APL-Lab
Action, Perception, and Learning Lab

Action Percetion Learning Lab

Action Perception and Learning Lab, which is led by Dr. Juan Chen, is affiliated with the School of Psychology at South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China. We are also affiliated with two key laboratories of the Ministry of Education, China, 1) Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education; and 2) Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory of Reading and Development in Children and Adolescents (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education.

The lab is led by Dr. Juan Chen, who obtained her bachelor degree in mathematics in Beijing Normal University, Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience at Peking University (supervised by Dr. Fang Fang), and Post-doctoral training in the Brain and Mind Institute at the University of Western Ontario (or Western University) in Canada under the supervision of Dr. Melvyn A Goodale and Dr. Jody Culham.

We use multiple techniques including psychophysics, eye tracking, motor tracking, brain imaging (EEG, fMRI, MEG), to study the behavioral properties and neural mechanisms of sensory perception (visual perception, haptic perception, proprioception etc) and hand actions (reaching, grasping, tool use, obstacle avoidance, etc), and the interaction between perception and action. Under these two big topics, we focus on the size and distance representation, multisensory integration and learning in perception and action tasks. Our research has strong practicality and can be widely combined with robotics and artificial intelligence.

Laboratory location figure is shown below

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News

  • Yijin Wang, Yuqing Zhao and Jinquan Wang participated in The 2rd "AI for Science" competition and won a First-class reward. Congratulations to them all!

  • Members attended China Science Vision Conference, Guangzhou University 2024 in Guangdong. Yijin Wang gave a talk and won an reward. Congratulations to her!

  • 12/2024 Yijin Wang, Yuqing Zhao and Jinquan Wang participated in The 2rd "AI for Science" competition and won a First-class reward. Congratulations to them all!
  • 12/2024 Members attended China Science Vision Conference, Guangzhou University 2024 (中国视觉科学会议2024) in Guangzhou, Guangdong. Yijin Wang gave a talk and won an reward. Congratulations to her!
  • 11/2024 Jinquan Wang, Ruxiao Zhang, Yanli Wang and Jiaping Lin attended Cognitive Neuroscience Symposium, Guangzhou University 2024 (广州大学认知神经科学研讨会2024) in Guangzhou, Guangdong.
  • 11/2024 Members attended Annual Consciousness Conference 2024 (中国认知科学学会意识科学分会2024学术年会) in Zhuhai, Guangdong. Zhiqing Deng's poster received an award, congratulations to her!
  • 10/2024 Zhiqing Deng and Xiaoqian Wu attended China Vision Science Conference 2024（中国视觉科学会议2024）in Suzhou, Jiangsu.
  • 08/2024 Yihui Zhang, Jie Gao and Zhiqing Deng attended European Conference on Visual Perception 2024 in UK.
  • 07/2024 The APL lab welcome Wenyuan Wang joining our lab as a Ph.D candidate, we also welcome Jiaping Lin and Haobo Li joining our lab as master students!
  • 06/2024 Fuying Zhu and Gexiu Wang have received their master's degree, congratulations to them! The APL lab welcome Gexiu Wang joining our lab as a research assisstant!
  • 06/2024 Zhiqing Deng have received her doctor's degree, congratulations to her!
  • 05/2024 Members attended Academic Annual Meeting of Chinese Psychological Society 2024 (普通心理和实验心理专业委员会2024) in Lanzhou, Gansu. Zhiqing Deng's poster received an award, congratulations to her!
  • 06/2024 Dr. Chen Juan and Deng Zhiqing attended the Vision Science Society 2024 and gave a talk.
  • 12/2023 Members received a Second-class reward in The 16th Challenge Cup.
  • 08/2023 Yijin Wang, Jiantong Ye and Xiaoqian Wu attended China Vision Science Conference 2023（中国视觉科学会议2023）in Wenzhou, Zhejiang.
  • 06/2023 Jie Gao have received her doctor's degree, congratulations to her! The APL lab welcome Jie Gao joining our lab as a post-doctoral researcher!
  • 06/2023 Yichong Zhang and Chao Zheng received their master's degree, congratulations to them!
  • 05/2023 Members attended Academic Annual Neuroimaging Meeting of Chinese Neuroscience Society 2023（中国神经科学学会神经影像分会2023）in Guangzhou, Guangdong.
  • 05/2023 Dr. Juan Chen, Zhiqing Deng and Jie Gao attended the Vision Science Society 2024 in America.
  • 05/2023 The APL lab welcome Yuqing Zhao joining our lab as a Ph.D candidate, we also welcome Jinquan Wang, Ruxiao Zhang and Yanli Wang joining our lab as master students!
  • 06/2022 Xiaoli Liu received her master's degree, congratulations to her!
  • 06/2022 The APL lab welcome Yijin Wang, Jiantong Ye and Xiaoqian Wu joining our lab as master students!
  • 06/2022 The APL lab welcome Yihui Zhang joining our lab as a post-doctoral researcher!
  • 09/2021 The APL lab welcome Fuying Zhu and Gexiu Wang joining our lab as master students!
  • 06/2021 Ruixue Wang, Can Wang and Can Zhang received their master's degree, congratulations to them! The APL lab welcome Can Wang joining our lab as a research assisstant!
  • 09/2020 The APL lab welcome Yichong Zhang and Chao Zheng joining our lab as master students!
  • 06/2020 Zhiqing Deng, Baoting Ouyang and Tian Wang received their master's degree, congratulations to them! The APL lab welcome Zhiqing Deng joining our lab as a PhD candidate!
  • 09/2019 The APL lab welcome Jie Gao joining our lab as a PhD candidate! We also welcome Ruixue Wang, Can Wang and Can Zhang and Xiaoli Liu joining our lab as master students!
  • 09/2018 The APL lab welcome Zhiqing Deng, Baoting Ouyang and Tian Wang joining our lab as master students!

