Xinyuan Yan

About Me

A normal person

Find science fascinating

A passerby on Earth

Past 10 years: learning how to do science, intensive training in social value learning and decision-making, with fMRI and behavioral modeling

Past 3 years: focusing on human uncertainty-value learning and decision-making, with intracranial EEG and behavioral modeling

Next 2 years: exploring single neuron encoding of cross-linguistic concepts and new concept learning

My Light

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law (Galatians 5:22-23, ESV)

Curriculum Vitae

Publications

• Topic: beliefs about uncertainty (explore-exploit) and implications for affective disorder.

  Skillset: computational modeling, intracranial EEG

1. Yan, X., Ebitz, B. R., Darrow, D. P., & Herman, A. B. (2025). Nonlinear modulation of human exploration by distinct sources of uncertainty. bioRxiv, 2025-04

2. Yan, X., König, S. D., Ebitz, R. B., Hayden, B. Y., Darrow, D. P., & Herman, A. B. (2025). Dynamic prefrontal coupling coordinates adaptive decision-making. Research Square, rs-3

3. Yan, X., Ebitz, R. B., Grissom, N., Darrow, D. P., & Herman, A. B. (2025). Distinct computational mechanisms of uncertainty processing explain opposing exploratory behaviors in anxiety and apathy. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.

4. Knep, E., Yan, X., Chen, C. S., Jacob, S., Darrow, D. P., Ebitz, R. B., ... & Herman, A. B. (2025). Social aloofness is associated with non-social explore-exploit decisions. Communications Psychology, 3(1), 106.

• Topic: Social decision-making and its modulation

  Skillset: computational modeling, fMRI

1. Yan X. (2024) Too smart for one's good? Evolution favors individuals with a low-level theory of mind in a complex network. Psyarxiv.

2. Yan X, Yong X, Huang W, Ma Y. Placebo treatment facilitates social trust and approach behavior (2018). PNAS 115(22):5732-37.

3. Kappes A, Yan X, Ma Y, Crockett M. (2023). Cultural Differences in Forming Beliefs about Others. Psyarxiv.

4. Zheng S†, Yan X†, Siegel J, Chituc V, Li S, Crockett, M & Ma Y. (2020). Self-serving karmic beliefs: prosociality influences vicarious optimism. Psyarxiv. († co-first-author)

5. Liu Y, Li S#, Lin W#, Li W#, Yan X, Wang X, Pan X, RB Rutledge, Ma Y. Amygdala activity tracks deviations from social preferences (2019). Nat Neurosci 22 (4): 633-641 (# co-second author)

6. Wang D, Yan X, Li M, Ma Y (2017). Neural substrates underlying oxytocin effect: A quantitative meta-analysis of pharmaco-imaging studies. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 12(10): 1565-1573.

• Topic: beliefs about self and implications for major depressive disorder

  Skillset: fMRI

1. Yan X (2024). Neural dynamics of self-referential processing and the insight for decoding self-concepts. Journal of Neuroscience 44(30).

2. Feng C†, Yan X†, Huang W, Han S, Ma Y. Neural representations of the multidimensional self in the cortical midline structures (2018). Neuroimage 183:291-299. († co-first-author)

3. Ma Y, Li S, Wang C, Liu Y, Li W, Yan X, Chen Q, Han S (2016). Distinct oxytocin effects on belief updating in response to desirable and undesirable feedback. PNAS 113(33):9256-61.

• Topic: cortisol and stress model

  Skillset: resting-state fMRI

1. Feng Z, Zhang H, Zhou T, Yu X, Zhang Y, & Yan X*. (2023). Dynamic functional connectivity changes associated with psychiatric traits and cognitive deficits in Cushing's disease. Translational Psychiatry, 13(1), 308. (*corresponding author)

2. Liu B, Mao Z, Yan X, Yang H, Xu J, Feng Z, Zhang Y, Yu X (2024) Structural network topologies are associated with deep brain stimulation outcomes in Meige syndrome. Neurotherapeutics, e00367

3. Shang G, Zhou T, Yu X, Yan X, He K, Liu B, Feng Z, Zhang Y, Yu X (2024) Chronic hypercortisolism disrupts the principal functional gradient in Cushing's disease: A multi-scale connectomics and transcriptomics study. NeuroImage: Clinical 43, 103652