Washington University in St. Louis (WU)
Dr. Cao’s research focuses on understanding the neural computational mechanisms underlying face and object perception and how visual perception supports higher-level cognitive functions, such as social trait judgments, social inference, and familiarization. In addition to studying the fundamental neural mechanisms of visual and social cognition in healthy brains, she is also interested in exploring how these functions are disrupted in neurological conditions, such as autism. To achieve a mechanistic understanding of visual and social cognition, Dr. Cao employs an array of advanced cognitive neuroscience approaches, including human single-unit recordings, iEEG, fMRI, eye-tracking, and computational modeling.