Marge Livingstone

Marge Livingstone, Ph.D.

Takeda Professor of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School

Research
Publications

Open the Margaret Livingstone faculty profile graphic in Canva (opens in a new tab)

Margaret Livingstone, PhD

Takeda Professor of Neurobiology
Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School

Email: margaret_livingstone@hms.harvard.edu
Website: Livingstone Lab website – more information about Margaret Livingstone’s research (opens in a new tab)

The Aim

The Livingstone Lab studies how we learn to recognize faces, objects, and scenes, with a focus on visual development.

The Impact

The Livingstone Lab studies how the brain develops the ability to recognize and differentiate between objects we see in everyday life, including faces, cars, and animals. Certain brain cells become specialized for these tasks based on our experiences. By understanding how these areas of the brain develop and function, this research can help explain why some people have difficulty recognizing forms and images, such as is the case with dyslexia and face blindness. This knowledge could lead to better support for people with vision or learning difficulties, and could improve diagnosis or treatment for related disorders.

A Closer Look

McGovern.MIT.edu – January 2024: Scolnick Prize awarded to Margaret Livingstone (article, opens in a new tab)

MIT’s McGovern Institute announces Livingstone as the winner of its most prestigious neuroscience prize, the Scolnick Prize. It honors her for her discovery that face‑recognition regions in the brain are not hard‑wired at birth, but must be built from experience, overturning a decades‑old assumption about how the cortex organizes itself.

Brandeis.edu – October 2024: Rosenstiel Award for discoveries in face recognition (article, opens in a new tab)

Livingstone is named co‑recipient of the prestigious Rosenstiel Award (alongside Nancy Kanwisher, Winrich Freiwald, and Doris Tsao) for discovering how and where in the brain face recognition happens. This discovery includes mapping a network of six interconnected face areas and probing the specific features that make individual neurons respond.

Publications View

End stopping in V1 is sensitive to contrast.

Authors: Authors: Yazdanbakhsh A, Livingstone MS.
Nat Neurosci 2006-05-01
View full abstract on Pubmed

A cortical region consisting entirely of face-selective cells.

Authors: Authors: Tsao DY, Freiwald WA, Tootell RB, Livingstone MS.
Science 2006-02-03
View full abstract on Pubmed

Spatiotemporal structure of nonlinear subunits in macaque visual cortex.

Authors: Authors: Pack CC, Conway BR, Born RT, Livingstone MS.
J Neurosci 2006-01-18
View full abstract on Pubmed

PBK/TOPK, a proliferating neural progenitor-specific mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase.

Authors: Authors: Dougherty JD, Garcia AD, Nakano I, Livingstone M, Norris B, Polakiewicz R, Wexler EM, Sofroniew MV, Kornblum HI, Geschwind DH.
J Neurosci 2005-11-16
View full abstract on Pubmed

A different point of hue.

Authors: Authors: Conway BR, Livingstone MS.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2005-08-02
View full abstract on Pubmed

Loss of neurofilament labeling in the primary visual cortex of monocularly deprived monkeys.

Authors: Authors: Duffy KR, Livingstone MS.
Cereb Cortex 2005-08-01
View full abstract on Pubmed

Neural basis for a powerful static motion illusion.

Authors: Authors: Conway BR, Kitaoka A, Yazdanbakhsh A, Pack CC, Livingstone MS.
J Neurosci 2005-06-08
View full abstract on Pubmed

Directional inhibition: a new slant on an old question.

Authors: Authors: Livingstone MS.
Neuron 2005-01-06
View full abstract on Pubmed

Was Rembrandt stereoblind?

Authors: Authors: Livingstone MS, Conway BR.
N Engl J Med 2004-09-16
View full abstract on Pubmed

End-stopping and the aperture problem: two-dimensional motion signals in macaque V1.

Authors: Authors: Pack CC, Livingstone MS, Duffy KR, Born RT.
Neuron 2003-08-14
View full abstract on Pubmed