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

Stereopsis activates V3A and caudal intraparietal areas in macaques and humans.

Authors: Authors: Tsao DY, Vanduffel W, Sasaki Y, Fize D, Knutsen TA, Mandeville JB, Wald LL, Dale AM, Rosen BR, Van Essen DC, Livingstone MS, Orban GA, Tootell RB.
Neuron 2003-07-31
View full abstract on Pubmed

Distribution of non-phosphorylated neurofilament in squirrel monkey V1 is complementary to the pattern of cytochrome-oxidase blobs.

Authors: Authors: Duffy KR, Livingstone MS.
Cereb Cortex 2003-07-01
View full abstract on Pubmed

Substructure of direction-selective receptive fields in macaque V1.

Authors: Authors: Livingstone MS, Conway BR.
J Neurophysiol 2003-05-01
View full abstract on Pubmed

Space-time maps and two-bar interactions of different classes of direction-selective cells in macaque V-1.

Authors: Authors: Conway BR, Livingstone MS.
J Neurophysiol 2003-05-01
View full abstract on Pubmed

Receptive fields of disparity-tuned simple cells in macaque V1.

Authors: Authors: Tsao DY, Conway BR, Livingstone MS.
Neuron 2003-04-10
View full abstract on Pubmed

Two-dimensional substructure of stereo and motion interactions in macaque visual cortex.

Authors: Authors: Pack CC, Born RT, Livingstone MS.
Neuron 2003-02-06
View full abstract on Pubmed

Color contrast in macaque V1.

Authors: Authors: Conway BR, Hubel DH, Livingstone MS.
Cereb Cortex 2002-09-01
View full abstract on Pubmed

Two-dimensional substructure of MT receptive fields.

Authors: Authors: Livingstone MS, Pack CC, Born RT.
Neuron 2001-06-01
View full abstract on Pubmed

Is it warm? Is it real? Or just low spatial frequency?

Authors: Authors: Livingstone MS.
Science 2000-11-17
View full abstract on Pubmed

Receptive fields of disparity-selective neurons in macaque striate cortex.

Authors: Authors: Livingstone MS, Tsao DY.
Nat Neurosci 1999-09-01
View full abstract on Pubmed