Principle Investigator

Dr. Juan Chen (陈娟) attained her bachelor’s degree in mathematics in Beijing Normal University, and her Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience in Peking University (supervised by Dr. Fang Fang), and received post-doctoral training in the Brain and Mind Institute at the University of Western Ontario (or Western University) in Canada working with Dr. Melvyn A Goodale and Dr. Jody Culham. She also visited the School of Optometry and Vision Science (Dr. Ben Thompson’s Lab) at the University of Waterloo, Canada, and the Movement Disorders Research and Rehabilitation Centre (Dr. Michael Cinelli’s Lab) at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada in 2019.

Click here to view her CV.

Postdoctoral Researchers

Yihui Zhang（张艺卉）received her PhD and Master's degrees from South China Normal University and her undergraduate degree from Anhui University. Her main research interests are action and self-processing, and her common research techniques include EEG, MEG and fMRI.

Email: zhangyihui@m.scnu.edu.cn

Jie Gao (高洁) received her Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from South China Normal University, a Master's degree in psychometrics from South China Normal University, and a Bachelor's degree in social psychology from Zhengzhou University. Integrating neuroscience techniques (e.g., fMRI, EEG), and computational modeling, she aims to explore the neurocognitive mechanisms of action learning and perceptual learning.

Email: jiegao@m.scnu.edu.cn

PhD Candidates

Zina Li (李自娜) received her Master’s degree in computer science from South China Normal University.

Email: zina@m.scnu.edu.cn

Yuqing Zhao (赵雨晴) received her Master’s degree in psychology from Hangzhou Normal University.

Email: 2023010290@m.scnu.edu.cn

Wenyuan Wang (王文媛) received her Master's degree in Psychological Education from Nantong University.

Email: 2024010306@m.scnu.edu.cn

Research Assistant

Gexiu Wang (王格修) graduated from Jinling Institute of Technology majoring in Mechanical Design manufacture and Automation. He is interested in the eye-hand coordination, vision and consciousness.

Email：wanggexiu@m.scnu.edu.cn

Master Students

Jiantong Ye (叶健彤) graduated from Guangzhou University with major of psychology. Her interest lies in subthreshold perceptual learning.

Email：2022023757@m.scnu.edu.cn

Xiaoqian Wu (吴小钱) graduated from Fujian Medical University, majoring in applied psychology. She is interested in visual and haptic size.

Email：2022023793@m.scnu.edu.com

Yijin Wang (王仪瑾) received her Bachelor's degree of Computer Science and Technology from South China Normal University. She is interested in investigating representation of tools under unconscious condition using various deep neural networks.

Email：Yjin_w@m.scnu.edu.cn

Yanli Wang (王艳丽) received her Bachelor's degree of psychology from Qingdao University. She is interested in repetitive inhibition effect and wants to explore the mechanism of sensory attenuation expecially in visual domain.

Email：2023023798@m.scnu.edu.cn

Jinquan Wang (王金泉) received his Bachelor's degree of Business Administration from Hangzhou Dianzi University.

