Winston Chiong, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
Neurology
School of Medicine

His research has two main themes: (1) the neural bases of decision-making in the aging brain, focusing on how brain systems involved in financial and medical decisions are influenced by health and disease; and (2) the ethical, policy and health equity implications of alterations to brain function, informed by the experiences of patients with brain diseases and those undergoing new brain-based therapies.

He is a member of the UCSF Department of Neurology Diversity Committee and the UCSF Medical Center Ethics Committee. Beyond UCSF, he serves on the Neuroethics Working Group of the National Institutes of Health BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Multi-Council Working Group, the American Academy of Neurology’s Ethics, Law and Humanities Committee, and the Board of Directors of the International Neuroethics Society. He is a study section member for the NIH Center for Scientific Review, and is a research mentor in the Association of American Medical Colleges' Career Development Program for Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers (MOSAIC) Scholars (K99/R00) from diverse backgrounds.

His work is informed by his interdisciplinary training in clinical medicine, philosophy and cognitive neuroscience. He received his PhD degree in philosophy from New York University and his MD degree from UCSF. He completed an internship in internal medicine at Stanford University and a residency in neurology at UCSF. He then underwent postdoctoral research training in cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging at UC Berkeley and clinical training in dementia at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center.

• Using Neuroscientific and Clinical Context to Assess and Manage Changes in Core Personal Traits Caused by Deep Brain Stimulation.
  AJOB neuroscience 2023 Hoy CW, Little SJ, Chiong W
• Ethical considerations in rapid and novel treatments in psychiatry.
  Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology 2023 Haeusermann T, Chiong W
• Contrasting two models of utilitarian reasoning.
  Heliyon 2023 Antoniou R, Romero-Kornblum H, Young JC, You M, Kramer JH, Rankin KP, Chiong W
• Future directions in psychiatric neurosurgery: Proceedings of the 2022 American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery meeting on surgical neuromodulation for psychiatric disorders.
  Brain stimulation 2023 Hitti FL, Widge AS, Riva-Posse P, Malone DA, Okun MS, Shanechi MM, Foote KD, Lisanby SH, Ankudowich E, Chivukula S, Chang EF, Gunduz A, Hamani C, Feinsinger A, Kubu CS, Chiong W, Chandler JA, …
• "Out of the clear blue sky she tells me she loves me": Connection experiences between caregivers and people with dementia.
  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2023 Sideman AB, Merrilees J, Dulaney S, Kiekhofer R, Braley T, Lee K, Chiong W, Miller B, Bonasera SJ, Possin KL
• Effect of collaborative dementia care on potentially inappropriate medication use: Outcomes from the Care Ecosystem randomized clinical trial.
  Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association 2022 Liu AK, Possin KL, Cook KM, Lynch S, Dulaney S, Merrilees JJ, Braley T, Kiekhofer RE, Bonasera SJ, Allen IE, Chiong W, Clark AM, Feuer J, Ewalt J, Guterman EL, Gearhart R, Miller BL, Lee KP
• Clinician preferences for neurotechnologies in pediatric drug-resistant epilepsy: A discrete choice experiment.
  Epilepsia 2022 Apantaku GO, McDonald PJ, Aguiar M, Cabrera LY, Chiong W, Connolly MB, Hrincu V, Ibrahim GM, Kaal KJ, Lawson A, Naftel R, Racine E, Safari A, Harrison M, Illes J
• Decisions With Patients and Families Regarding Aducanumab in Alzheimer Disease, With Recommendations for Consent: AAN Position Statement.
  Neurology 2022 Chiong W, Tolchin BD, Bonnie RJ, Busl K, Cruz-Flores S, Epstein LG, Greene EP, Illes J, Kirschen M, Larriviere DG, Mantri S, Rubin MA, Stern BJ, Taylor LP, Ethics, Law, and Humanities Committee (a …
• Consent Issues in the Management of Acute Ischemic Stroke: AAN Position Statement.
