Prof. Fan CAO
Associate Professor
EDUCATION
| 2004-2009 | Ph.D. Northwestern University, Communication Sciences and Disorders |
| 2001-2004 | Master, Beijing Normal University, Psychology |
| 1997-2001 | Bachelor, Beijing Normal University, Psychology |
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
| 2022-present | Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Hong Kong |
| 2017-2022 | Professor, Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China |
| 2014-2018 | Assistant Professor, Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. USA |
| 2011-2013 | Assistant Professor, elite Nanyang Assistant Professor, Division of Psychology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore |
| 2009-2011 | Post-doctoral fellow, Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh, USA |
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research interests include reading development and disorders, second language learning, as well as joint attention in young children with ASD. I study these research questions as a way to understand neural plasticity. I am interested in the neural mechanisms underlying these developmental and learning disorders, as well as how brain structure and function change following behavioral intervention.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Feng G*, Shen L, Shi L, Yan X, Liang Y, Zhang L, Zuo S, Wu Y, Cao F. (2025). Brain changes following two reading interventions in Chinese children with reading disability. Developmental Science.
Xu S*, Wang X, Shen L, Yan X, Feng G, Cao F. (2025). Brain functional differences during irony comprehension in adolescents with ASD. Cerebral Cortex. 35(2) bhaf003, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaf003
Yan, X.*, Fu, Y., Feng, G., Li, H., Su, H., Liu, X., Wu, Y., Hua, J., & Cao F. (2024). Reading disability is characterized by reduced print–speech convergence. Child Development, 00, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14134
Yan, X. *, Feng, G., Fu, Y., Hua, J., & Cao F, (2024). Age-related changes in individuals with and without reading disability: Behavioral and fMRI evidence. Imaging Neuroscience, 2, 1-18.
Yan X*, Jiang K, Li H, Wang Z, Perkins K, & Cao F. (2021). Convergent and divergent structural and functional brain abnormalities associated with developmental dyslexia. eLife. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.69523
Cao F, Yan X, Yan X, Zhou H, Booth JR. (2021) Reading disability in Chinese children learning English as an L2. Child Development. 92(2): e126-e142.
* indicates the first author is/was a student or post-doc in my lab.
RESEARCH LABORATORY
There are several projects going on in my lab. Along the research line of reading disability, we are examining developmental changes from dyslexic children to dyslexic adults in order to understand when there is reading disability, how one develops reading both behaviorally and neurologically. We are also developing intervention programs for dyslexic children and adults with a combination of brain stimulation. We are interested in developing a classification model to predict who will respond to the intervention and who will not using multimodal neuroimaging data. Along the research line of second language learning, we are conducting studies to understand why children have an advantage in foreign speech imitation and perception compared to adults. Along the research line of ASD, we are trying to understand why figurative language comprehension is so challenging for adolescents with ASD. We are also studying joint attention in young children with ASD using hyper-scanning with fNIRS.
RESEARCH INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
I would be more than happy to provide internship opportunities. Please contact me.
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