Understanding how social behaviors are precisely encoded and regulated in the brain is a central and interesting field in Neuroscience. Social behavior is one of the most complex behaviors that social animals, including humans, can exhibit and is essential for the survival and health of an individual. In addition, social animals also have a wide range of emotions, which also profoundly influence their social behaviors. Importantly, impairments of social information and reward processing is a prominent feature of many neuropsychiatric disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder, depression and schizophrenia. Given the diversity and complexity of social behavior and emotions, it remains unclear how the brain encodes and controls social behavior and emotions as well as the neural mechanisms underlying their reciprocal regulation. Therefore, my lab will aim to study the following two important questions: (1) the neural basis of social behavior and (2) Understanding the neural basis of emotions in health and disease. These proposed research will provide new insights into how social behaviors and emotions are regulated in the brain and offer us alternative strategies to treat neuropsychiatric disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder, depression and schizophrenia.
We are actively seeking highly motivated and enthusiastic postdocs and graduate students to join our team, and we provide a supportive environment and value the continued growth and success of all lab personnel.Email your application tohurongfeng@fudan.edu.cn.
Email:1589437735@qq.com
Research Direction:The Neurobiology of Innate Behavior
Email:a66liuwei@163.com
Research Direction:Neural Circuit Mechanisms of Social Reward
Email:21111520011@m.fudan.edu.cn
Research Direction:The neural basis of emtions
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Research Direction:None
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Xinqi Lu, Rongfeng K. Hu#. (2023) Mapping brain circuits for murine maternal behavior triggered by pup calls. Trends in Neurosciences (in press).
Ruining Hu, Rongfeng K. Hu#. (2022) Sensation of pleasant touch: from molecules to circuits and behaviours. Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy 7:3187-3189.
Rongfeng K. Hu, Patrick B. Chen, André Berndt, David J. Anderson, Weizhe Hong. (2022) Improved Version of ChETA Promotes Aggression in the Medial Amygdala. BioRxiv.
RK Hu, Y. Zuo, T. Ly, J. Wang, P. Meera, YE Wu, W. Hong. (2021). An amygdala-to-hypothalamus circuit for social reward. Nature neuroscience. (Highlighted by Nature Neuroscience)
EW Wu, J. Dang, L. Kingsbury, MM Zhang, FS Sun, RK Hu, W. Hong. (2021). Neural control of affiliative touch in prosocial interaction. Nature (online).
L. Kingsbury, S. Huang, T. Raam, L. Cheng, D. Wei, RK Hu, W. Hong (2020). Cortical representations of conspecific sex shape social behavior. Neuron. 107(5), 941-953.
PB Chen*, RK Hu*, YE Wu*, L. Pan, S. Huang, PE Micevych, and W. Hong. (2019). Sexually Dimorphic Control of Parenting Behavior by the Medial Amygdala. Cell, 176 (5), 1206-1221. (* co-first authors; Highlighted by Nature Reviews Neuroscience | UCLA News)
R. Hu, J. Zhang, M. Luo, and J. Hu. (2017). Response Patterns of GABAergic Neurons in the Anterior Piriform Cortex of Awake Mice. Cerebral Cortex, 27 (6), 3110-3124.
R. Hu, S. Jin, X. He, F. Xu, and J. Hu. (2016). Whole-Brain Monosynaptic Afferent Inputs to Basal Forebrain Cholinergic System. Frontiers in Neuroanatomy, 10: 98.
Address: Room B2-007,Floor 2, Building B, Medical Research Building, 131 Dong
Postcode: 200032
Telephone/Fax: 021-54237056
Email: hurongfeng@fudan.edu.cn