  Neurology 2022 Sattin JA, Chiong W, Bonnie RJ, Kirschen MP, Russell JA, Ethics, Law, and Humanities Committee, a joint committee of the American Academy of Neurology, Ameri
• Use of Telephone- and Internet-Based Support to Elicit and Address Financial Abuse and Mismanagement in Dementia: Experiences from the Care Ecosystem Study.
  Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD 2022 Manivannan M, Heunis J, Hooper SM, Bernstein Sideman A, Lui KP, Braley TL, Possin KL, Chiong W
• Evidence for the Ethics of Incentivizing Clinical Trial Enrollment?
  JAMA internal medicine 2021 Ngo S, Kim AS, Chiong W
• Supported Decision-Making for People with Dementia Should Focus on Their Values.
  The American journal of bioethics : AJOB 2021 Jaworska A, Chiong W
• Reduced utilitarian willingness to violate personal rights during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  PloS one 2021 Antoniou R, Romero-Kornblum H, Young JC, You M, Kramer JH, Chiong W
• Corrigendum: Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Deep Brain Stimulation Think Tank: Advances in Optogenetics, Ethical Issues Affecting DBS Research, Neuromodulatory Approaches for Depression, Adaptive Neurostimulation, and Emerging DBS Technologies.
  Frontiers in human neuroscience 2021 Vedam-Mai V, Deisseroth K, Giordano J, Lazaro-Munoz G, Chiong W, Suthana N, Langevin JP, Gill J, Goodman W, Provenza NR, Halpern CH, Shivacharan RS, Cunningham TN, Sheth SA, Pouratian N, Scangos KW, …
• Closed-Loop Neuromodulation and Self-Perception in Clinical Treatment of Refractory Epilepsy.
  AJOB neuroscience 2021 Haeusermann T, Lechner CR, Fong KC, Bernstein Sideman A, Jaworska A, Chiong W, Dohan D
• Guidelines for Conducting Ethical Artificial Intelligence Research in Neurology: A Systematic Approach for Clinicians and Researchers.
  Neurology 2021 Chiang S, Picard RW, Chiong W, Moss R, Worrell GA, Rao VR, Goldenholz DM
• Ethical Considerations in Dementia Diagnosis and Care: AAN Position Statement.
  Neurology 2021 Chiong W, Tsou AY, Simmons Z, Bonnie RJ, Russell JA, Ethics, Law, and Humanities Committee (a joint committee of the American Academy of Neurology, Ameri
• Choice and Trade-offs: Parent Decision Making for Neurotechnologies for Pediatric Drug-Resistant Epilepsy.
  Journal of child neurology 2021 Hrincu V, McDonald PJ, Connolly MB, Harrison MJ, Ibrahim GM, Naftel RP, Chiong W, Alam A, Ribary U, Illes J
• Wisdom and fluid intelligence are dissociable in healthy older adults.
  International psychogeriatrics 2021 Lindbergh CA, Romero-Kornblum H, Weiner-Light S, Young JC, Fonseca C, You M, Wolf A, Staffaroni AM, Daly R, Jeste DV, Kramer JH, Chiong W, Hillblom Aging Network
• Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Deep Brain Stimulation Think Tank: Advances in Optogenetics, Ethical Issues Affecting DBS Research, Neuromodulatory Approaches for Depression, Adaptive Neurostimulation, and Emerging DBS Technologies.
  Frontiers in human neuroscience 2021 Vedam-Mai V, Deisseroth K, Giordano J, Lazaro-Munoz G, Chiong W, Suthana N, Langevin JP, Gill J, Goodman W, Provenza NR, Halpern CH, Shivacharan RS, Cunningham TN, Sheth SA, Pouratian N, Scangos KW, …
• New Ethical and Clinical Challenges in "Closed-Loop" Neuromodulation.
  Neurology 2021 Hegde M, Chiong W, Rao VR
• Uncovering social-contextual and individual mental health factors associated with violence via computational inference.
