My research interest is to explore the cognitive and neural mechanisms involved in language processing and development, with a particular emphasis on understanding both the shared and language-specific mechanisms that underpin Chinese and other languages. I employ a comprehensive suite of sophisticated techniques, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), magnetoencephalography (MEG), and high-density intracranial EEG, complemented by advanced analytical methods such as machine learning and large language modeling. I have published papers in prestigious journals such as Science Advances, Nature Human Behaviour, PNAS, Developmental Science, Brain and Language, Cerebral Cortex and so on. My work has been supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Shenzhen Innovation in Science and Technology Foundation.
ACEDEMIC POSITIONS
2019.12 - PresentAssociate ProfessorSchool of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
2015.05 - 2019.12 Assistant ProfessorSchool of Biomedical Engineering/School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
EDUCATION
2010.01 - 2014.12 Ph.D.State Key Lab of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Department of Linguistics, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
2013.02 - 2013.08 Visiting StudentMcGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, MA, USA
2005.09 - 2009.06 B.Sc.Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
HONORS AND AWARDS
2022, Shenzhen Outstanding Youth (深圳市优青), Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee
2022, Fifth Hanxiang Young Scientist Award(第五届瀚翔青年科学家奖), Organizing Committee of the 9th National Academic Annual Conference on EEG and Brain Imaging
2022/2019, Distinguished Young Scholars (深圳大学荔园优青), Shenzhen University
2021, Rising Star Mentor (深圳大学新锐导师)，Shenzhen University
2015, Overseas High-Caliber Personnel (Level C) (深圳市海外高层次人才C类), Human Resources and Social Security Administration of Shenzhen Municipality
RESEARCH GRANTS
1)2022/01-2025/12 PI, The National Natural Science Foundation of China (32171054), The emergence of brain network for reading in Chinese children (国家自然科学基金面上项目)
2)2022/04-2025/03 PI, Shenzhen Outstanding Youth Project (RCYX20210706092043066), Decoding Semantic Information of Chinese Language in the Human Brain (深圳市优秀青年项目)
3)2023/01-2027/12 subproject PI, Major Project of the National Social Science Fund (22&ZD299), Construction of a Corpus for Aphasia Patients in China and Research on Language Ability Assessment (国家社科基金重大项目子课题负责人)
4)2022/01-2025/12 subproject PI, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science-Shenzhen Fundamental Research Institutions (2023SHIBS0003), Research on the Developmental Mechanisms and Assessment of Language, Emotion, and Cognitive Disorders (深港脑科学创新研究院项目子课题负责人）
5)2018/01-2020/12 PI, The National Natural Science Foundation of China (31700951), Multimodal brain-network mechanisms and diagnosis of Chinese dyslexia (国家自然科学基金青年项目)
6)2018/03-2020/03 PI, Shenzhen Basic Research Grant (JCYJ20170818110022721), Second-language learning and brain plasticity (深圳市基础研究自由探索项目)
7)2017/06-2020/12 PI, Shenzhen Basic Research Grant (JCYJ20170412164259361), Deficits of neural pathways in Chinese dyslexia and its clinical application (深圳市基础研究学科布局项目)
PUBLICATIONS
Representative Publications (*corresponding author; #co-first author)
1.Zhu, Y., Xu, M.#, Lu, J., Hu, J., Kwok, V. P. Y., Zhou, Y., Yuan, D., Wu, B., Zhang, J., Wu, J., & Tan, L. H. (2022). Distinct spatiotemporal patterns of syntactic and semantic processing in human inferior frontal gyrus. Nature Human Behaviour, 6, 1104–1111. (Q1, 5-year IF=20.4)
2.Xu, M., Baldauf, D., Chang, C. Q., Desimone, R. & Tan, L. H. (2017) Distinct distributed patterns of neural activity are associated with two languages in the bilingual brain. Science Advances 3, e1603309. (Highlighted by This Week in Science, issue 6347) (Q1, 5-year IF = 13.7)
3.Tan, L.H., Xu, M.#, Chang, C.Q. & Siok, W.T. (2013) China’s language input system in the digital age affects children’s reading development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110(3):1119-1123. (Q1, 5-year IF = 10.8)
4.Yang, Y., Zuo, Z., Tam, F., Graham, S. J., Li, J., Ji, Y., Meng, Z., Gu, C., Bi, H.-Y.,Ou, J., & Xu, M.* (2022). The brain basis of handwriting deficits in Chinese children with developmental dyslexia. Developmental Science, 25(2), e13161. (Cover page paper) (Q1, 5-year IF = 4.1)
5.Yang, Y., Li, J., Zhang, J., Zhou, K., Kao, H. S. R., Bi, H.-Y., & Xu, M.* (2022). Personality traits modulate the neural responses to handwriting processing. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1516(1), 222-233. (Q1, 5-year IF = 6.3)
6.Liang, X., Huang, F., Liu, D., & Xu, M.* (2024). Brain representations of lexical ambiguity: Disentangling homonymy, polysemy, and their meanings. Brain and Language, 253, 105426. (Q1, 5-year IF = 2.3)
7.Lin, Z., Li, X., Qi, G., Yang, J., Sun, H., Guo, Q., Wu J. & Xu, M.* (2024). Phonological properties of logographic words modulate brain activation in bilinguals: a comparative study of Chinese characters and Japanese Kanji. Cerebral Cortex, 34(4), bhae150. (Q2, 5-year IF = 3.7)
8.Xu, M.*#, Liang, X., Ou, J., Li, H., Luo, Y. & Tan, L. H. (2020). Sex Differences in Functional Brain Networks for Language. Cerebral Cortex, 30(3), 1528-1537. (Q2, 5-year IF = 3.7)
9.Ou, J., Li, W., Yang, Y., Wang, N. & Xu, M.* (2020). Earlier second language acquisition is associated with greater neural pattern dissimilarity between the first and second languages. Brain and Language, 203, 104740. (Q1, 5-year IF = 2.3)
10.Xu, M., Wang, T., Chen, S., Fox, P.T., & Tan, L.H. (2015) Effective connectivity of brain regions related to visual word recognition: An fMRI study of Chinese reading. Human Brain Mapping 36:2580-2591. (Q1, 5-year IF = 4.7)
Invited Book Chapters
1)胡建华，徐敏，彭鹭鹭（2023）心理语言学研究. 张伯江主编，中国语言学年鉴 2022, 中国社会科学出版社, (pp.196-218).
2)Xu, M., Tan, L. H. & Perfetti, C. (2019). Developmental Dyslexia in Chinese. In L. Verhoeven, C. Perfetti & K. Pugh (Eds.), Developmental Dyslexia across Languages and Writing Systems (pp. 200-226). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3)Xu, M. (2016). Character Amnesia. In R. Sybesma (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics (pp. 356-358). Leiden: Brill.
Authorized Patent
1)徐敏，欧健，一种基于共振峰的语音训练方法及系统. 中国, 专利号ZL202210650982.3. 授权日期 2023年12月.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2018/12 - Present School of Psychology, Shenzhen University
Courses taught (Undergraduate)
Psycholinguistics
Biological Psychology
Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience
Courses taught (Postgraduate)
Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience
Language and Cognition
2015/09 – 2018/12 School of Biomedical Engineering, Shenzhen University
Courses taught (Undergraduate)
Introduction to Neuroscience
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Principles and Methods
2016/01- 2016/05 Department of Linguistics, The University of Hong Kong
Courses taught (M.A.)
LING6022 Reading Acquisition and Developmental Dyslexia
