Social Impairment in Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Research Focus

Neural Circuits

Mapping the neural circuits that control social behavior and emotional processing

Social Behavior

Understanding how social impairments manifest in various neuropsychiatric disorders

Molecular Mechanisms

Investigating molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying social dysfunction

Therapeutic Targets

Identifying novel therapeutic targets for treating social impairments

Recent Publications

Reviving-like prosocial behavior in response to unconscious or dead conspecifics in rodents

W Sun, GW Zhang, JJ Huang, C Tao, MB Seo, HW Tao, LI Zhang

Science 387 (6736), eadq2677, 2025

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Excitation-inhibition imbalance in medial preoptic area circuits underlies chronic stress-induced depression-like states

C Tao, GW Zhang, WJ Sun, JJ Huang, LI Zhang, HW Tao

Nature Communications 15 (1), 8575, 2024

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Medial preoptic area antagonistically mediates stress-induced anxiety and parental behavior

GW Zhang, L Shen, C Tao, AH Jung, B Peng, Z Li, LI Zhang, HW Tao

Nature Neuroscience 24 (4), 516-528, 2021

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Our Team

We have a diverse team of researchers working on understanding neural mechanisms of social behavior

Contact

Location

Virginia Commonwealth University
Department of Neuroscience
Sanger Hall, Room 9-060
Richmond, VA 23298