Email：2023023835@m.scnu.edu.cn

Ruxiao Zhang (张如筱) received her Bachelor's degree of echology from Xiamen University.

Email：2023023810@m.scnu.edu.cn

Jiaping Lin（林佳萍）received her Bachelor's degree of Computer Science and Technology from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.

Email：2024024110@m.scnu.edu.cn

Haobo Li（李浩博） received his Bachelor's degree of Psychology from Shaanxi Normal University.

Email：2024024034@m.scnu.edu.cn

Alumni

Undergraduate students

Visiting students

Research Interests

  • 1. Neural mechanism of perception (vision, hearing, touch, proprioception, etc.) and action (grasping, pointing, tool use, etc.)
  • 2. Multisensory integration during perception and action
  • 3. Perception and action training and brain plasticity
  • 4. Auditory, tactile, proprioception and action system for the blind
  • 5. Development of Children's perception and action system
  • 6. Decoding of action intention and action features.

Research methods

  • Psychophysics
  • Motor tracking
  • Eye tracking
  • EEG
  • FMRI
  • MEG
  • Patient research

Equipment

  • NDI Optotrak certus

  • EEG

Video and Slides

Effects of Action planning on surround suppression

Participate our research

To make our research more effective in helping patients, we are recruiting subjects with symptoms such as ventral impairment, disturbance of consciousness, visual loss of certification, object recognition disorder, optic ataxia and anomia. If you have the above symptoms and are willing to participate in experimental research, please contact us at SCNU_ChenLab@outlook.com

