Over more than a century, tremendous progress has been made in understanding the structure, function, and connection of the human brain at different spatial-temporal scales. However, because of the complexity of the brain, accurately defining the brain regions and mapping their functions and connections are extremely challenging, even on a large scale. Just as modern cartography helped us know planet Earth, the existing brain atlases, based on various mapping techniques, have served as navigators of the human brain and can be considered to be the cornerstone of basic and clinical neuroscience. The next stage of the human brain atlas will be multimodal instead of unimodal and dynamic instead of static by including information on spatiotemporal changes during normal development or aging as well as disease-related effects. 

Recently, mapping the structural and functional connectivity of the human brain via non-invasive imaging technologies such as diffusion magnetic resonance imaging and functional magnetic resonance imaging offers new insights into functional brain states emerging from their underlying structural substrate. Our research team will focus on setting up and optimizing the framework for producing a comparative, organic theory of the human brain atlas. 

•    First, the biological basis of the methods and what we can infer from these imaging modalities are not yet fully understood. Further systematic comparison—across modalities, features, and methods—of the maps that may be computed using connectivity-based parcellation is still needed. 

•    Second, it still remains to be tested, how reliable individual brains may be parcellated using connectivity information and how the ensuing maps relate to other aspects of interindividual variability. 

•    Third, taking non-human primates as experimental objects, combined with electrophysiology, neural tract tracer and high-resolution optical imaging technology, we will try to understand the biological basis of the human brain atlas.

For more infomation, please see my lab website: https://sites.google.com/view/fanlab/home

• 2005.09-2010.12 M.D. in Human Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, School of Medicine, Shandong University  
• 2008.09-2009.10 Visiting student, McConnell Brain Imaging Center, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill university  
• 2000.09-2005.07 B.S. in Clinical Medicine, Binzhou Medical College 

• 2018.10- present  Professor at Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences 
• 2014.10- 2018.10 Associate Professor at Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences  
• 2013.05-2014.09 Assistant Professor at Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences  
• 2011.02-2013.04 Postdoctoral researcher at National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences 

1. Li D, Zalesky A, Wang Y, Wang H, Ma L, Cheng L, Banaschewski T, Barker GJ, Bokde ALW, Brühl R, Desrivières S, Flor H, Garavan H, Gowland P, Grigis A, Heinz A, Lemaître H, Martinot JL, Martinot MP, Artiges E, Nees F, Orfanos DP, Poustka L, Smolka MN, Vaidya N, Walter H, Whelan R, Schumann G, Jia T, Chu C*,  Fan L*; IMAGEN Consortium. Mapping the coupling between tract reachability and cortical geometry of the human brain. Nature Communications. 2025 Aug 12;16(1):7489.(#Corresponding author)

2. Wang Y, Cheng L, Li D, Lu Y, Wang C, Wang Y, Gao C, Wang H, Vanduffel W, Hopkins WD, Sherwood CC, Jiang T, Chu C*, Fan L* (2025) Chimpanzee Brainnetome Atlas reveals distinct connectivity and gene expression profiles relative to humans, The Innovation, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xinn.2024.100755. bioRxiv:2024.06. 03.597252. (*Corresponding author)

3. Li D, Wang Y, Ma L, Wang Y, Cheng L, Liu Y, Shi W, Lu Y, Wang H and Gao C, Chu C., and Fan L*.  (2025) Topographic Axes of Wiring Space Converge to Genetic Topography in Shaping Human Cortical Layout. Journal of Neuroscience. e1510242024, DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1510-24.2024. bioRxiv:2023.09. 06.556618. (*Corresponding author)

4. Li W, Shi W, Wang H, Li J, Cui Y, Li K, Cheng L, Lu Y, Ma L, Chu C, Song M, Yang Z, Banaschewski T, Bokde ALW, Desrivières S, Flor H, Grigis A, Garavan H, Gowland P, Walter H, Brühl R, Martinot J-L, Martinot M-LP, Artiges E, Nees F, Orfanos DP, Lemaitre H, Paus T, Poustka L, Hohmann S, Millenet S, Fröhner JH, Robinson L, Smolka MN, Winterer J, Whelan R, Schumann G, Fan L*, Jiang T*. Anatomical connectivity profile development constrains medial-lateral topography in the dorsal prefrontal cortex. Science Bulletin 2025 Aug 25:S2095-9273(25)00876-X. bioRxiv. 2022. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.07.479322. (#Corresponding authors)

5. Jia H, Wang K, Zhang M, Gu G, Mai Y, Wu X, Chu C, Yin X, Zhang P*, Fan L* and Zhang L*.  (2025) Individualized cerebellar damage predicts the presence of behavioral disorders in children with brainstem tumors. Commun Med 5, 91 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-025-00810-0. (#Corresponding author)

6. Jia H, Wang K, Zhang P, Zhang M, Mai Y, Chu C, Yin X, Fan L* and Zhang L* Cortical thickness deviations as biomarker for subtyping and prognosis in pediatric brainstem tumors. Sci Rep 15, 13132 (2025).(#Corresponding author)

