), Quebec, Canada. June, 2018.
Cheng, Y. , Ling, S., Stern, C. E., Huang, A., Chrastil, E.R.. Are You Getting Closer to the Sun or to the Moon? An Unusual Motion Adaptation Effect of Travel Direction. spatial@ucsb.local2018, UCSB Center for Spatial Studies. University of California, Santa Barbara. June, 2018.
Chrastil, E.R., Nicora, G., Davis, R., Smith, J., Cheng, Y. . The Influence of Decision-Making on Spatial Learning and Memory: An Individual Differences Approach, Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, Washington DC, USA. Nov., 2017.
Cheng, Y. , Qu, C.. Cost Consideration Driven by Prosociality in Third-party Punishment: Using Feedback Related Negativity, Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, Chicago, USA. Oct., 2015.