Dr. Yuqi Liu received her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Delaware (2019), and was a post-doctoral fellow at Georgetown University from 2019 to 2021. She then joined the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2021 as an associate investigator. Her research focuses on brain plasticity in individuals with brain damage, in individuals born with deprived senses, and during development using fMRI and EEG.

One remarkable feature of the brain is its ability to adapt to central and peripheral changes. In individuals with brain damage, the function of lesioned tissue can be compensated by intact neurons, leading to functional recovery. Dr. Liu’s research focuses on the reorganization of the motor network after brain damage and its behavioral correlates.

To what extent is brain function determined by experience? And how does congenital sensory loss affect brain function? Using congenital deafness as a model, Dr. Liu studies brain plasticity under sensory deprivation and its relation with hearing recovery after surgery.

Finally, Dr. Liu studies the development of the language network in young children using large language models and investigates the interplay between language and motor network during development.

Liu, Y., Vannuscorps, G., Caramazza, A., & Striem-Amit, E. (2020). Evidence for an effector-independent action system from people born without hands. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(45), 28433-28441.
Liu, Y., Caracoglia, J., Sen, S., Freud, E., & Striem-Amit, E. (2022). Are reaching and grasping effector-independent? Similarities and differences in reaching and grasping kinematics between the hand and foot. Experimental Brain Research, 240(6), 1833-1848.
Liu, Y., & Medina, J. (2021). Visuoproprioceptive conflict in hand position biases tactile localization on the hand surface. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 47(3), 344.
Liu, Y., O'Neal, A., Rafal, R. D., & Medina, J. (2020). Intact tactile detection yet biased tactile localization in a hand-centered frame of reference: Evidence from a dissociation. Neuropsychologia, 147, 107585.