  Patterns (New York, N.Y.) 2021 Santamaría-García H, Baez S, Aponte-Canencio DM, Pasciarello GO, Donnelly-Kehoe PA, Maggiotti G, Matallana D, Hesse E, Neely A, Zapata JG, Chiong W, Levy J, Decety J, Ibáñez A
• A Qualitative Analysis of Ethical Perspectives on Recruitment and Consent for Human Intracranial Electrophysiology Studies.
  AJOB neuroscience 2021 Mergenthaler JV, Chiong W, Dohan D, Feler J, Lechner CR, Starr PA, Arias JJ
• Goals of Care Conversations and Subsequent Advance Care Planning Outcomes for People with Dementia.
  Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD 2021 Ma H, Kiekhofer RE, Hooper SM, Dulaney S, Possin KL, Chiong W
• Novel Neurotechnological Interventions for Pediatric Drug-Resistant Epilepsy: Physician Perspectives.
  Journal of child neurology 2020 McDonald PJ, Hrincu V, Connolly MB, Harrison MJ, Ibrahim GM, Naftel RP, Chiong W, Udwadia F, Illes J
• Neurologists' Duties in Planning for Triage of Critical Care Resources during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
  Annals of neurology 2020 Goss AL, Chiong W, Hemphill JC
• Understanding Advance Directives as a Component of Advance Care Planning.
  The American journal of bioethics : AJOB 2020 Fong KC, Chiong W
• Insiders and Outsiders: Lessons for Neuroethics from the History of Bioethics.
  AJOB neuroscience 2020 Chiong W
• Caregiver "objective attitude" toward patients with neurodegenerative disease: Consequences for caregiver strain and relationship closeness.
  Aging & mental health 2020 Zahir A, Staffaroni AM, Wickham RE, Quinn CM, Sapozhnikova A, Seidman J, Chiong W
• Using care navigation to address caregiver burden in dementia: A qualitative case study analysis.
  Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.) 2020 Bernstein A, Merrilees J, Dulaney S, Harrison KL, Chiong W, Ong P, Heunis J, Choi J, Walker R, Feuer JE, Lee K, Dohan D, Bonasera SJ, Miller BL, Possin KL
• Commentary 1: Researcher Integrity and Contrasting Obligations in Interdisciplinary Research.
  Journal of empirical research on human research ethics : JERHRE 2019 Chiong W, Haeusermann T
• Effect of Collaborative Dementia Care via Telephone and Internet on Quality of Life, Caregiver Well-being, and Health Care Use: The Care Ecosystem Randomized Clinical Trial.
  JAMA internal medicine 2019 Possin KL, Merrilees JJ, Dulaney S, Bonasera SJ, Chiong W, Lee K, Hooper SM, Allen IE, Braley T, Bernstein A, Rosa TD, Harrison K, Begert-Hellings H, Kornak J, Kahn JG, Naasan G, Lanata S, Clark AM, …
• Ethical Challenges of Risk, Informed Consent, and Posttrial Responsibilities in Human Research With Neural Devices: A Review.
  JAMA neurology 2019 Hendriks S, Grady C, Ramos KM, Chiong W, Fins JJ, Ford P, Goering S, Greely HT, Hutchison K, Kelly ML, Kim SYH, Klein E, Lisanby SH, Mayberg H, Maslen H, Miller FG, Rommelfanger K, Sheth SA, Wexler A
• Amount and delay insensitivity during intertemporal choice in three neurodegenerative diseases reflects dorsomedial prefrontal atrophy.
  Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior 2019 Beagle AJ, Zahir A, Borzello M, Kayser AS, Hsu M, Miller BL, Kramer JH, Chiong W
• Association Between Caregiver Depression and Emergency Department Use Among Patients With Dementia.
  JAMA neurology 2019 Guterman EL, Allen IE, Josephson SA, Merrilees JJ, Dulaney S, Chiong W, Lee K, Bonasera SJ, Miller BL, Possin KL
• Proceedings of the Sixth Deep Brain Stimulation Think Tank Modulation of Brain Networks and Application of Advanced Neuroimaging, Neurophysiology, and Optogenetics.
