Yanjie Zhang

Army Medical University, Guangxi University

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Yanjie Zhang is a behavioral neuroscientist whose research illuminates the fundamental neural and behavioral mechanisms of predator-prey interactions. Her work centers on how rodents execute and refine escape behaviors when facing terrestrial threats, a critical survival skill shaped by evolution. Zhang’s major contributions include developing a novel method for studying escape behavior in rodents, providing a standardized framework to analyze defensive maneuvers under controlled conditions. She has also demonstrated that confrontation experience against an escaping bait significantly improves pursuit strategy in mice, revealing that predators can learn and adapt their hunting tactics through direct engagement with evasive prey. This finding challenges previous assumptions about the rigidity of innate hunting behaviors. Although her most-cited papers are recent (2024), they have already garnered attention for their innovative approach to a classic ethological problem. Zhang’s work bridges ecology, ethology, and neuroscience, offering new insights into how survival instincts are honed through experience—a topic with profound implications for understanding adaptive behavior and the neural circuits underlying threat response.