My name is Yun-Fei Liu. In less formal settings, I call myself Takua. The namesake is a different story, which you may find in About Takua
Research
In December 2023, I defended my doctoral dissertation and earned my PhD degree in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in Johns Hopkins University. Under the supervision of Dr. Marina Bedny, I’m studying the neuroscience of programming code comprehension and the neural mechanism underlying Braille reading in congenitally blind individuals. These two lines of research aren’t unrelated. Instead, they belong to the overarching theme of “reading”. Yes, I‘m interested in the science of reading in general, and I study two special kinds of reading different from the text-grazing which we are so used to. You can find more about my research in [research page].
I’m also interested in how the brain carries out cognitive tasks in a natural, everyday setting. Natural reading – that is, reading a whole passage rather than reading single words and decontextualized sentences – is one of such “natural” behaviors. Other natural behaviors include movie watching, story listening, free programming, and even mind-wandering. While I was studying for Master’s degree in National Taiwan University, I introduced the idea of natural stimuli/task to the lab of Dr. Fa-Hsuan Lin and conducted a study on natural Chinese reading. When I worked as a research specialist in the lab of Dr. Uri Hasson in Princeton University, I studied the data collected by the lab using natural tasks. You can find further descriptions about these studies under the “Research” tab.
Skills and hobbies
As a junior scientist, I program a lot to run my experiments. I’m well-versed in Python programming, and write Python programs to study how the brains of other Python programmers understand Python programs. I’m also familiar with MATLAB, and capable of updating legacy bash and HTML scripts in our lab. Most of my data analysis scripts are stored in my working computer and lab server. Occassionally, I sync some of them to my GitHub repository.
One academic activity I dedicated a lot to is oral presentation. I enjoy designing PowerPoint slides to share my findings or opinions. Whether it’s a seminar talk or a guest lecture, I always refine the slides and practice the talk to strive for perfection. My award-winning presentation style is acknowledged by several prestigious researchers who invited me to give a talk or guest lecture. These experiences are described in detail in my CV, and you may also find some of my PowerPoint slides in “Presentation slides“.
Besides Microsoft PowerPoint, I’m also proficient with Microsoft Word and Excel. I sometimes draw manga-style illustrations with Adobe Photoshop. As for musical instruments, I play harmonica and ocarina. I speak Mandarin, English, and Japanese, et je parle un tout petit peu Française. You may find detailed information about these skills and hobbies, and some relevant works throughout this website.
As you might have noticed, I’m a huge fan of anime. And, I have been wandering in the World of Warcraft since 2004. Yeah, these are not academic topics, but if you are also interested in them, welcome to contact me on social networking sites to chat about them!
