As part of our mission to advance neuroimaging research and train the next generation of scientists, CCBBI launched the CCBBI Postdoctoral Fellowship Program to attract outstanding early-career researchers to OSU. 

CCBBI is pleased to introduce the inaugural recipients of the CCBBI Postdoctoral Fellowship, Dr. Li Yang and Dr. Xuan Yang. 

Dr. Li Yang earned her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at the University of California, Riverside, with Dr. Weiwei Zhang. Her research focused on time perception and visual working memory, particularly how physical effort changes our sense of time and how similarity between visual items shapes memory.

Dr. Xuan Yang received his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Psychology at the University of South Carolina. His research majorly focused on how affect is represented in the brain using naturalistic paradigms and both univariate and multivariate approaches. 

Who are you working with at OSU and what research/opportunities are you most excited about pursuing?

Dr. Li Yang: I’m working with Dr. Brynn Sherman to investigate how changes in memory representations influence time perception. Specifically, I’m interested in how learning changes the way the hippocampus organizes memories, making events feel closer together or farther apart in time. I’m excited to combine behavioral experiments with high-resolution brain imaging, exchange ideas across labs, and mentor undergraduate researchers.

Dr. Xuan Yang: will be working with Dr. Kristen Lindquist and especially excited to investigate the neurobiological mechanisms underlying emotional responding and how they change across the lifespan.

Was there something unique about Ohio/OSU/CCBBI that brought you here? 

Dr. Li Yang: What especially drew me here was the combination of Dr. Sherman’s research on memory and subjective time, CCBBI’s neuroimaging resources, and OSU’s interdisciplinary research community. Together, they offer an exciting opportunity to connect my background in behavior and cognition with questions about how the brain constructs our experience of time. CCBBI’s emphasis on mentorship and professional development also made it a strong fit for my goal of building an independent research program.

Dr. Xuan Yang: The opportunity to work with Dr. Lindquist and the support offered by the CCBBI Postdoctoral Fellowship were the main reasons I chose OSU. I was also drawn to OSU’s large and collaborative neuroimaging community. I’m excited to learn from researchers with diverse expertise, build new collaborations, and grow as an independent researcher.