I am Cheng Tong, a full-time PhD student under Dr Sonata Yau’s supervision. I received my master’s degree from Jinan University in Guangzhou, with my research focusing on investigating the rehabilitation effect of exercise on cocaine addiction. I want to pursue my PhD in the field of exercise rehabilitation. I noticed that the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences at PolyU could provide me with a very excellent platform for conducting exercise research using both human and animal models, which might help to transfer the outcomes of our animal experiments to clinical research. This prompted me to choose RS of PolyU to continue my studies.
My research is to investigate the effect of long-term aerobic exercise and acute aerobic exercise on brain synaptic plasticity. We all know that exercise can benefit our mental health and reduce stress. However, few studies have focused on investigating the circuit and related molecular mechanism. I will start with healthy and depression models and investigate how one single bout of exercise improves emotion and strengthens circuit connections. I hope my research can provide some positive ideas for the research on clinical exercise therapy.
