Dr. Tang has an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural background, experience, and expertise in the areas of human neuroscience (e.g., cognitive, affective, social, cultural, and behavioral), health psychology, health science, prevention, and intervention science.

His research mainly focuses on how environment or experience (stress, learning, training, culture) affects self-control, emotion regulation, stress resilience, and decision-making and their interaction with genes to influence health and well-being. Additionally, he investigates both conscious and unconscious changes in healthy behavior, habits, and lifestyles. His translational research focuses on the development and implementation of evidence-based interventions to prevent and ameliorate behavioral problems and mental disorders such as ADHD, learning disabilities, substance use, mood disorders, and stress-related disorders over the lifespan. Dr. Tang's interdisciplinary research has received support from NIH, the Office of Naval Research/Department of Defense, and private foundations including the John Templeton Foundation and James Bower Foundation. He has published 9 books and over 360 peer-reviewed articles in different academic journals, including Nature Reviews Neuroscience (NRN), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Trends in Cognitive Sciences (TiCS), Neuroimage, and Human Brain Mapping.