Jiahuan Liu

Welcome to my corner of neuroscience and computation. 👋

I am a Ph.D. student in Biology at the University of Virginia, working in the Cang Lab as part of the Program in Fundamental Neuroscience (PFN). My research focuses on how neural circuits transform visual inputs into behavior, with a particular interest in the superior colliculus and its sensorimotor integration.

I received my Master’s in Psychology from New York University, where I studied behavioral neuroscience and computational modeling of zebrafish locomotion with Dr. David Schoppik and Dr. Yunlu Zhu.

My work combines behavioral quantification, neural electrophysiology recordings, and computer vision modeling to understand how animals detect and respond to ethologically relevant visual stimuli, such as looming threats. I am particularly interested in how midbrain circuits implement efficient algorithms for fast sensory-driven behavior, and how these principles may inspire biologically grounded computational models.

news

Mar 17, 2026	Added function to generate and update CV automatically.
Mar 08, 2025	My blog goes online today! 😄

latest posts

May 14, 2024	Google Gemini updates: Flash 1.5, Gemma 2 and Project Astra
Apr 23, 2022	Displaying External Posts on Your al-folio Blog

selected publications

Lighting and circadian cues shape locomotor strategies for balance and navigation in larval zebrafish

J. Liu, Samantha N. Davis, Hannah Gelnaw, David Schoppik, and Yunlu Zhu

bioRxiv, Nov 2025

DOI Full Text Bib

@article{liu2025lighting,
  title = {Lighting and circadian cues shape locomotor strategies for balance and navigation in larval zebrafish},
  author = {Liu, Jiahuan and Davis, Samantha N. and Gelnaw, Hannah and Schoppik, David and Zhu, Yunlu},
  year = {2025},
  month = nov,
  journal = {bioRxiv},
  doi = {10.1101/2025.11.18.689084},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.18.689084},
}

Tau load in select brainstem neurons predicts the severity and nature of balance deficits in the absence of cell death

Yunlu Zhu, Hannah Gelnaw, Paige Leary, Rhoshini Raghuraman, Nitika Kamath, Andy Kraja, J. Liu, Qing Bai, Shin-ichi Higashijima, Edward A. Burton, and David Schoppik

bioRxiv, Oct 2024

DOI Full Text Bib

@article{zhu2024tau,
  title = {Tau load in select brainstem neurons predicts the severity and nature of balance deficits in the absence of cell death},
  author = {Zhu, Yunlu and Gelnaw, Hannah and Leary, Paige and Raghuraman, Rhoshini and Kamath, Nitika and Kraja, Andy and Liu, Jiahuan and Bai, Qing and Higashijima, Shin-ichi and Burton, Edward A. and Schoppik, David},
  year = {2024},
  month = oct,
  journal = {bioRxiv},
  doi = {10.1101/2024.10.14.618073},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.14.618073},
}