Liujunli Li, PhD ’23, successfully defended her PhD dissertation! Li’s current research focuses on orienting movements and spatial cognition. Her PhD thesis seeks to understand the role of the frontal orienting field (FOF) in multi-directional orienting. One of the key findings is that the rat FOF encodes orienting plans primarily in the action but not the goal space, and individual FOF neurons also track the world-centered head position in addition to encoding the upcoming orienting direction.
“Liujunli was a model student”, commented by Li’s advisor Dr. Jeffrey C. Erlich. “She took ownership of her project, widely read the relevant literature, and did very careful and thoughtful analyses on a complex dataset. I am confident she will continue to make important contributions to systems neuroscience."
Li joined the Neural Science PhD Program in 2017 from Fudan University. She reflects on her 6-year wonderful journey at NYU Shanghai and the joint research institute, “none of these would have been made without the supervision and guidance from my advisor Dr. Erlich, the contribution from my collaborators, the help and support from all the lab members, and also the supportive and stimulating environment for scientific research at NYU Shanghai.”