Jiahuan Liu

Welcome to my corner of neuroscience and computation. 👋

I am a Ph.D. student in Neuroscience at the University of Virginia, co-advised by Dr. Jianhua Cang and Dr. Zezhou Cheng in the Program in Fundamental Neuroscience (PFN). My research investigates visual processing in tree shrews 🐿️ and mice 🐀, from circuits to behavior, with a particular focus on the superior colliculus — a key hub of midbrain vision — and on building data-driven computational models of its neural responses.

Before UVA, 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 large-scale electrophysiology, two-photon calcium imaging, and computer-vision-inspired models of neural population activity to understand how midbrain circuits implement efficient algorithms for fast, sensory-driven behavior.

News

Jul 08, 2026	Our paper “Lighting and circadian cues shape locomotor strategies for balance and navigation in larval zebrafish” has been accepted by Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
May 25, 2026	Starred crafter-station/petdex, an open-source gallery and CLI for animated coding-agent pets for Codex and friends.
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},
}