Marge Livingstone

Marge Livingstone, Ph.D.

Takeda Professor of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School

Research
Publications

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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

Neuronal correlates of visibility and invisibility in the primate visual system.

Authors: Authors: Macknik SL, Livingstone MS.
Nat Neurosci 1998-06-01
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Mechanisms of direction selectivity in macaque V1.

Authors: Authors: Livingstone MS.
Neuron 1998-03-01
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Oscillatory firing and interneuronal correlations in squirrel monkey striate cortex.

Authors: Authors: Livingstone MS.
J Neurophysiol 1996-06-01
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Differences between stereopsis, interocular correlation and binocularity.

Authors: Authors: Livingstone MS.
Vision Res 1996-04-01
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Ocular dominance columns in New World monkeys.

Authors: Authors: Livingstone MS.
J Neurosci 1996-03-15
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Visual responses in V1 of freely viewing monkeys.

Authors: Authors: Livingstone MS, Freeman DC, Hubel DH.
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 1996-01-01
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Stereopsis and binocularity in the squirrel monkey.

Authors: Authors: Livingstone MS, Nori S, Freeman DC, Hubel DH.
Vision Res 1995-02-01
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Stereopsis and positional acuity under dark adaptation.

Authors: Authors: Livingstone MS, Hubel DH.
Vision Res 1994-03-01
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Evidence for a magnocellular defect in developmental dyslexia.

Authors: Authors: Galaburda A, Livingstone M.
Ann N Y Acad Sci 1993-06-14
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Physiological and anatomical evidence for a magnocellular defect in developmental dyslexia.

Authors: Authors: Livingstone MS, Rosen GD, Drislane FW, Galaburda AM.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1991-09-15
View full abstract on Pubmed