Hi, I'm Hua Tang
Systems and Computational Neuroscience
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I am a Professor at Beijing Normal University. I'm using a combination of high-electrode-count neurophysiology and fiber photometry 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, as well as the neural basis of how training improves working memory capacity and facilitates the transfer of training effects 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 high-level cognition, including working memory, reinforcement learning, mental calculation, and cooperation.
In my spare time, I am a popular science writer (in Chinese) and founded a non-profit pop-science organization, iBrainTalks (脑人言), to deliver cutting-edge findings in neuroscience to the public.
Events
Events
July 1, 2025: Tang Lab opens at Beijing Normal University!!!
Aug 25, 2022: BBRF Young Investigator Grant awarded!
Nov 1, 2021: Personal website online!
Professional Experience
Professional Experience
Oct 2025 - Present: Principal Investigator, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University
July 2025 - Present: Professor, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University
July 2023 - June 2025: Research Fellow, working with Bruno Averbeck at NIMH.
Sep 2018 - July 2023: Postdoc Fellow, working with Bruno Averbeck at NIMH.
Sep 2019 - Aug 2022: CCB Fellow, National Institutes of Health.
July 2018 - Sep 2018: Research Fellow, working with Christos Constantinidis at Wake Forest University.
Education
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
Invited Talks and Symposia
2025
Neural circuit coding mechanisms of gains and losses
Fudan University, December 4, 2025
From cognition to action: perspectives from the ventral and dorsal frontostriatal circuits
East China Normal University & NYU-Shanghai, December 3, 2025
From cognition to action: perspectives from the ventral and dorsal frontostriatal circuits
Chinese Institute for Brain Research, November 6, 2025
Neural circuit mechanisms of higher-level Cognition
Beijing Normal University, IDG / McGovern Institute for Brain Research, October 17, 2025
Neural circuit mechanisms of higher-level cognition: a comparative study in rhesus monkeys and humans
The 18th Annual Meeting of Chinese Neuroscience Society (CNS 2025), Symposium, September 27, 2025
Investigating higher-level cognition in rhesus monkeys using in vivo electrophysiological techniques
Beijing Institute of Technology, Tianyu Life and Health Forum, September 9, 2025
Learning induces plasticity in the frontostriatal circuit
Zhejiang University, Frontiers Science Center for Brain & Brain-machine Integration, July 25, 2025
Neural circuit mechanisms of learning and memory
Hangzhou Normal University, Bo Ya Forum, July 24, 2025
Learning induces neural circuit plasticity
NIMH, LN-LSR-SNL retreat, April 4, 2025
Neural circuit mechanisms of learning and memory
Carnegie Mellon University, Job talk, January 9, 2025
2024
Neural circuit mechanisms of learning and memory
NIH, Center on Compulsive Behaviors (CCB) Journal Club, December 18, 2024
Network computations underlying learning from symbolic gains and losses
American Mathematical Society 2024 Spring Eastern Sectional Meeting, Symposium, April 6, 2024
Neural circuit mechanisms of learning and memory
Beijing Normal University, Young Scholars Forum, January 9, 2024
2023
Flow of value information in the ventral frontostriatal network
NIMH, Laboratory of Neuropsychology (LN), December 13, 2023
Cross-domain information flow in macaque lateral prefrontal cortex
Society for Neuroscience 2023 meeting, Mini-symposium, November 15, 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
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