Xiaoqin Wang, Ph.D.

Headshot of Xiaoqin Wang
  • Director, Tsinghua-Johns Hopkins Joint Center for Biomedical Research
  • Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests

Computational neuroscience; Development of vocal production and perception; Neural basis of vocal production and leaning; Structure and function of the auditory cortex; Neural mechanisms underlying communication sound perception ...read more

Background

Dr. Xiaoquin Wang is a professor of biomedical engineering, neuroscience and otolaryngology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He serves as director of the Tsinghua-Johns Hopkins Joint Center for Biomedical Research in Beijing, China.

His research aims to understand brain mechanisms responsible for auditory perception and vocal communication in a naturalistic environment.

Dr. Wang received his B.S. in electrical engineering at Sichuan University in Sichuan, China, and his M.S. in electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He completed his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins, and subsequently conducted a postdoctoral fellowship in neurophysiology at the University of California in San Francisco.

He joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1995 as an associate professor, became an assistant professor in 2002, and accepted the title of ful professor in 2002.

Dr. Wang has won several awards and NIH grants for his research, and currently serves as principal investigator of the Laboratory of Auditory Neurophysiology in the Department of Otolaryngology. He has served on the editorial review boards for more than 20 academic journals in the field, has authored or co-authored several dozen peer-reviewed publications and has presented his work nationally and internationally.

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Titles

  • Director, Tsinghua-Johns Hopkins Joint Center for Biomedical Research
  • Professor of Biomedical Engineering
  • Professor of Neuroscience
  • Professor of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery

Departments / Divisions

Centers & Institutes

Education

Degrees

  • Ph.D.; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Maryland) (1992)

Additional Training

  • University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 1995, Neurophysiology

Research & Publications

Research Summary

Dr. Wang’s research focuses on the neural basis of auditory perception and vocal communication in a naturalistic environment. This includes research to reveal neural coding mechanisms operating in the cerebral cortex and how cortical representations of biologically important sounds emerge through development and learning. Perception and production of communication sounds (e.g., human speech and animal vocalizations) are among the most important behaviors of humans and many animal species, and are crucial for a species’ survival and well-being. Because of the complexity and behavioral importance of communication sounds, understanding their neural representations in the cerebral cortex will help reveal computational principles that the brain uses to process a wide range of sounds we experience daily such as speech and music. Understanding how the brain processes such sounds will provide invaluable insights into neural mechanisms underlying human language perception as well as how the brain functions during social interactions.

Lab

Lab Website: Auditory Neurophysiology Laboratory

Selected Publications

View all on PubMed

  1. Bendor, D. and X. Wang. “Neural coding of periodicity in marmoset auditory cortex.” J Neurophysiol,103: 1809–1822 (2010).
  2. Sadagopan S, Wang X. “Nonlinear spectrotemporal interactions underlying selectivity for complex sounds in auditory cortex.” J Neurosci. 29: 11192–11202 (2009).
  3. Eliades, S.J. and X. Wang. “Neural substrates of vocalization feedback monitoring in primate auditory cortex.” Nature. 453: 1102–1106 (2008).
  4. Issa, E. B. and X. Wang. “Sensory responses during sleep in primate primary and secondary auditory cortex.” J Neurosci. 28: 14467–14480 (2008).
  5. Bendor, D.A. and X. Wang. "Differential neural coding of acoustic flutter within primate auditory cortex". Nat Neurosci, 10: 763–771 (2007).
  6. Miller, C. T. and X. Wang. “Sensory-motor interactions modulate a primate vocal behavior: antiphonal calling in common marmosets.” J Comp Neurobiol. A. 192: 27–38 (2006).
  7. Wang, X., T. Lu, R.K. Snider and L. Liang. “Sustained firing in auditory cortex evoked by preferred stimuli.” Nature. 435: 341–346 (2005).
  8. Bendor, D. A. and X. Wang. “The neuronal representation of pitch in primate auditory cortex.” Nature. 436: 1161–1165 (2005).
  9. Barbour, D. and X. Wang. “Contrast tuning in auditory cortex.” Science. 299: 1073–1075 (2003).
  10. Lu, T., L. Liang and X. Wang. “Temporal and rate representations of time-varying signals in the auditory cortex of awake primates.” Nature Neuroscience, 4:1131–1138, (2001).
  11. Wang, X. “On cortical coding of vocal communication sounds in primates.” Proc Natl Acad Sci. USA 97: 11843–11849 (2000).

Academic Affiliations & Courses

Graduate Program Affiliation

Biomedical Engineering Program

Neuroscience Graduate Program

Activities & Honors

Honors

  • Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), 1999
  • Postdoctoral Fellowship, The Kleberg Foundation , 1992

Professional Activities

  • Co-Organizer, Advances and Perspectives in Auditory Neurophysiology (APAN), 2003 - 2006
  • Editorial Review Board, Nature
  • Editorial Review Board, Nature Neuroscience
  • Editorial Review Board, PNAS
  • Editorial Review Board, Neuron
  • Editorial Review Board, Journal of Neuroscience
  • Editorial Review Board, Journal of Neurophysiology
  • Editorial Review Board, Neuroscience
  • Editorial Review Board, Cerebral Cortex
  • Editorial Review Board, Brain Research
  • Editorial Review Board, Journal of Comparative Neurology
  • Editorial Review Board, Behavioral Neuroscience
  • Editorial Review Board, Journal of Acoustic Society of America
  • Editorial Review Board, Hearing Research
  • Editorial Review Board, Journal of Association of Research in Otolaryngology
  • Editorial Review Board, Neural Computation
  • Editorial Review Board, Journal of Computational Neuroscience
  • Editorial Review Board, Annals of Neurology
  • Editorial Review Board, IEEE Transaction on Biomedical Engineering
  • Editorial Review Board, Annals of Neurology
  • Editorial Review Board, IEEE Transaction on Biomedical Engineering
  • Organizer, Computational and Systems Neuroscience (CoSyNe), 2005
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