Education

2013.12 - 2019.10，City University of Hong Kong, PhD

2005.09 - 2010.06，Southern Medical University, BSc (Med Sci)

Experience

2025.12 – present, Southern Medical University, Professor

2024.08 – 2025.11, University of Southern California, Research Associate

2021.08 – 2024.08, University of Southern California, Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate

2019.10 – 2021.07, City University of Hong Kong, Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Focus

Our laboratory aims to understand the neural basis of social and prosocial behavior. Furthermore, we seek to uncover the mechanisms behind social dysfunction in neuropsychiatric disorders like autism spectrum disorder, depression, and antisocial personality disorder, with the goal of informing new intervention strategies.

Selected publications

1. Sun, W.^#, Zhang, G-W. ^#, Huang, JJ., Tao, C., Seo, MB., Tao, HW.*, Zhang, LI.*. Reviving-like prosocial behavior in response to unconscious or dead conspecifics in rodents. Science. 2025 Feb 21;387(6736):eadq2677. doi:10.1126/science.adq2677 (IF, 44.8)

2. Tao C, Zhang GW, Sun W, Huang JJ, Zhang LI, Tao HW. Excitation-inhibition imbalance in medial preoptic area circuits underlies chronic stress-induced depression-like states. Nat Commun. 2024 Oct 3;15(1):8575. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52727-2. (IF, 16.6)

3. Sun, W. ^#, Wu, H.^#, Peng, Y.^#, Zheng, X. ^#, Li,J. ^#, Zeng, D. ^#, Tang, P., Zhao, M., Feng, H., Li, H., Liang, Y., Su, J., Chen, X.*, Hökfelt, T. *, He, J*. (2024) Heterosynaptic plasticity of the visuo-auditory projection requires cholecystokinin released from entorhinal cortex afferents. eLife 13:e83356. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.83356 (IF, 7.7)

4. Zhang N, Sui Y, Jendrichovsky P, Feng H, Shi H, Zhang X, Xu S, Sun W, Zhang H, Chen X, Tortorella MD, He J. Cholecystokinin B receptor agonists alleviates anterograde amnesia in cholecystokinin-deficient and aged Alzheimer's disease mice. Alzheimers Res Ther. 2024 May 15;16(1):109. doi: 10.1186/s13195-024-01472-1. (IF, 9)

5. He L, Shi H, Zhang G, Peng Y, Ghosh A, Zhang M, Hu X, Liu C, Shao Y, Wang S, Chen L, Sun W, Su J, Chen X, Zhang L, Chan YS, Pei D, Tortorella M, Guo Y, Yan H, He J. A Novel CCK Receptor GPR173 Mediates Potentiation of GABAergic Inhibition. J Neurosci. 2023 Mar 29;43(13):2305-2325. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2035-22.2023. (IF, 6.709)

6. Sun, W. ^#, Tang, P. ^#, Liang, Y. ^#, Li, J., Feng, J., Zhang, N., Lu, D., He, J.* and Chen, X.* (2022). The anterior cingulate cortex directly enhances auditory cortical responses in air-puffing-facilitated flight behavior. Cell Reports, 38(10), 110506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110506 (IF, 9.423)

7. Zhang, Z.^#, Zheng, X.^#, Sun, W. ^#, Peng, Y., Guo, Y., Lu, D., Zheng, Y., Li, X., Jendrichovsky, P., Tang, P., He, L., Li, M., Liu, Q., Xu, L., Ng, G., Chen, X., He, J*. Visuoauditory associative memory established with cholecystokinin under anesthesia is retrieved in behavioral contexts. J Neurosci. 2020 Mar 4;40(10):2025-2037. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1673-19.2019. (IF, 6.074)

8. Wang, H., Chen, J., Xu, X., Sun, W., Chen, X., Zhao, F., ... & Zhong, H. (2019). Direct auditory cortical input to the lateral periaqueductal gray controls sound-driven defensive behavior. PLOS Biology, 17(8), e3000417. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000417 (IF, 8.386)

9. Chen, X., Li, X., Wong, Y. T., Zheng, X., Wang, H., Peng, Y., Feng, H., Feng, J., Baibado, J.T., Jesky. R., Wang, Z., Xie, H., Sun, W., ... & Wang, Z. (2019). Cholecystokinin release triggered by NMDA receptors produces LTP and sound–sound associative memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(13), 6397-6406. http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1816833116 (IF, 9.504).

10. Zhang, G.-W.^#, Sun, W.^#, Zingg, B., Shen, L., He, J., Xiong, Y.*, Tao, H.W.*, Zhang, L. I.* (2018). A Non-canonical Reticular-Limbic Central Auditory Pathway via Medial Septum Contributes to Fear Conditioning. Neuron, 97(2), 406–417.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.12.010 (IF, 14.024)

11. Li, X., Yu, K., Zhang, Z., Sun, W., Yang, Z., Feng, J., Chen, X., Liu, C., Wang, H., Guo, Y., He, J. (2014). Cholecystokinin from the entorhinal cortex enables neural plasticity in the auditory cortex. Cell Research, 24(3), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1038/cr.2013.164

(# Co-first author; * Corresponding author; IF: journal impact factor in the year of publication)

Open Positions

We are actively recruiting motivated researchers at all levels who are interested in neuroscience, especially those dedicated to understanding the neural basis of social behavior and the mechanisms underlying social deficits in various neuropsychiatric disorders.