Gender	Male
E-mail	xun.liu@mssm.edu
Education and Training	M.S., Peking University
	Ph.D., University of California at Los Angeles
	B.S, Peking University
	Postdoctoral scholar, University of Kentucky-College of Medicine
	Research associate, Weill Medical College of Cornell University
	Postdoctoral fellow, University of Colorado
	Research associate, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Education and Training	M.S., Peking University
	Ph.D., University of California at Los Angeles
	B.S, Peking University
	Postdoctoral scholar, University of Kentucky-College of Medicine
	Research associate, Weill Medical College of Cornell University
	Postdoctoral fellow, University of Colorado
	Research associate, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Research

Over the past ten years, my research interests have been focused on investigating cognitive and affective controls in human behaviors and the underpinning neural substrates. To study these issues, I have developed and refined a variety of psychological paradigms such as the directed forgetting task (to examine inhibitory control in learning and memory), the integrated Simon-Stroop task, numerical comparison task, object matching task and flanker task (to study attentional control network and its top-down modulation of information processing pathways), as well as the dynamic gambling task (to explore the interaction between cognitive and affective controls in human reward system). With a systematical and complementary approach using various techniques including psychophysical behavioral testing, functional brain imaging and computational modeling, my independent research and collaboration with other colleagues have identified the significance of the frontoparietal control network and the frontostriatal reward circuitry in cognitive and motivational decision making. I am currently collaborating with experts in behavioral genetics and animal neurobiology to translate these basic research findings into preclinical investigation of substance abuse.

Joseph JE, Liu X, Jiang Y, Lynam D, Kelly TH. Neural correlates of emotional reactivity in sensation seeking. Psychological Science;.

Liu X, Steinmetz NA, Farley AB, Smith CD, Joseph JE. Mid-fusiform activation during object discrimination reflects the process of differentiating structural descriptions. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 2008; 20: 1711-1726.

Fossella J, Fan J, Liu X, Guise K, Brocki K, Hof PR, Kittappa R, McKay R, Posner MI. Provisional hypotheses for the molecular genetics of cognitive development: Imaging genetic pathways in the anterior cingulated cortex. Biological Psychology 2008; 79: 23-29.

Silverman M, Loudon H, Safier M, Protopopescu X, Leiter G, Liu X, Goldstein M. Neural dysfunction in postpartum depression: An fMRI pilot study. CNS Spectrums 2007; 12(11): 853-862.

Banich MT, Crowley TJ, Thompson LL, Jacobson BL, Liu X, Raymond KM, E. Brain activation during the Stroop task in adolescents with severe substance and conduct problems: A pilot study. Drug Alcohol Depend 2007; 90(2-3): 175-182.

Liu X, Powell DK, Wang H, Gold BT, Corbly CR, Joseph JE. Functional dissociation in frontal and striatal areas for processing of positive and negative reward information. J Neurosci 2007; 27(17): 4587-4597.

Joseph JE, Gathers AD, Liu X, Corbly CR, Whitaker SK, Bhatt RS. Neural developmental changes in processing inverted faces. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience 2006; 6(3): 223-235.

Liu X, Wang H, Corbly CR, Zhang J, Joseph JE. The Involvement of the inferior parietal cortex in the numerical Stroop effect and the distance effect in a two-digit number comparison task. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 2006; 18(9): 1518-1530.

Liu X, Banich MT, Jacobson BL, Tanabe JL. Functional dissociation of attentional selection within PFC: Response and non-response related aspects of attentional selection as ascertained by fMRI. Cerebral Cortex 2006; 16: 827-834.

Liu X, Banich MT, Jacobson BL, Tanabe JL. Common and distinct neural substrates of attentional control in an integrated Simon and spatial Stroop task as assessed by event-related fMRI. NeuroImage 2004; 22: 1097-1106.