  Frontiers in neuroscience 2019 Ramirez-Zamora A, Giordano J, Boyden ES, Gradinaru V, Gunduz A, Starr PA, Sheth SA, McIntyre CC, Fox MD, Vitek J, Vedam-Mai V, Akbar U, Almeida L, Bronte-Stewart HM, Mayberg HS, Pouratian N, Gittis AH…
• Variations in Costs of a Collaborative Care Model for Dementia.
  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2019 Rosa TD, Possin KL, Bernstein A, Merrilees J, Dulaney S, Matuoka J, Lee KP, Chiong W, Bonasera SJ, Harrison KL, Kahn JG
• The costs of dementia subtypes to California Medicare fee-for-service, 2015.
  Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association 2019 Chen Y, Wilson L, Kornak J, Dudley RA, Merrilees J, Bonasera SJ, Byrne CM, Lee K, Chiong W, Miller BL, Possin KL
• Individual differences in level of wisdom are associated with brain activation during a moral decision-making task.
  Brain and behavior 2019 Thomas ML, Martin AS, Eyler L, Lee EE, Macagno E, Devereaux M, Chiong W, Jeste DV
• Dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) polymorphisms with reduced functional potency intensify atrophy in syndrome-specific sites of frontotemporal dementia.
  NeuroImage. Clinical 2019 Butler PM, Chiong W, Perry DC, Miller ZA, Gennatas ED, Brown JA, Pasquini L, Karydas A, Dokuru D, Coppola G, Sturm VE, Boxer AL, Gorno-Tempini ML, Rosen HJ, Kramer JH, Miller BL, Seeley WW
• The NIH BRAIN Initiative: Integrating Neuroethics and Neuroscience.
  Neuron 2019 Ramos KM, Grady C, Greely HT, Chiong W, Eberwine J, Farahany NA, Johnson LSM, Hyman BT, Hyman SE, Rommelfanger KS, Serrano EE, Churchill JD, Gordon JA, Koroshetz WJ
• Neurodegenerative disorders of the human frontal lobes.
  Handbook of clinical neurology 2019 Butler PM, Chiong W
• The Role of Care Navigators Working with People with Dementia and Their Caregivers.
  Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD 2019 Bernstein A, Harrison KL, Dulaney S, Merrilees J, Bowhay A, Heunis J, Choi J, Feuer JE, Clark AM, Chiong W, Lee K, Braley TL, Bonasera SJ, Ritchie CS, Dohan D, Miller BL, Possin KL
• Neuroethics Guiding Principles for the NIH BRAIN Initiative.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2018 Greely HT, Grady C, Ramos KM, Chiong W, Eberwine J, Farahany NA, Johnson LSM, Hyman BT, Hyman SE, Rommelfanger KS, Serrano EE
• The Care Ecosystem: Promoting self-efficacy among dementia family caregivers.
  Dementia (London, England) 2018 Merrilees JJ, Bernstein A, Dulaney S, Heunis J, Walker R, Rah E, Choi J, Gawlas K, Carroll S, Ong P, Feuer J, Braley T, Clark AM, Lee K, Chiong W, Bonasera SJ, Miller BL, Possin KL
• Informed Consent for the Human Research Subject with a Neurologic Disorder.
  Seminars in neurology 2018 Vaishnav NH, Chiong W
• Neurosurgical Patients as Human Research Subjects: Ethical Considerations in Intracranial Electrophysiology Research.
  Neurosurgery 2018 Chiong W, Leonard MK, Chang EF
• Challenges in Communicating and Understanding Predictive Biomarker Imaging for Alzheimer Disease.
  JAMA neurology 2018 Chiong W
• Head Positioning in Acute Stroke.
