Hello! I'm Xinyuan Yan.

Xinyuan holds a B.A. in Psychological Sciences from Northeast Normal University (2012-2016)
Then she received her Ph.D degree from State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning at Beijing Normal University (2022.1)

Now she is the post-doc at HD LAB at Medical School University of Minnesota,Twin-Cites (2022.4)

She enjoys these exciting and interesting research topics/questions:
(1) Intracranial EEG data analysis
(2) Brain stimulation (currently invasive)
(3) Exploration-Exploitation dillemma
(4) Computational Psychiatry (so big...)
(5) How human belief affects cognition and behaviors? And its neural and computational bases


Combing intracranial EEG, neuromodulation tools,fMRI, computational modeling, network analysis, and pharmacological techniques (Oxytocin, L-DOPA), she aims to dive into deeply for these questions!

You can find her GoogleScholar here and CV here.

Here are recent open talks I do.

We should be open-minded! Spreading techniques you know, and learn what you didn't know from others, forever.

Skill Exchange Workshop

This workshop is established by Dr. Yin Wang and held in every Tuesday afternoon offline.


My talk01: How to create your personal website (Html5+CSS3)
My talk02: Representational similarity analysis
My talk03: resting-state fMRI analysis
My talk04: Diffusion Decision Model & value-based DDM
My talk05: Multi-agent modeling & Netlogo
My talk06: Attractor models & decision-making
My talk07: Neural Networks-basic_concepts

Computational modeling group

This mini team was created by some graduate students (I am in :-)) who love modeling and algorithms in Beijing Normal University


My talk01: RL_MDP_01
My talk02: RL_MDP_02
videos

Recent conferences

Neuromatch 3.0

My talk01: Neural representations of social placebo effect


but this talk was interrupted due to my unstable internet connection (Ooops!)


Here are the papers that I mainly contributed.

Published & Finished

Topic#01: How human belief affects social cognition and behaviors? And its neural and computational bases.

Self-serving karmic beliefs: prosociality influences vicarious optimism

Shuying Zheng#, Xinyuan Yan#, Jenifer Siegel, Vladimir Chituc, Shiyi Li, Molly Crockett, Yina Ma
(# co-first author)

Placebo treatment facilitates social trust and approach behavior

Xinyuan Yan, Xue Yong, Wenhao Huang, Yina Ma

Placebo effect refers to beneficial changes induced by the use of inert treatment, such as placebo-induced relief of physical pain and attenuation of negative affect. To date, we know little about whether placebo treatment could facilitate social functioning, a crucial aspect for well-being of a social species. In the present study, we develop and validate a paradigm to induce placebo effects on social trust and approach behavior (social placebo effect), and show robust evidence that placebo treatment promotes trust in others and increases preference for a closer interpersonal distance. We further examine placebo effects in real-life social interaction and show that placebo treatment makes single, but not pair-bonded, males keep closer to an attractive first-met female and perceive less social anxiety in the female. Finally, we show evidence that the effects of placebo treatment on social trust and approach behavior can be as strong as the effect of intranasal administration of oxytocin, a neuropeptide known for its function in facilitating social cognition and behavior. The finding of the social placebo effect extends our understanding of placebo effects on improvement of physical, mental, and social well-being and suggests clinical potentials in the treatment of social dysfunction.

Neural representations of social placebo effect

Xinyuan Yan, Yina Ma

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Topic#02: Neural representations of self-related process

Neural representations of the multidimensional self in the corticalmidline structures

Chunliang Feng#, Xinyuan Yan#, Wenhao Huang, Shihui Han, Yina Ma
(# co-first author)

Self-concept consists of self-identity that distinguishes self from other people and knowledge that describes one'sown attributes in different dimensions. Because self-concept plays a fundamental role in individuals' socialfunctioning and mental health, behavioral studies have examined cognitive processes of self-identity and self-knowledge extensively. Nevertheless, how different dimensions of the self-concept are organized in multi-voxelneural patterns remains elusive. Here, we address this issue by employing representational similarity analysesof behavioral/theoretical models of multidimensional self-representation and blood oxygen level dependent re-sponses, recorded using functional MRI, to judgments of personality traits, physical attributes and social roles ofoneself, a close (one's mother) other, and a distant (celebrity) other. The multivoxel patterns of neural activities inthe medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) distinguished representations of the selffrom both close and distant others, suggesting a specific neural representation of the self-identity; and distin-guished different dimensions of person knowledge of oneself, indicating dimension-sensitive neural representa-tion of the self. Moreover, the pattern of PCC activity is more strongly coupled with dimensions of self-knowledgethan self-identity. Ourfindings suggest that multivoxel neural patterns of the cortical midline structures distin-guish not only self from others but also discriminate different dimensions of the self

Neural pattern change of memory control of personal strengths and weaknesses

Xinyuan Yan, Yina Ma

2018, SANS conference, poster

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Topic#03:Decision making and neural computational processes

Oxytocin modulates social value representations in the amygdala

Yunzhe Liu, Shiyi Li+, Wanjun Lin+, Wenxin Li+, Xinyuan Yan, Xuena Wang, Xinyue Pan, Robb B. Rutledge and Yina Ma
(+ co-second author)

Humans exhibit considerable variation in how they value their own interest relative to the interests of others. Deciphering the neural codes representing potential rewards for self and others is crucial for understanding social decision-making. Here we integrate computational modeling with functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the neural representation of social value and the modulation by oxytocin, a nine-amino acid neuropeptide, in participants evaluating monetary allocations to self and other (self–other allocations). We found that an individual’s preferred self–other allocation serves as a reference point for computing the value of potential self–other allocations. In more prosocial participants, amygdala activity encoded a social-value-distance signal; that is, the value dissimilarity between potential and preferred allocations. Intranasal oxytocin administration amplified this amygdala representation and increased prosocial behavior in more individualistic participants but not in more prosocial ones. Our results reveal a neurocomputational mechanism underlying social-value representations and suggest that oxytocin may promote prosociality by modulating social-value representations in the amygdala.

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Topic#04:Multimodal neuroimaging across multiple mental disorders

Dynamic features within subcortical network serve as potential transdiagnostic biomarker

My contribution: Data analysis and paper writing
Datasets are from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University (Xinxiang, China)

Hippocampus serve as multimodaltransdiagnostic biomarker

My contribution: Data analysis and paper writing
Datasets are from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University (Xinxiang, China)

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Topic#05:Modeling social interactions in complex networks (in exploration phase)

Interactive gaming in spatial networks
---The multi-agent modeling (simulation) approach

Xinyuan Yan

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Hello!

Feel free to talk to me!

Find me on these platforms!

xinyuanyan2016@gmail.com