7. Zhao Q., Li D., Chu C., Fan L*. (2025). Comparison of the Brain Visual Cortex and CNN Under Continuous Object Property Space. In: Liu, Q., Qu, Y., Wu, H., Qi, Y., Zeng, A., Pan, D. (eds) Human Brain and Artificial Intelligence. HBAI 2024. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 2438. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-4001-0_1(#Corresponding author)

8. Gao C, Wu X, Ma L, Li D, Wang Y, Guo C, Li W, Wang H, Chu C, Madsen KH,  Fan L* . Iterative prior-guided parcellation (iPGP) for capturing inter-subject and inter-nuclei variability in thalamic mapping. Neuroimage. 2025 Jul 25;318:121399 (#Corresponding author)

9. Wang Y, Wang Y, Wang H, Ma L, Eickhoff SB, Madsen KH, Chu C*, Fan L*. Spatio-Molecular Profiles Shape the Human Cerebellar Hierarchy Along the Sensorimotor Association Axis. Cell Reports. 43(2), 113770, (2024). (*Corresponding author)

10. Wang Y, Wang K, Madsen KH, Chu C*, Fan L*. Protocol to detect spatio-molecular profiles underlying neuroimaging features in the human cerebellum. STAR Protocols. 5 (4), 103311, (2024) (*Corresponding author)

11. Lu Y, Cui Y, Cao L, Dong Z, Cheng L, Wu W, Wang C, Liu X, Liu Y, Zhang B, Li D, Zhao B, Wang H, Li K, Ma L, Shi W, Li W, Ma Y, Du Z, Zhang J, Xiong H, Luo N, Liu Y, Hou X, Han J, Sun H, Cai T, Peng Q, Feng L, Wang J, Paxinos G, Yang Z*, Fan L*, Jiang T*. Macaque brainnetome atlas: A multifaceted brain map with parcellation, connection, and histology. Science Bulletin. 69(14):2241-2259, (2024). (*Corresponding authors)

12. Gao C, Wu X, Wang Y, Li G, Ma L, Wang C, Xie S, Chu C, Madsen K.H, Hou Z*, Fan L*. Prior-guided Individualized Thalamic Parcellation based on Local Diffusion Characteristics. Human Brain Mapping. 45(4):e26646, (2024). (*Corresponding author)

13. Gao C, Wu X, Madsen KH, Chu C, Chu C, Yang Z, Fan L*. Individualized Brain Mapping for Navigated Neuromodulation. Chinese Medical Journal, 137(5):508-523. (2024). (*Corresponding authors)

14. C.T Erichsen, Li D, Fan L*. Decoding human brain functions: Multi-modal, multi-scale insights. The Innovation, 5(1), 100554, (2024). (*Corresponding author)

15. Chu C., Li W., Shi W., Wang H., Wang J., Liu Y., Liu B., Elmenhorst D., Eickhoff SB., Fan L*, Jiang T*. Co-representation of functional brain networks is shaped by cortical myeloarchitecture and reveals individual behavioral ability. Journal of Neuroscience, 44 (13) (2024) (*Corresponding author)

16. Wang Y, Chai L, Chu C*, Li D, Gao C, Wu X, Yang Z, Zhang Y, Xu J, Nyengaard JR, Eickhoff SB, Liu B, Madsen KH, Jiang T, Fan L*. Uncovering the genetic profiles underlying the intrinsic organization of the human cerebellum. Molecular Psychiatry. 27:2619-2634 (2022). (*Corresponding author)

17. Ma L, Zhang Y, Zhang H, Cheng L, Zhuo J, Shi W, Lu Y, Li W, Yang Z, Wang J,  Fan L*, Jiang T*. BAI-Net: Individualized Anatomical Cerebral Cartography using Graph Neural Network. IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems. 35(6), 7446-7457, doi: 10.1109/TNNLS.2022.3213581 (2022). (*Corresponding author)

18. Wang T, Xu Y, Li D, Tu W, Li Y, Miao S, Li J, Wang P, Zhao F, Fan L*, Yu S*. Network localization of transient global amnesia beyond the hippocampus. Neurological Sciences.44 (2), 649-657, (2022). (*Corresponding author)

19. Chai L., Wang Y., Shi W., Zhang Y., Liu B., Jiang T., Fan L*. Linked psychopathology-specific factors and individual structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenia. Proc. SPIE 12033, Medical Imaging 2022: Computer-Aided Diagnosis, 1203323 (4 April 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2612266 (*Corresponding author)

20. Cheng L., Zhang Y., Li G., Wang J., Sherwood C., Gong G., Fan L*., Jiang T*. Connectional asymmetry of the inferior parietal lobule shapes hemispheric specialization in humans, chimpanzees, and rhesus macaques. eLife,10. doi: 10.7554/eLife.67600 (2021). (*Corresponding authors)

21. Zhang Z., Xu J., Cheng L., Cheng C., Fan L*. (2020) Inter and Intra individual Variations of Cortical Fine-grained Functional Boundaries Depend on the Brain States, ICONIP, 98-109, (2020), LNCS (Corresponding author)

