Academic Staff
- HHB703, Hung Hom Bay Campus
- +852 2766 7682
- yixin-yz.zhang@polyu.edu.hk
ORCID ID
SCOPUS IDBiography
Yixin has conducted interdisciplinary research on speech prosody and emotion recognition in Cantonese-speaking children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), using behavioral experiments, acoustic analysis, and EEG. She has developed validated audiovisual stimuli tailored for ASD populations and initiated a family-centered study on Broader Autism Phenotype (BAP) traits in Hong Kong. She is ADOS-2 trained and has extensive experience in experimental design for tonal languages, particularly Cantonese and Mandarin.
Professional Qualifications
- Sep 2022 - Aug 2024
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, HK PolyU
Research Interests
Selected Publications
- Zhang, Y., Chen, S., Li, M., Li, B., Lu, S., Chan, A., Ge, H., Tang, T., & Chen, Z. (2025). Sung-speech training improves non-native speech prosody produced by children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 68(12), 5833-5853. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_jslhr-25-00104
- Chen, S., Zhang, Y. (corresponding author), Li, M., Li, B., Lu, S., Chan, A., Ge, H., Tang, T., & Chen, Z. (2025). Acquisition of speech prosody in a non-native tone language by children with and without autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 55, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-024-06698-4
- Chen, S., Zhang, Y. (corresponding author), Zhou, F., Chan, A., Li, B., Li, B., Tang, T., Chun, E., & Chen, Z. (2024). Focus-marking in a tonal language: Prosodic differences between Cantonese-speaking children with and without autism spectrum disorder. PLOS ONE, 19(7), e0306272. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306272
- Zhang, Y., Wong, E. C. H., & Wong, M. N. (2024). Tone–vowel interaction and co-articulation in Cantonese speakers with apraxia of speech and co-existing aphasia: A preliminary study. Aphasiology, 38(10), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2024.2441203
- Zhang, Y., Chen, X., Chen, S., Meng, Y., & Lee, A. (2023). Visual-auditory perception of prosodic focus in Japanese by native and non-native speakers. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 17, 1237395. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1237395
- Zhang, Y., Nolan, F., & Friedrichs, D. (2022). Perceptual clustering of high-pitched vowels in Chinese Yue Opera. Speech Communication, 137, 60–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2022.01.004
- Zhang, Y., Schmidt, E., & Post, B. (2022). Perception of intonation on neutral tone in Mandarin. Frontiers in Communication, 7, 849132. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2022.849132
- Schwarz, J., Li, K. K., Sim, J. H., Zhang, Y., Buchanan-Worster, E., Post, B., Gibson, J. L., & McDougall, K. (2022). Semantic cues modulate children’s and adults’ processing of audiovisual face mask speech. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1000000. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1000000
- Zhang, Y. (2023). Laboratory phonology. In The thematic study of Modern Chinese [現代漢語專題研究]. Wuhan: Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press [華中科技大學出版社].
