My research lies at the intersection of social cognitive neuroscience, with a particular emphasis on the neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying complex social interactions. I investigate how individuals synchronize affective and cognitive processes, leading to coordinated neural activity during collaborative actions such as joint decision-making, emotional sharing, and cooperative learning. My work employs advanced neuroimaging techniques, including functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and hyperscanning, to decode the neural basis of social behavior and enhance our understanding of group dynamics, human connection, and the neurobiological underpinnings of prosocial behaviors.
ACEDEMIC POSITIONS
Aug 2023- PresentAssociate Professor, School of Psychology, Shenzhen University,
Jul 2017-Jul 2023 Assistant Professor, School of Psychology, Shenzhen University
EDUCATION
Sep 2011-Jun 2017 Ph.D. in Developmental and Educational Psychology, East China Normal University, China
Sep 2007-Jun 2011 B.Sc. in Applied Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, China
HONORS & AWARDS
2019 Outstanding Publication Award of the Japanese Psychological Association
GRANTS
2025~2027 Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences (Youth Project)
Bodily Sensory Map and Cognitive Neural Mechanisms of Negative Emotion Sharing (Principal Investigator)
2022~2024 Shenzhen Basic Research Program
The Impact of Self-disclosure on Prosocial Behavior and Its Neural Basis from an Interpersonal Perspective (Principal Investigator)
2021~2022 Shenzhen Basic Research Program
The Interpersonal Neural Basis of Group Decision-making and Its Impact (Principal Investigator)
2019~2021 National Natural Science Foundation of China (Youth Project)
The neural basis of complemental joint action: fNIRS-based hyperscanning study (Principal Investigator)
2018~2020 Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong (Youth Project)
Neural Basis and Mechanisms of Group Joint Action: A Study Based on Inter-brain Synchronization (Principal Investigator)
2018~2020 Foundation for Distinguished Young Talents in Higher Education of Guangdong
Joint Action from an Interpersonal Perspective: A Study Based on Inter-brain Synchronization (Principal Investigator)
Selected PUBLICATIONS
1.Cheng, X., Wang, S., Guo, B., Wang, Q., & Pan, Y.* (2024). How self-disclosure of negative experiences shapes prosociality? Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, nsae003.
2.Zhang, Y., Hu, Y. Ma, F., Cui, H., Cheng, X. *, & Pan, Y. * (2024). Interpersonal educational neuroscience: A scoping review of the literature. Educational Research Review, 42, 100593.
3.Pan, Y., Cheng, X. *, & Hu, Y. * (2023). Three heads are better than one: Cooperative learning brains wire together when a consensus is reached. Cerebral Cortex, 33, 1155-1169.
4.Cheng, X., Zhu, Y., Hu, Y., Zhou, X., Pan, Y.*, & Hu, Y. * (2022). Integration of social status and trust through interpersonal brain synchronization. NeuroImage, 246, 118777.
5.Cheng, X.，Liu, M.，Pan Y.* (2022). Shared responsibility promotes the benefit of interactive decision-making in novices: A hyperscanning study. Acta Psychologica Sinica，54(11), 1391-1402.
6.Cheng, X., Guo, B., & Hu, Y. * (2022). Distinct neuronal couplings to shared goal and action coordination in joint action: Evidence based on fNIRS hyperscanning. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 17, 956-964.
7.Zhou, C. #, Cheng, X.#, Liu C., & Li, P.* (2022). Interpersonal coordination enhances brain-to-brain synchronization and influences responsibility attribution and reward allocation in social cooperation. NeuroImage, 252, 119028.
8.Pan, Y., & Cheng, X.* (2020). Two-person approaches to studying social interaction in psychiatry: Uses and clinical relevance. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11, 301.
9.Cheng, X., Pan, Y., Hu, Y., & Hu, Y. (2019). Coordination elicits synchronous brain activity between co-actors: Frequency ratio matters. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 13, 1071.
10.Hu, Y., Hu, Y., Li, X., Pan, Y., & Cheng, X.* (2017). Brain-to-brain synchronization across two persons predicts mutual prosociality. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 12(12), 1835-1844.
11.Pan, Y.#, Cheng, X.#, Zhang, Z., Li, X., Hu, Y.* (2017). Cooperation in Lovers: An fNIRS-Based Hyperscanning Study. Human Brain Mapping, 38, 831-841.
12.Cheng, X., Li, X.*, Hu, Y.* (2015). Synchronous Brain Activity during Cooperative Exchange Depends on Gender of Partner: A fNIRS-based Hyperscanning Study. Human Brain Mapping, 36, 2039-2048.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Lecturer in 'General Psychology' for undergraduates in the Faculty of Psychology, and 'A guide to writing about psychology' and 'Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS): Principles and Neuroscientific Applications' for postgraduates.
