hi hi!

Welcome to my website. I am Shanshan Li, a cognitive neuroscience PhD candidate working across New York University and NYU Abu Dhabi. Reach out by email.

Zhuhai, China, 2023

About me

I study memory, behavior, and the signals in between

I am a fourth-year PhD candidate in cognitive neuroscience. I study how the brain holds information in mind to support flexible behavior, using neuroimaging and computational modeling to link neural signals, memory representations, and behavior.

S

Project academic

Academic projects

I am part of a global PhD program and work across two labs: the Curtis Lab in New York City and the Sreenivasan Lab in Abu Dhabi.

How do we cope with effortful tasks?

In this study, we asked how effort sculps the memory we hold in mind. Using fMRI, we found that higher cognitive effort increased prefrontal activity, which in turns improved memory fidelity, linking effort, top-down control, and the quality of remembered information. I contributed the last part of analysis to this collaborative project.

Master, S. L., Li, S., & Curtis, C. E. (2024). Trying Harder: How Cognitive Effort Sculpts Neural Representations during Working Memory . The Journal of Neuroscience, 44(28), e0060242024.

To be continued...

Some projects are still becoming projects :)

Project fun

Fun projects

What are we without music, film, and all the other cultural products we consume? I am interested in what these choices say about who we are.

To be continued...

Some projects are still becoming projects :)

Past Lives

Before the PhD, I spent several years working between neuroscience and public writing: writing, editing, translating, and helping scientific ideas travel outside.

Editor and writer

Science communication in Chinese

I worked for Neu-reality, a Chinese non-profit science communication website, for several years, editing neuroscience writing and publishing articles for a broader public audience. I also worked with the online department of the Chinese edition of Scientific American, gaining experience in digital science publishing.

Read an example article

Illustration from a Neu-reality article about memory manipulation

Book translation

The Self Delusion

I translated Gregory Berns's The Self Delusion: The New Neuroscience of How We Invent—and Reinvent—Our Identities into Chinese. The translation has not yet been published.

The company I keep

:)

Company photo one — It has been 16 years since I kidnapped Miumiu from the street. Since then, she has brought me so much joy with her fluffy cuteness, and has constantly reminded me to be honest about what I want, no matter what people say.

Company photo two — This research life has not always been easy, but adventures are more fun with good company — check out Dinghao’s page!

Company photo three — Jelly and Kira are no longer with us, but I still carry them with me.