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:wunannan@fudan.edu.cn
Research Direction:Regulatory mechanism of immunity system by social reward
Email:21111520011@m.fudan.edu.cn
Research Direction:The neurobiology of emotion
Email:22111520025@m.fudan.edu.cn
Research Direction:Neural mechanisms underlying empathy
Email:22211520011@m.fudan.edu.cn
Research Direction:Neuromodulator dynamics during learning and social behaviors
Email:23111520003@m.fudan.edu.cn
Research Direction:Neural mechanisms of social stress and behavioral dysfunction
Email:19301010018@fudan.edu.cn
Research Direction:The neurobiology of reward, addiction and neuropsychiatric disorders
Ruining Hu#, Nannan Wu#, Tong Liu#, Liuting Zou, Songjie Lv, Xiao Huang, Rongfeng K. Hu*. (2024) Tachykinin1-expressing neurons in the parasubthalamic nucleus control active avoidance learning. eLife 104643.1
Meng Zhang#, Guohua Chen#, Rongfeng K. Hu*. (2024) How is helping behavior regulated in the brain? Trends in Cognitive Sciences 28(4), 281-283.
Xinqi Lu, Rongfeng K. Hu*. (2024) Mapping brain circuits for murine maternal behavior triggered by pup calls. Trends in Neurosciences 47 (1), 4-5.
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, Yanning Zuo, Troung Ly, Jun Wang, Pratap Meera, Ye Emily Wu, Weizhe Hong. (2021) An amygdala-to- hypothalamus circuit for social reward. Nature Neuroscience, 24, 831–842.
Patrick B. Chen#, Rongfeng K. Hu#, Ye Emily Wu, Lin Pan, Shan Huang, Paul E. Micevych, and Weizge Hong. (2019). Sexually Dimorphic Control of Parenting Behavior by the Medial Amygdala. Cell, 176 (5), 1206-1221. (Highlighted by Nature Reviews Neuroscience and Cell).
Rongfeng Hu, Juen Zhang, Minmin Luo, and Ji Hu. (2017). Response Patterns of GABAergic Neurons in the Anterior Piriform Cortex of Awake Mice. Cerebral Cortex, 27 (6), 3110-3124.
Rongfeng Hu, Sen Jin, Xiaobin He, Fuqiang Xu, and Ji Hu. (2016). Whole-Brain Monosynaptic Afferent Inputs to Basal Forebrain Cholinergic System. Frontiers in Neuroanatomy, 10: 98.
Lyle Kingsbury#, Shan Huang#, Tara Raam, Letiza Cheng, Don Wei, Rongfeng K. Hu, Weizhe Hong (2020). Cortical representations of conspecific sex shape social behavior. Neuron, 107(5), 941-953.
Ye Emily Wu#, James Dang#, Mingmin Zhang, Lyle Kingsbury, Fangmiao Sun, Rongfeng K. Hu, Weizhe Hong. (2021). Neural control of affiliative contact in prosocial interaction. Nature, 599, 262-267.
Address: Room B2-007,Floor 2, Building B, Medical Research Building, 131 Dong
Postcode: 200032
Email: hurongfeng@fudan.edu.cn