Lusha Zhu

Email: lushazhu(at)pku(dot)edu(dot)cn ；

Research interest: decision neuroscience (neuroeconomics), behavioral economics, cognitive psychology, functional neuroimaging, lesion, computational modeling

Web: lushazhu.com (VPN needed in China)

Research Area:

Our lab focuses on Neuroeconomics a.k.a. Decision Neuroscience, a nascent area that is at the interaction between neuroscience and social science disciplines. The broad goal of our research is to understand the neurobiological foundation of social decision-making at the mechanistic level. Our work uses neuroscience techniques (e.g. fMRI, lesion, and drug manipulation) and models of economic choice to identify neural substrates of complex social behavior, both in healthy populations and individuals with psychiatric illness. We have applied this approach to examine neurocomputational underpinnings of competition and corporation, as well as how such processes go awry in patients with PTSD, major depression, and brain lesions.

In future work we will investigate the ability of human brain to process social signals within communicative, dynamic social interactions. To address these areas, we will bring together strands from cognitive neuroscience, computer science, social and clinical psychology, as well as behavioral and experimental economics. We are currently looking for talented graduate students and postdocs with training in neuroscience, computer science, mathematics, physics, economics, psychology, or appropriate engineering disciplines.

Selected Publications:

1. Saez I, Zhu L, Set E, Kayser A, & Hsu M (2015). Prefrontal dopamine promotes human egalitarian behavior. Current Biology, 25(7): 912-919.
2. Zhu L, Jenkins A, Set E, Scabini D, Knight RT, Chiu PH, King-Casas B, & Hsu M (2014). Damage to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex affects tradeoffs between honesty and self-interest. Nature Neuroscience, 17(10), 1319-1321. 
3. Zhu L, Mathewson K, & Hsu M (2012). Dissociable neural representations of reinforcement and belief prediction errors underlie strategic learning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(5), 1419-1424.
4. Hsu M & Zhu L (2012). Learning in games: neural computations underlying strategic learning. Louvain Economic Review, 78(3): 47-72.
5. Zhu L, Walsh D, & Hsu M (2012). Neuroeconomic measures of social decision-making across the lifespan. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 6(128).