Education
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences 2024-today
- Doctoral Researcher
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine 2020-2023
- M.Sc. in Medicine, Imaging and Nuclear Medicine
- Henan Medical University 2014-2019
- Bachelor of Medicine, Clinical Medicine
Research Interest
Xia’s research focuses on brain microstructure, neurodegeneration, and heart–brain interactions. With a background in clinical medicine and medical imaging, she combines multimodal neuroimaging, fluid biomarkers, and statistical modeling to investigate how structural and microstructural brain changes relate to systemic disease and cognitive impairment. Her work includes studying the heart–brain continuum, diffusion MRI markers of perivascular function, and white matter alterations in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. More broadly, she aims to improve the understanding of disease-related brain alterations and to identify clinically relevant imaging biomarkers for cognitive decline and neurodegeneration.
Research keywords: clinical neuroimaging, diffusion MRI, DTI-ALPS, brain microstructure, heart–brain interactions, neurodegeneration, Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, imaging biomarkers, longitudinal modeling
Publications
- X. Zhang, K. A. Grigoryan, N. Scherf, Q. Wu, A. Villringer, M. L. Schroeter, K. Mueller. Mapping the Heart–Brain Continuum beyond Heart Failure: Why Neurology Matters. Journal of Neuroscience, 46(29):e2274252026, 2026. DOI
