Publications

A collection of my research work.

Causal Inference for Preprocessed Outcomes with an Application to Functional Connectivity

Causal Inference for Preprocessed Outcomes with an Application to Functional Connectivity

Zihang Wang, Razieh Nabi, Benjamin B Risk

arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.02240 2026

A semiparametric framework for causal inference with derived outcomes obtained after intra-subject processing. It applies to settings with a modular structure, where intra-subject analyses are conducted independently across subjects and are followed by inter-subject analyses based on parameters from the intra-subject stage.

DOI

Enhancing the discriminatory power of polygenic scores for ADHD and autism in clinical and non-clinical samples

James J Li, Quanfa He, Stephen Dorn, Zihang Wang, Qiongshi Lu

Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders 2025

Psychiatric PGS associations are likely inflated by the high degree of genetic overlap between the psychiatric disorders. Methods such as GenomicSEM can be used to refine PGS signals to be more disorder-specific, thereby enhancing their discriminatory power for future diagnostic applications.

DOI
Sparse independent component analysis with an application to cortical surface fMRI data in autism

Sparse independent component analysis with an application to cortical surface fMRI data in autism

Zihang Wang, Irina Gaynanova, Aleksandr Aravkin, Benjamin B Risk

Journal of the American Statistical Association 2024

A novel Sparse ICA method that enables sparse estimation of independent source components by solving a non-smooth non-convex optimization problem via the relax-and-split framework.

DOICode
GWAS on birth year infant mortality rates provides evidence of recent natural selection

GWAS on birth year infant mortality rates provides evidence of recent natural selection

Yuchang Wu, Shiro Furuya, Zihang Wang, Jenna E Nobles, Jason M Fletcher, Qiongshi Lu

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2022

A genome-wide association study (GWAS) on infant mortality rate can identify recent selection signals, producing well-powered genome-wide maps for selection.

DOI

Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) mechanisms of transdiagnostic polygenic risk for trajectories of depression: From early adolescence to adulthood.

James J Li, Qi Zhang, Zihang Wang, Qiongshi Lu

Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science 2022

This study identifies distinct correlates and risk factors that underlie the various developmental pathways of depression.

DOI