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Ph.D. (HKU), B.Sc. (ECNU)

dnchen@connect.hku.hk

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Hello! I am Danni Chen (陈丹妮). Welcome to my personal website!

I am now a post-doc working with Prof. Xiaoqing Hu (胡晓晴教授) at the Social and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong (香港大学).

I obtained my Ph.D. in Psychology from HKU (2025) and Bachor of Science in Psychology (2019) from East China Normal University(华东师范大学), where I worked with Prof. Xianchun Li (李先春教授) and Prof. Lin Li (李林教授).

My research aims to uncover how human sleep supports adaptive decision-making and behavior by modulating social-affective learning.
I approach this question through three interrelated dimensions:
(1) the role of sleep in (social) learning and memory;
(2) how memory and memory changes influence decision-making, and
(3) the mechanisms underlying social learning.

To achieve this, my work integrates a multimodal research framework that spans multiple levels of analysis:
(1) computational: behavioral measurements such as eye movements and mouse trajectories;
(2) algorithmic, using behavioral modeling;
(3) implementation, using EEG.

For details and my publication, please refer to Research and Publication tab. Please feel free to reach me out via dnchen@connect.hku.hk if you have any questions, or any potential collaboration.




News


I gave a talk at Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Forum on Innovative Development of Psychological Science: Young Psychologist Forum (粤港澳大湾区心理学科创新发展论坛: 大湾区青年心理学人论坛). I shared my research on how memory reactivation during sleep modulates daytime decision-making. This was a great opportunity to share my research with colleagues from different institutions, and to learn more about the cutting-edge research in psychological science in the Greater Bay Area.

October 26 2025


I started my post-doctoral research at the Social and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong. I am very excited to continue my research on sleep, social learning, and memory-guided decision-making, and to explore more about the fascinating world of cognitive neuroscience.

June 16 2025


I attended CNS 2025 in Boston, and presented my work on TMR and counter-attitudinal learning. This was a great opportunity to share my research , to learn more about the cutting-edge research in sleep science, and to meet with the cognitive neuroscience community.

April 8 2025


I attended Europe Sleep 2024, and presented my work on Modifying Evaluative Decision-Making During Human Sleep. This was a great opportunity to share my research , to learn more about the cutting-edge research in sleep science, and to meet with the sleep community. I am grateful for the feedback and the discussion, and enjoyed the view of the beautiful city of Seville.

Sep 27 2024


I participated in Birmingham-Leiden Summer School on Computational Social Cognition. This was a great opportunity to learn more about computational modeling opportunity. I have learned a lot from the lectures and the hands-on sessions. Many thanks to the organizers and the lecturers!

July 17 2024


Our paper Modulating social learning-induced evaluation updating during human sleep is now available at npj Science of Learning. This is my first first-authored sleep and TMR research. In this paper, we examined whether TMR can reactivate pre-sleep social learning to further influence evaluation updatings. The results showed YES, and the overnight evaluation updating was related to cue-elicited delta-theta power and N2 sleep spindle density that are related to sleep-based memory consolidation.

July 7 2024


I have been awarded for the Dissertation Year Fellowship. With this funding support, I can have an additional year to work on my research at HKU. Many thanks to my supervisor Dr. Hu for his time and support!

June 1 2024


Completed my thesis defense! Many thanks to my supervisors, my collaborators, my lab mates, and my wonderful examiners :)

April 17 2024



[Updated in June 2025]


Danni CHEN, Ph.D.

Post-doctoral Fellow
Social and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab
Department of Psychology
The University of Hong Kong



Contact

Email: dnchen@connect.hku.hk
Twitter: @DanniChen9707
Address: Room 11.15, 11/F, The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong


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