Dr. Xiaosha Wang is a Research Assistant Professor at the School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University. She holds a Bachelor's degree from Peking University Health Science Center (2004–2009) and a Ph.D. from Beijing Normal University (2009–2016), where she subsequently completed her postdoctoral training (2016–2019) at the School of Information Science and Technology. She has headed several research grants, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation. Her research explores the cognitive and neural foundations of semantic memory, with a primary focus on the role of linguistic experience in the representation of abstract knowledge.
List of Publications
(# Equal contribution, * Corresponding author)
Fu, Z., Chu, Y., Zhang, T., Li, Y., Wang, X.*, Bi, Y.* (2026) Semantics across the globe: A universal neurocognitive semantic 1 structure adaptive to climate. Nat Commun, 17:4016.
Amaral, L.#, Wang, X.#, Bi, Y.*, & Striem-Amit, E.* (2025). Unraveling the impact of congenital deafness on individual brain organization. eLife, 13:RP96944.
Wang*, X., Wang, B., & Bi, Y*. (2023). Early language exposure affects neural mechanisms of semantic representations. eLife, 12, e81681.
Xiong, Z. #, Tian, Y. #, Wang, X*., Wei, K*., & Bi, Y. (2023). Gravity matters for the neural representations of action semantics. Cerebral Cortex, 33(11): 6862-6871
Wang X., Li G., Zhao G., Li Y., Wang B., Lin C.P., Liu X. *, Bi Y.* Social and emotion dimensional organizations in the abstract semantic space: the neuropsychological evidence. Scientific Reports, 2021, 11, 23572.
Wang X, Bi, Y*. Idiosyncratic Tower of Babel: Individual differences in word meaning representation increase along abstractness. Psychological Science, 2021, 32(10): 1617-1635
Wang X.#, Wang B.#, Bi Y.* Close yet independent: Dissociation of social from valence and abstract semantic dimensions in the left anterior temporal lobe. Human Brain Mapping, 2019, 40: 4759-4776.
Wang X.#, Wu W.#, Ling Z., Xu Y., Fang Y., Wang X., Binder J., Men W., Gao J., Bi Y.* Organizational Principles of Abstract Words in the Human Brain. Cerebral Cortex, 2018, 28: 4305-4318.
Wang X. #, Xu Y. #, Wang Y., Zeng Y., Zhang J.*, Ling Z.*, Bi Y. Representational similarity analysis reveals task-dependent semantic influence of the visual word form area. Scientific Reports, 2018, 8(1): 3047
Wang X, Fang Y, Cui Z, Xu Y, He Y, Guo Q*, Bi Y*. Representing object categories by connections: Evidence from a multivariate connectivity pattern classification approach. Human Brain Mapping, 2016, 37(10):3685-97
Wang X, Caramazza A, Peelen MV, Han Z, Bi Y*. Reading without speech sounds: VWFA and its connectivity in the congenitally deaf. Cerebral cortex, 2015, 25 (9): 2416-2426.
Wang X, Han Z, He Y, Liu L, Bi Y*. Resting-State Functional Connectivity Patterns Predict Chinese Word Reading Competency. PLoS One, 2012, 7(9): e44848