Hi, I'm Hua Tang
Systems and Computational Neuroscience
I am a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of neuropsychology at NIMH. I'm using a combination of high electrode count neurophysiology and fiber photometry, aiming to understand the frontal-striatal circuitry that underlies reinforcement learning in macaques.
During my Ph.D., I studied how rats balance the costs and benefits in effort-based decision making, and the neural basis of how training improves the working memory capacity and facilitates the training effects transfer between tasks in macaques.
In general, I am interested in revealing how neurons in the brain work together to create ideas and guide our behaviors. To be more specific, investigating the cortical-subcortical neural circuitries that underlie cognitive functions, including working memory, reinforcement learning, and cooperation.
In my spare time, I am a popular science writer (in Chinese) and founded a non-profit pop-science organization to spread cutting-edge findings in neuroscience.
Events
Aug 25, 2022: BBRF Young Investigator Grant awarded!
Nov 1, 2021: Personal website online!
Professional Experience
September 2018 - Present: Postdoc Fellow, working with Bruno Averbeck at NIMH.
September 2019 - August 2022: CCB Fellow, National Institutes of Health.
July 2018 - September 2018: Research Fellow, working with Christos Constantinidis at Wake Forest University.
Education
July 2015 - February 2018: Visiting Ph.D. student, Neuroscience, Wake Forest University. Supervised by Christos Constantinidis.
September 2012 - June 2018: Ph.D., Neuroscience, Nanchang University, China. Supervised by Bao-ming Li（李葆明）.
September 2008 - July 2012: B.S., Biology, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China.
Invited Talks and Symposia
2023
Representation of tokens in the ventral frontostriatal circuitry
University of Florida, Early Career Neuroscientist seminar, July 26, 2023
Neural circuit mechanisms of Learning & Memory
NIMH, Laboratory of Neuropsychology (LN), February 12, 2023
Neural decoding approaches to understanding learning and memory
Park City Winter Conference on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, January 7, 2023
2022
Neural circuit mechanisms underlying learning from gains and losses in monkeys
NIH, Center on Compulsive Behaviors (CCB) summer seminar, June 24, 2022
Neural circuit mechanisms underlying learning from gains and losses in monkeys
NIMH, Laboratory of Neuropsychology (LN), April 27, 2022
2021
Differential coding of value and action in the ventral and dorsal circuits
NIMH, Laboratory of Neuropsychology (LN), March 10, 2021
Differential coding of value and action in the ventral and dorsal circuits
University of Geneva, Pouget lab, January 6, 2021
2020
Dopamine signals in the ventral striatum code reward prediction errors but not cue values in reinforcement learning
NIH, Center on Compulsive Behaviors (CCB) retreat. October 1, 2020.
Dopamine signaling of reward prediction errors in dorsal and ventral striatum
NIMH IRP Investigators’ Seminar, September 8, 2020
Meso-scale functional organization of macaque lateral prefrontal cortex
NIMH, Laboratory of Neuropsychology (LN), April 1, 2020
Dopamine signals in the ventral striatum code reward prediction errors but not cue values in reinforcement learning
NIMH, Fellows’ Afternoon Neuroscience Seminar (FANS), February 20, 2020
2019
The rostro-caudal axis of macaque lateral prefrontal cortex is sensitive to spatial and feature information
University of Geneva, Pouget lab, November 20, 2019
Dopamine signaling of reward prediction errors in the dorsal and ventral striatum.
NIH, Center on Compulsive Behaviors (CCB) retreat, September 20, 2019
2018
Training effects on working memory
NIMH, Laboratory of Neuropsychology (LN), January 18, 2018