NYUEast China Normal UniversityNYU Shanghai
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Aihua Chen

Aihua Chen

Professor, Institute of Brain Functional Genomics, East China Normal University

Email: ahchen@brain.ecnu.edu.cn

Phone: 021-6223-7102

Office: Room 205, Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics, 3663 North Zhongshan Road, Shanghai

Research Interests

Multisensory-integration, Heading perception, Decision making, Sequential saccade

Research Summary

Laboratory of Sensation and Action:

The long-term of Dr. Chen’s research is to understand the neural basis of how our brain uses multisensory information to control action. This work requires a combination of behavioral, cognitive and neural analyses. Currently, she focuses on two main projects:

Multi-sensory decision-making. To maintain an accurate percept of our own position, orientation and movement relative to the environment, our brain needs to integrate information from multiple sources (e.g., sensory cues, together with prior knowledge, expectations and context) in order to make perceptual decisions. We perform behavioral and electrophysiological experiments with trained primates by using a 3D virtual reality system and address the contributions of the cortical neurons to heading perception and neural mechanisms of multisensory cue integration during this perception.

Sequential action Learning. Organizing actions, events, words, memories and thoughts into a sequence is a critical part of everyday behavior. To understand how we perform sequences of tasks and the underlying neural circuitry, we combined primate behavioral, electrophysiology, optogentetics techniques, and neural signals analysis to address specific how large recurrent networks in the brain learn to produce specific sequential saccade behavior.

Education Background

2005    Ph.D., Neurophysiology, Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

2000    B.Sc., Department of Biological Science and Technology, Nanjing University, China

Work/Research Experience

2012 – present    Professor, Institute of Brain Functional Genomics, East China Normal University, China

2010 – 2012    Research Fellow, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, USA

2005 – 2010    Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, USA

Representative Publications
  1. Bin Zhao, Rong Wang, Zhihua Zhu, QianLi Yang*, Aihua Chen*. The computational rules of cross-modality suppression in the visual posterior sylvian area. iScience 2023, 26(6):10673. doi: 910.1016/j.isci.2023.106973. eCollection 2023 Jun 16.
  2. Fu Zeng, Adam Zaidel*, Aihua Chen*. Contrary neuronal recalibration in different multisensory cortical areas. eLife 2023;12:e82895. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.82895.
  3. Ziqi Wu, Aihua Chen*, Xinying Cai*. Neuronal response to reward and luminance in macaque LIP during saccadic choice. Neuroscience Bulletin. 2023, 39(1): 14–28.
  4. Jiawei Zhang, Mingyi Huang, Yong Gu, Aihua Chen*, Yuguo Yu*. Visual-Based Spatial Coordinate Dominates Probabilistic Multisensory Inference in Macaque MST-d Disparity Encoding. Brain Sciences. 2022, 12, 1387.
  5. Jiawei Zhang, Yong Gu, Aihua Chen*, Yuguo Yu*. Unveiling Dynamic System Strategies for Multisensory Processing: From Neuronal Fixed-Criterion Integration to Population Bayesian Inference. Research Volume 2022, Article ID 9787040.
  6. Shir Shalom-Sperber*, Aihua Chen, Adam Zaidel. Rapid cross-sensory adaptation of self-motion perception. Cortex 148:14-30, 2022 (doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.11.018) (IF=4.027)
  7. Jing Jia, Zhen Puyang, Xin Jin*, Aihua Chen*. Dynamic encoding of saccade sequences in primate frontal eye field. J. Physiology 599.22 (2021): pp5061-5084.
  8. Bin Zhao, Yi Zhang, Aihua Chen*. Encoding of vestibular and optic flow cues to self-motion in the posterior Superior Temporal Polysensory area. J. Physiology 559.16 (2021): pp3937-3954.
  9. Aihua Chen, Fu Zeng, Gregory C. DeAngelis, Dora E. Angelaki*.  Dynamics of heading and choice-related signals in the parieto-insular vestibular cortex of macaque monkeys. J. Neuroscience. 41(14): 3254-3265, 2021.
  10. Wen-Hao Zhang, He Wang, Ai-Hua Chen, Yong Gu, Tai Sing Lee, K.Y. Michael Wong*, Si Wu*. Complementary congruent and opposite neurons achieve concurrent multisensory integration and segregation. eLife. 2019; 8:e43753. doi: 10.7554/eLife.43753
  11. Yingying Zhang, Shasha Li, Danqing Jiang and Aihua Chen*. Response properties of interneurons and pyramidal neurons in macaque MSTd and VPS areas during self-motion. Front. Neural Circuits. 12: 105, 2018 (doi: 10.3389/fncir.2018.00105) 
  12. Mengmeng Shao, Gregory C. DeAngelis, Dora E. Angelaki, Aihua Chen*. Clustering of Heading Selectivity and Perception-Related Activity in the Ventral Intraparietal Area. J. Neurophysiol. 119(3): 1113-1126, 2018  
  13. Yingying Zhang, Danqing Jiang, Shasha Li, Peiji Liang, Aihua Chen*. Progress in multisensory integration during self-motion processing, Acta Physiologica Siinica. 69(5): 693-702, 2017 
  14. Aihua Chen, Yong Gu, Sheng Liu, Gregory C. DeAngelis, Dora E. Angelaki*. Evidence for a Causal Contribution of Macaque Vestibular, but not intraparietal, cortex to heading perception. J.Neuroscience. 36(13): 3789-3798, 2016. 
  15. Wenhao Zhang, Aihua Chen, Malte J. Rasch*, Si Wu*. Decentralized multisensory information integration in neural systems. J.Neuroscience. 36(2): 532-547, 2016. 
  16. Tatyana A. Yakusheva, Pablo M. Blazquez, Aihua Chen, Dora E. Angelaki*. Spatiotemporal properties of optic flow and vestibular tuning in the cerebellar nodulus and uvula. J.Neuroscience. 33(38): 15145-15160, 2013. 
  17. Aihua Chen, Gregory C. DeAngelis, Dora E. Angelaki*. Functional Specialization of the Ventral Intraparietal Area for Multisensory Heading Discrimination. J. Neuroscience. 33(8): 3567-3581, 2013. 
  18. Aihua Chen, Gregory C. DeAngelis, Dora E. Angelaki*. Representation of vestibular and visual cues to self-motion in ventral intraparietal cortex. J. Neuroscience. 31(33): 12036-12052, 2011. 
  19. Aihua Chen, Gregory C. DeAngelis, Dora E. Angelaki*. Convergence of vestibular and visual self-motion signals in an area of the posterior sylvian fissure. J. Neuroscience. 31(32): 11617-11627, 2011. 
  20. Aihua Chen, Gregory C. DeAngelis, Dora E. Angelaki*. A comparison of vestibular spatiotemporal tuning in macaque parietoinsular vestibular cortex, ventral intraparietal area, and medial superior temporal area. J. Neuroscience. 31(8): 3082-3094, 2011 
  21. Aihua Chen, Gregory C. DeAngelis, Dora E. Angelaki*. Macaque Parieto-Insular Vestibular Cortex: Responses to self-motion and optic flow. J. Neuroscience. 30(8): 3022-3042, 2010 
  22. Aihua Chen, Yong Gu, Katsumasa Takahashi, Dora E. Angelaki, Gregory C. DeAngelis*. Clustering of self-motion selectivity and visual response properties in Macaque Area MSTd. J. Neurophysiol. 100(5):2669-2683, 2008