  The New England journal of medicine 2017 Feldman WB, Chiong W, Kim SYH
• Response by Feldman et al to Letter Regarding Article, "Trends in Recruitment Rates for Acute Stroke Trials, 1990-2014".
  Stroke 2017 Feldman WB, Kim AS, Chiong W
• Development of an adaptive, personalized, and scalable dementia care program: Early findings from the Care Ecosystem.
  PLoS medicine 2017 Possin KL, Merrilees J, Bonasera SJ, Bernstein A, Chiong W, Lee K, Wilson L, Hooper SM, Dulaney S, Braley T, Laohavanich S, Feuer JE, Clark AM, Schaffer MW, Schenk AK, Heunis J, Ong P, Cook KM, Bowhay…
• Trends in Recruitment Rates for Acute Stroke Trials, 1990-2014.
  Stroke 2017 Feldman WB, Kim AS, Chiong W
• Distinct Subtypes of Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia Based on Patterns of Network Degeneration.
  JAMA neurology 2016 Ranasinghe KG, Rankin KP, Pressman PS, Perry DC, Lobach IV, Seeley WW, Coppola G, Karydas AM, Grinberg LT, Shany-Ur T, Lee SE, Rabinovici GD, Rosen HJ, Gorno-Tempini ML, Boxer AL, Miller ZA, Chiong W,…
• Failures to discuss and document preferences: Preventable medical errors in stroke care.
  Neurology 2016 Xian Y, Chiong W
• Effect of waivers of consent on recruitment in acute stroke trials: A systematic review.
  Neurology 2016 Feldman WB, Kim AS, Josephson SA, Lowenstein DH, Chiong W
• Racial and Ethnic Differences in Advance Directive Possession: Role of Demographic Factors, Religious Affiliation, and Personal Health Values in a National Survey of Older Adults.
  Journal of palliative medicine 2016 Huang IA, Neuhaus JM, Chiong W
• Neuroeconomic dissociation of semantic dementia and behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia.
  Brain : a journal of neurology 2015 Chiong W, Wood KA, Beagle AJ, Hsu M, Kayser AS, Miller BL, Kramer JH
• Inability to consent does not diminish the desirability of stroke thrombolysis.
  Annals of neurology 2014 Chiong W, Kim AS, Huang IA, Farahany NA, Josephson SA
• Testing the presumption of consent to emergency treatment for acute ischemic stroke.
  JAMA 2014 Chiong W, Kim AS, Huang IA, Farahany NA, Josephson SA
• The salience network causally influences default mode network activity during moral reasoning.
  Brain : a journal of neurology 2013 Chiong W, Wilson SM, D'Esposito M, Kayser AS, Grossman SN, Poorzand P, Seeley WW, Miller BL, Rankin KP
• Financial errors in dementia: testing a neuroeconomic conceptual framework.
  Neurocase 2013 Chiong W, Hsu M, Wudka D, Miller BL, Rosen HJ
• Dementia and personal identity: implications for decision-making.
  Handbook of clinical neurology 2013 Chiong W
• The self: from philosophy to cognitive neuroscience.
  Neurocase 2011 Chiong W
• Equipoise and the dilemma of randomized clinical trials.
  The New England journal of medicine 2011 Chiong W
• Therapeutic misconceptions and moral conflict in clinical research.
  Annals of neurology 2010 Chiong W
• Justifying patient risks associated with medical education.
  JAMA 2007 Chiong W
• The real problem with equipoise.
  The American journal of bioethics : AJOB 2006 Chiong W
• Brain death without definitions.
  The Hastings Center report 2005 Chiong W
• Industry-to-physician marketing and the cost of prescription drugs.
  The American journal of bioethics : AJOB 2003 Chiong W
• MSJAMA: diagnosing and defining disease.
  JAMA 2001 Chiong W
• PHOG, a candidate gene for involvement in the short stature of Turner syndrome.
  Human molecular genetics 1997 Ellison JW, Wardak Z, Young MF, Gehron Robey P, Laig-Webster M, Chiong W