Biography:

Dr. Xujun Duan is a professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China. She received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China under the supervision of Dr. Huafu Chen, and conducted a Joint PhD study at Stanford University under the supervision of Dr. Vinod Menon. Her long-term research goal is to address how brain anatomy, function and connectivity are altered in autism spectrum, and how they vary across the population, by using multi-modal brain imaging techniques and computational methods.

Over the past decade, she has dedicated to delineate a comprehensive and consistent mapping of the different structure and function of the autistic brain, and reaches a consensus that the “social brain” are the most affected regions in the autistic brain at different levels and modalities. She further proposed a personalized functional-connectivity guided brain stimulation strategy targeting the “social brain” to improve social deficits of severe autism. She is the PI of 5 research projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and awarded the first prize of the Science and Technology Progress Awards of Sichuan Province, China. She was one of the Keynote speakers of the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM).

Her findings have been published in influential journals including PNAS, Biological Psychiatry, elife, Schizophrenia Bulletin, Cerebral Cortex and Human Brain Mapping.

Ongoing and recently completed projects/fundings:

1.        National Natural Science Foundation of China, 82322035, Brain Imaging of Autism, 2024/01-2027/12, PI

2.        National Natural Science Foundation of China，62273076，Multi-source fusion-based neural mechanism modeling of Autism spectrum disorder and auxiliary diagnosis and treatment algorithms，2023/01-2026/12，PI

3.        National Natural Science Foundation of China，81871432，Neural mechanism of transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy for autism: A multimodal MRI study，2019/01-2022/12, PI

4.        National Natural Science Foundation of China，61673089，Brain plasticity of autism in response to early behavioral intervention: A multimodal MRI study，2017/01-2020/12, PI

Selected Publications:

2025

1.        王笑天，等，孤独症儿童大脑灰质体积异常的性别差异性影像遗传学分析。中华医学杂志。2025

2.        Xiaolog Shan, Ya Li, Jinming Xiao, Xiaotian Wang, Xinyue Huang, Lei Li, Yu Feng, Weixin Zhao, Huafu Chen*, Xujun Duan*. Developmental Shift from Intrinsic Hyper- to Hypo- Connectivity Occurring at Pre- Adolescence in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Autism Research, 2025, 18(11):2254-2264.

3.        Yu Feng, Weixing Zhao, Youyi Li, Qin Yin, Xiaotian Wang, Xinyue Huang, Lei Li, Xiaolong Shan, Wanrou Hu, Yating Ming, Peng Wang, Jinming Xiao*, Huafu Chen*, Xujun Duan*. Diffusion trajectory of atypical morphological development in autism. Communications biology, 2025, 8:1476. 2025 Oct 16

4.        段旭君. 早发性精神分裂症和孤独症脑指纹: 相似而不同，科学通报。Xujun Duan. Brain fingerprints of early-onset schizophrenia and autism: similar but different (in Chinese). Chin Sci Bull, doi: 10.1360/TB-2024-0717.

5.        Jinming Xiao, Qing Yin, Lei Li, Yao Meng, Xiaobo Liu, Wanrou Hu, Xinyue Huang, Yu Feng, Xiaolong Shan, Weixing Zhao, Peng Wang, Xiaotian Wang, Youyi Li, Huafu Chen*, Xujun Duan*. Tracking causal pathways in TMS-evoked brain responses. PLoS Computational Biology, Aceepted. 2025 Jul 28; 21(7):e1013316

6.        Xinyue Huang, Weixing Zhao, Rui Feng, Yuanyue Zhou, Jia Wang, Jinming Xiao, Lei Li, Xiaolong Shan, Yu Feng, Yating Ming, Jing Cao, Xiaodong Kang, Lijie Wu, Huafu Chen*, Xujun Duan*. Linking gut microbiome profiles and white matter integrity to social behavior in young autistic children: from the perspective of individual variation. Science Bulletin, 2025, 70(12):1927-1931.

7.        Jinming Xiao#, Yating Ming#, Lei Li#, Xinyue Huang, Yuanyue Zhou, Jianjun Ou, Juan Kou, Rui Feng, Rui Ma, Qingyu Zheng, Xiaolong Shan, Yao Meng, Wei Liao, Yingli Zhang, Ting Wang, Yangying Kuang, Jing Cao, Shijun Li, Hua Lai, Jia Chen, Qi Wang, Xiaoli Dong, Xiaodong Kang, Huafu Chen*, Vinod Menon*, Xujun Duan*. Personalized theta-burst stimulation enhances social skills in young minimally verbal children with autism: a double-blind randomized controlled trial. Biological Psychiatry, 2025, 97(12):1139-1149.

