I am a circuit neuroscientist studying autonomic functions, interested in how cardiovascular states are interacted with the nervous system, and how that understanding can be leveraged to restore function after neurological injury. I use brain-computer interfaces as a bidirectional bridge: circuit models inform device design, and closed-loop devices serve as probes for the circuits they target. I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Calgary in the Phillips Lab, supported by the CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Eyes High Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Research Interests
- Circuit mechanisms of autonomic functions
- Closed-loop neuromodulation and brain–computer interfaces for neurological disorders
- Digital phenotyping of autonomic dysfunction in clinical and real-world settings
Selected Publications
- Yang, W. et al., 2026. Scalable digital assessment of hypotension symptom burden anchored to blood pressure responses in spinal cord injury (Nature npj Digital Medicine in revision.)
- Yang, W. et al., 2026. Creating true and false memories from forgotten information in Drosophila. Nature Neuroscience (Accepted)
- Yang, W. et al., 2019. Visual contrast modulates operant learning responses in larval zebrafish. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 13, 4.
- Cong, L., Wang, Z., …, Yang, W., …, & Wen, Q. 2017. Rapid whole brain imaging of neural activity in freely behaving larval zebrafish. eLife, 6, e28158.
Recent News
- 2026 March – Drosophila memory paper accepted
- 2024 Oct. – Joined the University of Calgary as Eyes High Postdoctoral Fellow
- 2024 August – Successfully defended PhD at Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel