Hao-Lun Fu

I am a DPhil student in the Plasticity Group at the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN), supervised by Prof. Heidi Johansen-Berg, Prof. Timothy Denison, and Dr. Matthew Weightman. My research focuses on how healthy behaviors and sports experiences influence cognitive functioning and brain health.

Prior to my work at Oxford, I explored the positive effects of sports and exercise on the human brain, employing mathematical modeling techniques and neuroimaging methods, such as EEG, to investigate the cognitive and neural mechanisms involved.

In my DPhil project, I am shifting focus to examine the potential negative impacts of sports, particularly head injuries and impacts. Specifically, I aim to use EEG and MRI to investigate how concussions and mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) affect the brain. My ultimate goal is to develop objective brain-based biomarkers that can assist in pitch-side assessments for return-to-play or return-to-field decisions in sports.

My DPhil is funded by the Taiwanese Ministry of Education as part of the Government Scholarship to Study Abroad.

Outside of my academic work, I am also a Paralympic athlete with visual impairments (T13/F13 classification). I have been a two-time national champion in the Pentathlon event (long jump, javelin, 100m, discus, and 1500m in one day) at the National Paralympic Games in Taiwan. This experience has been a major source of inspiration for my research in sports and exercise neuroscience.