8.        Xujun Duan*, Xiaolong Shan, Lucina Q. Uddin, Huafu Chen*. The future of disentangling the heterogeneity of autism with neuroimaging studies. Biological Psychiatry, 2025, 97(5):428-438.

9.        Lei Li, Jinming Xiao, Weixing Zhao, Qingyu Zheng, Xinyue Huang, Xiaolong Shan, Yating Ming, Peng Wang, Zhen Wu, Huafu Chen*, Vinod Menon*, Xujun Duan*. Mother-child dyadic interactions shape children’s social brain and theory of mind. eLife, 2025, https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.103017.1

10.    Lei Li, Xinyue Huang, Qingyu Zheng, Jinming Xiao, Xiaolong Shan, Huafu Chen*, Xujun Duan*. Similarity or complementarity? Understanding marital relationships in terms of sexual dimorphism in brain morphometry and gender roles. NeuroImage, 2025, 305:120974.

11.    Lei Li, Xinyue Huang, Qingyu Zheng, Jinming Xiao, Xiaolong Shan, Huafu Chen*, Xujun Duan*. Similar trajectories of psychological states predict marital satisfaction. Imaging Neuroscience, 2025, 3:imag_a_00466.

12.    Xiaolong Shan, Peng Wang, Qing Yin, Youyi Li, Xiaotian Wang, Yu Feng, Jinming Xiao, Lei Li, Xinyue Huang, Huafu Chen*, Xujun Duan*. Atypical dynamic neural configuration in autism spectrum disorder and its relationship to gene expression profiles, European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2025, 34:169-179.

 2024

13.    Weihua Zhao*, Keith M. Kendrick, Xujun Duan*. Challenges and prospects in the autism spectrum disorder field. Medicine Plus, 2024, 1:100045.

14.    Yu Feng, Xinyue Huang, Weixin Zhao, Yating Ming , Yuanyue Zhou, Rui Feng, Jinming Xiao, Xiaolong Shan, Xiaodong Kang, Xujun Duan*, Huafu Chen*. Association among internalizing problems, white matter integrity, and social difficulties in children with autism spectrum disorder. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 2024, 135:111109.

15.    Xinyue Huang, Leying Gao, Jiming Xiao, Lei Li, Xiaolong Shan, Huafu Chen, Xiaoqian Chai*, Xujun Duan*. Family environment modulates linkage of transdiagnostic psychiatric phenotypes and dissociable brain features in the developing brain, Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 2024, 9(9):928-938.

16.    单晓龙，陈华富，段旭君*，孤独症谱系障碍多模态磁共振脑影像模式识别, 心理科学进展, 2024, 32(7):548-564.

17.    Weixing Zhao, Lei Li, Xiujie Yang, Xiaotian Wang, Juan Kou, Jia Chen, Huafu Chen, Qi Wang*, Xujun Duan*. Brain development of a school-aged boy with autism spectrum condition talented in arithmetic: a case report. Psychoradiology, 2024, 4:kkae008.

18.    Xiaolong Shan, Lucina Q. Uddin, Rui Ma, Pengfei Xu, Jinming Xiao, Lei Li, Xinyue Huang, Yu Feng, Changchun He, Huafu Chen*, Xujun Duan*. Disentangling the individual-shared and individual-specific subspace of altered brain functional connectivity in autism spectrum disorder, Biological Psychiatry, 2024, 95(9):870-880.

2023

19.    Xinyue Huang, Yating Ming, Weixing Zhao, Rui Feng, Yuanyue Zhou, Lijie Wu, Jia Wang, Jinming Xiao, Lei Li, Xiaolong Shan, Jing Cao, Xiaodong Kang, Huafu Chen*, Xujun Duan*. Developmental prediction modeling based on diffusion tensor imaging uncovering age-dependent heterogeneity in early childhood autistic brain, Molecular Autism, 2023, 14:41.

20.    郑清予，李镭，肖金明，陈华富，段旭君*. 孤独症谱系障碍默认网络与任务正激活网络交互的共激活模式研究, 中华精神科杂志, 2023, 56 (4):284-291.

