Dr.Mao, Lihua is an associate professor in Department of Psychology at Peking University since 2006. He obtained his MS and Ph.D degrees in Psychology from Peking University in year 1998 and 2005, working with Prof. Ying Zhu and Dr. Shihui Han. His major research area is cognitive processing and neural substrates of social cognition such as self-referential processing, theory-of-mind, and humor processing.

List of Publications

Mao, L., Liu, X., Chen, Y., & Ge, J. (2019). Funny or angry? Neural correlates of individual differences in aggressive humor processing. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 1849.

Dang, J., Liu, Y., Liu, X., & Mao, L. (2017). The ego could be depleted, providing initial exertion is depleting: A pre-registered experiment of ego depletion. Social Psychology. 48, 242-245

Dang, J., & Mao, L.(2017). Further support for the motivational explanation of self-other similarity judgment asymmetry. Swiss Journal of Psychology. 76,155-159

Dang, J., Xiao, S., Zhang, T., Liu, Y., Jiang, B., & Mao, L. (2016). When the poor excel: Poverty facilitates procedural learning. Scandinavian journal of psychology. 57(4), 288-291

Dang, J., Xiao, S., Liu, Y., Jiang, Y., & Mao, L*. (2016). Individual differences in dopamine level modulate the ego depletion effect. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 99, 121-124.

Zheng, Y., Wu, C., Li, J., Wu, H., She, S., Liu, S., ... & Li, L. (2016). Brain substrates of perceived spatial separation between speech sources under simulated reverberant listening conditions in schizophrenia. Psychological medicine, 46(03), 477-491.

Zhou, B*., Yang, S., Zhang, T., Zhang, X., & Mao, L. (2015). Situational context is important: perceptual grouping modulates temporal perception. Cognitive processing, 16(1), 443-447.

Zhou, B., Zhang, T., & Mao, L*. (2015). Temporal perception in visual processing as a research tool. Frontiers in psychology, 6: 521. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00521

Dang, J., Xiao, S., Sun, X., Louis Lee, N. Y., & Mao, L*. (2015). Similarity as threat: A motivational explanation of self–other similarity judgment asymmetry. European Journal of Social Psychology, 45(3), 336-341. 

Dang, J., Xiao, S., & Mao, L*. (2015). A new account of the conditioning bias to out-groups. Frontiers in psychology, 6: 197. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00197

Dang, J., Xiao, S., Shi, Y., & Mao, L*. (2015). Action orientation overcomes the ego depletion effect. Scandinavian journal of psychology, 56(2), 223-227.

Xiao, S., Dang, J., Mao, L*., & Liljedahl, S. (2014). When more depletion offsets the ego depletion effect. Social Psychology. 45(5). p.421-425

Feng, S., Ye, X., Mao, L*., & Yue, X. (2014). The activation of theory of mind network differentiates between point-to-self and point-to-other verbal jokes: An fMRI study. Neuroscience letters, 564, 32-36.

Zhou, B., Yang, S., Mao, L., & Han, S. (2014). Visual feature processing in the early visual cortex affects duration perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(5), 1893.

Dang, J., Dewitte, S., Mao, L*., Xiao, S., & Shi, Y. (2013). Adapting to an initial self-regulatory task cancels the ego depletion effect. Consciousness and cognition, 22(3), 816-821.

Mao, L., Feng, S. & Yue, X. Jokes pointed at others activate brain regions related to theory of mind. Paper presented at the 2013 International Society of Humor Studies (ISHS) Conference, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA: July 2-5, 2013

Wang, G., Mao, L., Ma, Y., Yang, X., Cao, J., Liu, X., Wang, J., Wang, X., Han, S. (2012) Neural representations of close others in collectivistic brains. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 7 (2): 222-229

Han, S., Mao, L., Qin, J., Friederici, A. D., Ge, J. (2011). Functional roles and cultural modulations of the medial prefrontal and parietal activity associated with causal attribution. Neuropsychologia, 49, 83-91.

Huang, Y., Li, J.-Y., Zou, X.-F., Qu, T.-S., Wu, X.-H., Mao, L.-H., Wu, Y.-H., Li, L. (2011). Perceptual fusion tendency of speech sounds. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23(4):1003-14

Zhou, B., Qin, J., Mao, L., P?ppel, E., Han, S. (2010). Modulations of temporal perception by consciously and unconsciously perceived stimuli. Perception, 39, 900 – 908.

Han, S., Gu, X., Mao, L., Ge, J., Wang, G., Ma, Y. (2010). Neural substrates of self-referential processing in Chinese Buddhists. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 5, 332-339. 

Wu, Y., Wang, C., He, X., Mao, L., Zhang, L. (2010). Religious beliefs influence neural substrates of self-reflection in Tibetans. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. 5(2-3), 324-331

Ng, S., Han, S., Mao, L., Lai, Julian C. L.(2010). Dynamic bicultural brains: fMRI study of their flexible neural representation of self and significant others in response to culture primes. Asian Journal of Social Psychology. 13(2), 83-91

Han, S., Fan, Y., Xu, X., Qin, J., Wu, B., Wang, X., Aglioti, S. M., Mao, L. (2009). Empathic neural responses to others’ pain are modulated by emotional contexts. Human Brain Mapping, 30, 3227-3237.

Qin, J., Lee, T. M. C., Wang, F., Mao, L., Han, S. (2009). Neural activities underlying environmental and personal risk identification tasks. Neuroscience Letters, 455, 110-115.

Han, S., Gu, X., Mao, L., Ge, J., Wang, G., Ma, Y. (2009). Neural substrates of self-referential processing in Chinese Buddhists. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience. 5 (2-3), 332-339

Mu, Y., Fan, Y., Mao, L., Han, S. (2008). Event-related theta and alpha oscillations mediate empathy for pain. Brain Research. 1234, 128-136.

Han, S., Mao, L., Gu, X., Zhu, Y., Ge, J., Ma, Y. (2008). Neural consequences of religious belief on self-referential processing. Social Neuroscience, 3, 1-15.

Han, S., Fan, Y., Mao, L. (2008). Gender difference in empathy for pain: An electrophysiological investigation. Brain Research, 1192, 85-93.

Mao, L., Zhou, B., Zhou, W., Han, S. (2007). Neural correlates of covert orienting of visual spatial attention along vertical and horizontal dimensions. Brain Research, 1136, 142-153.

Mao,L., Zhang, X., Chen, J., Gu, H., Han, S. (2006). Neural substrates of global perception are modulated by local element grouping. Chinese Science Bulletin 51(3): 298-303

Han, S., Jiang, Y., Mao, L. (2006). Right hemisphere dominance in perceiving coherence of visual events. Neuroscience Letters, 398 (1-2): 18-21

Han, S., Jiang, Y., Mao L., Humphreys, G. W., Gu, H. (2005). Attentional modulation of perceptual grouping in human visual cortex: fMRI studies. Human Brain Mapping 25(4): 424-432

Han, S., Jiang, Y., Mao L., Humphreys, G. W., Qin, J. (2005). Attentional modulation of perceptual grouping in human visual cortex: ERPs studies. Human Brain Mapping 26(3): 199-209

Mao, L., Han, S., Guo, C., Jiang, Y. (2004). Neural mechanisms of perceptual grouping in human visual cortex. Chinese Science Bulletin. 49(8): 819-823

Han, S., Jiang, Y., Gu, H., Rao, H., Mao, L., Cui, Y., Zhai, R. (2004). The role of human parietal cortex in attention networks. Brain, 127: 650-659