22. He B., Cao L., Xia X., Zhang B., Zhang D., You B., Fan L*., Jiang T*. Fine-grained Topography and Modularity of the Macaque Frontal Pole Cortex Revealed by Anatomical Connectivity Profiles. Neuroscience Bulletin, 36, 1454-1473 (2020). (Corresponding author)

23. Fan L*.Mapping the Human Brain: What is the Next Frontier? The Innovation, 100073 (2021) (*Corresponding author)

24. Li K^#., Fan L^#., Cui Y., Wei X., He Y., Yang J., Lu Y., Li W., Shi W., Cao L., Cheng L., Li A., Yu B., Jiang T. (2022). The human mediodorsal thalamus: Organization, connectivity, and function. NeuroImage, 118876. (^#Co-first Author)

25. Wu D^#., Fan L^#., Song, M., Wang, H., Chu, C., Yu, S., & Jiang, T. (2020). Hierarchy of connectivity-function relationship of the human cortex revealed through predicting activity across functional domains. Cerebral Cortex, 30(8):4607-4616 (^#Co-first Author)

26. Cheng C^#., Fan L^#., Xia X., Eickhoff S.B., Li H., Li H., & Jiang T. Rostro‐caudal organization of the human posterior superior temporal sulcus revealed by connectivity profiles Human Brain Mapping , DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24349 (2018). (^#Co- first Author)

27. Xia X^#., Fan L^#., Cheng C., Eickhoff S.B., Cheng J. Li H. & Jiang T. Multimodal connectivity-based parcellation reveals a shell-core dichotomy of the human nucleus accumbens Human Brain Mapping , 38 (8), 3878-3898 (2017). (^# Co-first Author)

28. Fan L., Jiang T. Mapping Underlying Maturational Changes in Human Brain, Neuroscience bulletin, 33, 478-480 (2017).

29. Fan L., Li H., Zhuo J., Zhang Y., Wang J., Chen L., Yang Z., Chu C., Xie S., Laird A.R., Fox P.T., Eickhoff S.B., Yu C. & Jiang T. The Human Brainnetome Atlas: A New Brain Atlas Based on Connectional Architecture. Cerebral Cortex, 26 (8): 3508- 3526,(2016).

30. Fan L., Li H., Yu S. & Jiang T. Human Brainnetome Atlas and Its Potential Applications in Brain-Inspired Computing. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-50862-7_1,(2016).

31. Zhuo J^#., Fan L^#., Liu Y., Zhang Y., Yu C. & Jiang T. Connectivity Profiles Reveal a Transition Subarea in the Parahippocampal Region That Integrates the Anterior Temporal–Posterior Medial Systems. Journal of Neuroscience, 36, 2782- 2795,(2016). (^#Co-first Author)

32. Yang Y^#., Fan L^#., Chu C., Zhuo J., Wang J., Fox P.T., Eickhoff S.B. & Jiang T. Identifying functional subdivisions in the human brain using meta-analytic activation modeling-based parcellation. NeuroImage, 124, 300-309,(2016). (^#Co-first Author)

33. Chu C^#., Fan L^#., Eickhoff C.R., Liu Y., Yang Y., Eickhoff S.B. & Jiang T. Co- activation Probability Estimation (CoPE): An approach for modeling functional co- activation architecture based on neuroimaging coordinates. NeuroImage, 117, 397- 407,(2015). (^#Co-first Author)

34. Wang J^#., Fan L^#., Wang Y., Xu W., Jiang T., Fox P.T., Eickhoff S.B., Yu C. & Jiang T. Determination of the posterior boundary of Wernicke's area based on multimodal connectivity profiles. Human Brain Mapping, 36, 1908-1924, (2015). (^# Co-first Author)

35. Fan L., Wang J., Zhang Y., Han W., Yu C., Jiang T. Connectivity-Based Parcellation of the Human Temporal Pole Using Diffusion Tensor Imaging. Cerebral Cortex. 2014, 24:3365-3378.

36. Liu B^#., Fan L., Cui Y., Zhang X., Hou B., Li Y., Qin W., Wang D., Yu C., Jiang T.: DISC1 Ser704Cys impacts thalamic-prefrontal connectivity. Brain Structure and Function. 1-10 (2013) (^#Co-first Author)

37. Wang J^#., Fan L^#., Zhang Y., Liu Y., Jiang D., Zhang Y., Yu C., & Jiang T. Tractography‐based parcellation of the human left inferior parietal lobule. NeuroImage, 63, 641-652 (2012). ( ^#Co-first Author)

38. Fan L., Tang Y., Sun B., Gong G., Chen Z.J., Lin X., Yu T., Li Z., Evans A.C., Liu S.: Sexual dimorphism and asymmetry in human cerebellum: an MRI-based morphometric study. Brain Research, 1353, 60-73 (2010) 

• My research interests mainly focus on human brain atlas and related clinical applications. 
• Neuroanatomy and Neuroimaging  
• Brain atlas and Connectivity-based brain parcellation  
• Map the brain networks for mental illnesses 
•