2022 

21.    Xujun Duan*, Huafu Chen. Mapping brain functional and structural abnormities in autism spectrum disorder: moving towards precision treatment. Psychoradiology, 2022, 2:78-85.

22.    Jinming Xiao, Lucina Q. Uddin, Yao Meng, Lei Li, Leying Gao, Xiaolong Shan, Xinyue Huang, Wei Liao, Huafu Chen*, Xujun Duan*. A spatio-temporal decomposition framework for dynamic functional connectivity in the human brain. NeuroImage, 2022, 263:119618.

23.     Lei Li, Xinyue Huang, Jinming Xiao, Qingyu Zheng, Xiaolong Shan, Changchun He, Wei Liao, Huafu Chen*, Vinod Menon*, Xujun Duan*. Neural synchronization predicts marital satisfaction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2022, 119(34):e2202515119.

24.    Lei Li#, Xiaoran Su#, Qingyu Zheng, Jinming Xiao, XinYue Huang, Wan Chen, Kaihua Yang, Lei Nie, Xin Yang, Huafu Chen*, Shengli Shi*, Xujun Duan*. Cofluctuation analysis reveals aberrant default mode network patterns in adolescents and youths with autism spectrum disorder. Human Brain Mapping, 2022, 43(15):4722-4732.

25.    Xiaolong Shan, Lucina Q. Uddin, Jinming Xiao, Changchun He, Zihan Ling, Lei Li, Xinyue Huang, Huafu Chen, Xujun Duan*. Mapping the heterogeneous brain structural phenotype of autsim spectrum disorder using the normative model. Biological Psychiatry, 2022, 91:967-976.

26.    Xiaofen Zong, Jiangbo Zhang, Lei Li, Tao Yao, Simeng Ma, Lijun Kang, Nan Zhang, Zhaowen Nie, Zhongchun Liu*, Junjie Zheng, Xujun Duan*, Maolin Hu*. Virtual histology of morphometric similarity network after risperidone monotherapy and imaging-epigenetic biomarkers for treatment response in first-episode schizophrenia. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 2023, 80:103406.

2021

27.    Xinyue Huang, Lei Li, Zihan Ling, Leying Gao, Huafu Chen, Xujun Duan*. Gut microbiome diversity mediates the association between right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anxiety level. Brain Image and Behavior, 2022, 16(1):397-405.

28.    Heng Chen#, Fengmei Lu#, Xiaonan Guo, Yajing Pang, Changchun He, Shaoqiang Han, Xujun Duan*, Huafu Chen*. Dimensional Analysis of Atypical Functional Connectivity of Major Depression Disorder and Bipolar Disorder. Cerebral Cortex, 2022, 32(6):1307-1317.

29.    Changchun He, Jesus M. Cortes, Xiaodong Kang, Jing Cao, Heng Chen, Xiaonan Guo, Ruishi Wang, Lingyin Kong, Xinyue Huang, Jinming Xiao, Xiaolong shan, Rui Feng, Huafu Chen, Xujun Duan*. Individual-based morphological brain network organization and its association with autistic symptoms in young children with autism spectrum disorder. Human Brain Mapping, 2021, 42(10):3282-3294.

30.    Jinming Xiao, Huafu Chen*, Xiaolong Shan, Changchun He, Ya Li, Xiaonan Guo, Heng Chen, Wei Liao, Lucina Q. Uddin*, Xujun Duan*. Linked social–communication dimensions and connectivity in functional brain networks in autism spectrum disorder. Cerebral Cortex, 2021, 31(8):3899-3910.

31.    Xiaonan Guo, Xujun Duan*, John Suckling, JiaWang, Xiaodong Kang, Heng Chen, Bharat B. Biswal, Jing Cao, Changchun He, Jinming Xiao, Xinyue Huang, Runshi Wang, Shaoqiang Han, Yun-Shuang Fan, Jing Guo, Jingping Zhao, Lijie Wu* and Huafu Chen*. Mapping progressive gray matter alterations in early childhood autistic brain. Cerebral Cortex, 2021, 31(3):1500-1510.

32.    Xujun Duan#, Changchun He#, Jianjun Ou, Runshi Wang, Jinming Xiao, Lei Li, Renrong Wu, Yan Zhang*, Jingping Zhao*, Huafu Chen*. Reduced hippocampal volume and its relationship with verbal memory and negative symptoms in treatment-naive first-episode adolescent-onset schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 2021, 47(1):64-74.