Jing Xu

Jing Xu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Georgia (UGA), and the director of the Cognition and Dexterity (CoDex) Laboratory and co-director of the Neurostimulation Laboratory at UGA. Her research strives to understand cognitive processes and neural mechanisms for human skill learning, and uncover biomarkers and factors for better rehabilitation strategies after neurological injuries. Her team employs behavioral, neurophysiology and imaging, and computational modeling approaches to answer these research questions.

Jing received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. Her PhD work was focusing on human motor control, memory, and categorization. In 2011, she joined the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University for her post-doctoral study on a longitudinal study on acute stroke motor function recovery (The Study of Motor Learning and Acute Recovery Time Course in Stroke, SMARTS), tracking stroke patients’ upper extremity function and neurophysiology measures using TMS, fMRI and DTI for one-year period. Her fine-grained behavioral analysis combined with lesion analysis revealed separate biological systems supporting the recovery of hand strength and dexterity. In 2017, Jing became a faculty in the Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare at the Johns Hopkins University. Her research focus was the human hand function and rehabilitation. She joined UGA Kinesiology in 2020.