Peer-reviewed articles

  • 27. Wang, G., Zheng, C., Wu, X., Deng, Z., Sperandio, I., Goodale, M. A., & Chen, J. (2024). The contribution of semantic distance knowledge to size constancy in perception and grasping when visual cues are limited. Neuropsychologia, 196, 108838. Download
  • 26. Zhang, Y., Wu, X., Zheng, C., Zhao, Y., Gao, J., Deng, Z., Zhang, X., & Chen, J. (2024). Effects of Vergence Eye Movement Planning on Size Perception and Early Visual Processing. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 1–14. Advance online publication.  Download
  • 25. Wang, Y., Gao, J., Zhu, F., Liu, X., Wang, G., Zhang, Y., Deng, Z., & Chen, J. (2024). Internal representations of the canonical real-world distance of objects. Journal of vision, 24(2), 14. Download
  • 24. Zhang, C., Wang, C., Deng, Z., Gao, J., Ding, Z., & Chen, J*. (2023). Hand copy performance of young children and the illiterate, semi-illiterate, and literate adults. Current Psychology.  Download
  • 23. Chen, J#., Paciocco, J. U.#, Deng. Z, Culham, J. C., Human neuroimaging reveals differences in activation and connectivity between real and pantomimed tool use. Journal of Neuroscience, 2023 Download
  • 22. Klein, L. K., Maiello, G., Stubbs, K., Proklova, D., Chen, J., Paulun, V. C., Culham, J. C., & Fleming, R. W. (2023). Distinct neural components of visually guided grasping during planning and execution. The Journal of Neuroscience, JN-RM-0335-0323.  Download
  • 21. Deng, Z., Xie, W., Zhang, C., Wang, C., Zhu, F., Xie, R., and Chen, J. (2023) Development of the mirror-image sensitivity for different object categories - evidence from the mirror cost of object images in children and adults. Journal of Vision. Download
  • 20. Wang, C., Gao, J., Deng, Z., Zhang, Y., Zheng, C., Liu, X., Sperandio, I., & Chen, J. (2022). Extracurricular sports activities modify the proprioceptive map in children aged 5–8 years. Scientific Reports, 12. Download
  • 19. Sun, C., Chen, J., Chen, Y., & Tang, R. (2021). The influence of induced emotions on distance and size perception and on the grip scaling during grasping. Frontiers in Psychology, 4062. Download
  • 18. Gao, J., Ko, A., Yabe, Y., Goodale, M. A., & Chen, J#. (2020). Pupil size is modulated by the size of equal-luminance gratings. Journal of Vision, 20(8), 4-4. Download
  • 17. Zhang, X., Li, H., Xie, T., Liu, Y., Chen, J., & Long, J. (2020). Movement speed effects on beta-band oscillations in sensorimotor cortex during voluntary activity. Journal of Neurophysiology, 124(2), 352-359. Download
  • 16. Chen, X., Chen, J., Cheng, G., & Gong, T. (2020). Topics and trends in artificial intelligence assisted human brain research. PLOS ONE, 15(4), e0231192. Download
  • 15. Chen, J., Sperandio, I., Molly, H., & Goodale, M. A. (in press). Changing the real viewing distance reveals the temporal evolution of size constancy in visual cortex. Current Biology (co-Corresponding author). Download
  • 14. Chen, J., Sperandio, I., & Goodale, M. A. (2018). Proprioceptive Distance Cues Restore Perfect Size Constancy in Grasping, but Not Perception, When Vision Is Limited. Current Biology, 28, 1-6. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2018.01.076 (co-Corresponding author). Download
  • 13. Freud, E., Macdonald, S. N., Chen, J., Quinlan, D. J., Goodale, M. A., & Culham, J. C. (2018). Getting a grip on reality: Grasping movements directed to real objects and images rely on dissociable neural representations. Cortex, 98, 34-48. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2017.02.020. Download
  • 12. Chen, J., Snow, J. C., Culham, J. C., & Goodale, M. A. (2018). What Role Does “Elongation” Play in “Tool-Specific” Activation and Connectivity in the Dorsal and Ventral Visual Streams? Cerebral Cortex, 28(4), 1117-1131. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhx017 (Corresponding author). Download
  • 11. Mundinano, I.-C., Chen, J., de Souza, M., Sarossy, M. G., Joanisse, M. F., Goodale, M. A., & Bourne, J. A. (2017). More than blindsight: Case report of a child with extraordinary visual capacity following perinatal bilateral occipital lobe injury. Neuropsychologia. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.11.017. Download
  • 10. Chen, J., Yu, Q., Zhu, Z., Peng, Y., & Fang, F. (2016). Spatial summation revealed in the earliest visual evoked component C1 and the effect of attention on its linearity. Journal of neurophysiology, 115(1), 500-509. Download
  • 9. Chen, J., Jayawardena, S., & Goodale, M. A. (2015). The effects of shape crowding on grasping. Journal of vision, 15(3), 6-6. (Corresponding author). Download
  • 8. Chen, J., Sperandio, I., & Goodale, M. A. (2015). Differences in the effects of crowding on size perception and grip scaling in densely cluttered 3-d scenes. Psychological science, 26(1), 58-69. (Co-corresponding author). Download
  • 7. Chen, J., He, Y., Zhu, Z., Zhou, T., Peng, Y., Zhang, X., & Fang, F. (2014). Attention-dependent early cortical suppression contributes to crowding. The Journal of Neuroscience, 34(32), 10465-10474. Download
  • 6. Bi, T.*, Chen, J.*, Zhou, T., He, Y., & Fang, F. (2014). Function and structure of human left fusiform cortex are closely associated with perceptual learning of faces. Current Biology, 24(2), 222-227. (*co-first author). Download
  • 5. Yang, H., Shen, J., Chen, J., & Fang, F. (2011). Face adaptation improves gender discrimination. Vision research, 51(1), 105-110. Download
  • 4. Chen, J., Zhou, T., Yang, H., & Fang, F. (2010). Cortical dynamics underlying face completion in human visual system. The Journal of Neuroscience, 30(49), 16692-16698. Download
  • 3. Chen, J.*, Yang, H.*, Wang, A., & Fang, F. (2010). Perceptual consequences of face viewpoint adaptation: Face viewpoint aftereffect, changes of differential sensitivity to face view, and their relationship. Journal of Vision, 10(3), 12-12. (*co-first author). Download
  • 2. Bi, T., Su, J., Chen, J., & Fang, F. (2009). The role of gaze direction in face viewpoint aftereffect. Vision research, 49(18), 2322-2327. Download
  • 1. Chen, J., Liu, B., Chen, B., & Fang, F. (2009). Time course of amodal completion in face perception. Vision research, 49(7), 752-758. Download

Collaborators

Helpful resources

Opportunities

The lab is seeking Postdoc Research Fellows, PhD students, Master students from Psychology, Math, Physics, Computer Science, Medicine, Biology, Engineer, etc.

Undergraduate students are also welcome to work as research assistants in the lab.

Collaborations

Collaborations from hospitals and industry are welcomed.

Contact address

School of psychology, South China Normal University, 55 Zhongshan Avenue, West, Tianhe District, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China

Affilication