I obtained my doctorial degree in Cognitive Neuroscience at Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour in The Netherlands. After that, I obtained Rubicon NWO grant (with Marie Curie Cofunding) to conduct my postdoctoral research at Stanford University, and then I was promoted as Instructor with NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99) at Stanford University School of Medicine. Thereafter, I returned to my home country and joined Beijing Normal University (BNU) as a faculty, and become Principal Investigator at the State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research at BNU.  

       My primary research of interest is to understand how the brain supports learning and memory, and interaction with emotion especially for stress and anxiety. And how these processes develop as the brain matures from childhood to adulthood. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, integrating functional brain imaging and experimental behavioral techniques, endocrine, psychophysiology and genetics, I currently investigate how the medial temporal, prefrontal and parietal systems interplay to support learning and memory and interact with emotion, and their maturational changes from childhood through adolescence into adulthood. The overarching goal of my research is to optimize learning and memory in education and prevention of learning and emotional problems over development.

Lab manager: Yaqin Gao
Faculty & Postdoc: Dr. Hui Zhao, Dr. Jingyi Wang
Research Staff: Liping Zhuang, Liyun Wu
Graduate students: Coming soon… 

Selected Core Publications (* Corresponding Author)
Y Liu, W Lin, C Liu, Y Luo, J Wu, PJ Bayley, S Qin* (2016). Memory consolidation reconfigures neural pathways involved in the suppression of emotional memories. Nature communications 7, 13375.
S Qin*, S Cho, T Chen, M Rosenberg-Lee, DC Geary, V Menon (2014). Hippocampal-neocortical functional reorganization underlies children's cognitive development. Nature neuroscience 17 (9), 1263.
S Qin*, CB Young, X Duan, C Tianwen, K Supekar, V Menon (2014). Amygdala subregional structure and intrinsic functional connectivity predicts individual differences in anxiety during early childhood. Biological Psychiatry, 892-900.
S Qin*, CB Young, K Supekar, LQ Uddin, V Menon (2012). Immature integration and segregation of emotion-related brain circuitry in young children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109 (20), 7941-7946.
S Qin*, EJ Hermans, HJF van Marle, G Fernández (2012). Understanding low reliability of memories for neutral information encoded under stress: alterations in memory-related activation in the hippocampus and midbrain. Journal of Neuroscience 32 (12), 4032-4041.
EJ Hermans, HJF van Marle, L Ossewaarde, MJAG Henckens, S Qin, ... (2011). Stress-related noradrenergic activity prompts large-scale neural network reconfiguration. Science 334 (6059), 1151-1153.
S Qin*, HJF van Marle, EJ Hermans, G Fernández (2011). Subjective sense of memory strength and the objective amount of information accurately remembered are related to distinct neural correlates at encoding. Journal of Neuroscience 31 (24), 8920-8927
H Cousijn, M Rijpkema, S Qin, HJF van Marle, B Franke, EJ Hermans, ... (2010). Acute stress modulates genotype effects on amygdala processing in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (21), 9867-9872.
S Qin*, EJ Hermans, HJF van Marle, J Luo, G Fernández (2009). Acute psychological stress reduces working memory-related activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Biological psychiatry 66 (1), 25-32.