In this week's #TraineeTuesday (X, Bluesky), we highlight Yue Fei, PhD, a graduate student in the Liang Lab at Yale, who recently defended his PhD thesis. His exciting research on motion perception is currently under revision at a prominent journal.
Motion is fundamental to life — from a mouse chasing prey to a person dodging a frisbee, tracking movement is key to survival. Yue’s thesis explores how the brain makes this possible.
His work centers on the superior colliculus, a midbrain region packed with motion-sensitive neurons. Specifically, Yue investigated how signals from the colliculus shape activity in the visual thalamus, sharpening the brain’s direction-selective responses. By revealing how these subcortical circuits enhance motion selectivity, his research brings us closer to understanding how animals interpret dynamic environments.
But beyond the motion he studied in the brain, Yue’s time at Yale has set other things in motion: personal growth, lasting collaborations, and a lab culture built from the ground up.
As the first member of the Liang Lab, Yue helped set up the lab from scratch, installing equipment, troubleshooting devices, and developing protocols.
I would not be frustrated when some lab devices were down because I had previously set them up and could easily fix them.
Yue Fei, PhD
This hands-on experience built the independence and resilience he’s carried throughout his PhD. He credits much of this growth to the mentorship of Liang Liang, PhD.
Liang is super supportive while I explore new directions or try novel techniques.
Yue Fei, PhD
Collaboration has also been a defining part of Yue’s time at Yale. He’s worked with labs across neuroscience and biomedical engineering, reflecting Yale’s uniquely interdisciplinary culture.
Before Yale, as an undergrad, Yue studied learned helplessness in flies at Zhejiang University with Zhefeng Gong, PhD. He then moved to Harvard Medical School, where he researched Drosophila mating behavior with Josh Crickmore, PhD. It was there that he met Dr. Liang, whose work on deep-brain imaging in awake mice inspired him to join her lab at Yale.
The most important aspect of my research is unraveling the mysteries of motion selectivity. Understanding how subcortical inputs are coordinated and contribute to sensory processing has profound implications for our knowledge of behavior.
Yue Fei, PhD
Next, Yue plans to apply for postdoc positions, with the long-term goal of leading his own computational neuroscience lab, combining theory and experiment to uncover the principles of brain function.
We can’t wait to see his paper in print — and what he sets in motion next.