The Livingstone Lab Page
We are interested in how cells in the visual system process information. Previous emphasis in the lab was on the parallel processing of different kinds of visual information: form, color, depth, and movement. We discovered an interdigitating and highly specific connectivity between functionally distinct regions in V1 and V2 (Livingstone and Hubel, 1984, 1987).
Subsequently we became more interested in how each of these variables is coded by cells in visual cortex. We developed a method for high-resolution receptive-field mapping in alert animals, and have used this technique to explore color perception, stereopsis and direction selectivity in primate V1, MT, V4, and IT. We have further developed this method to allow us to look at interactions between stimuli (second-order interactions). These maps allow us to see how stimuli, like contours and junctions, are integrated by single cells.
Most recently we started using functional MRI (fMRI) to localize regions of interest in the primate brain to target single unit recordings. We used fMRI to find regions of the macaque temporal lobe that seemed to be especially activated by faces (monkey faces, human faces, cartoon faces) and found, using single-unit recording that an astonishing 97% of the cells in these targeted regions were face selective. We then looked at how faces are coded by these cells using parameterized cartoon faces. We are now using this approach to further study shape and symbolic representation in macaques.
Livingstone, M.S. (2002) Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing. New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams.
Tsao, D.Y., Conway, B.R., and Livingstone (2003) Receptive fields of disparity-tuned simple cells in Macaque V1. Neuron, 38, 1-3-114.
Conway, B.R. and Livingstone, M.S. (2003) Space-Time Maps and Two-Bar Interactions of Different Classes of Direction-Selective Cells in Macaque V1. J. Neurophysiol. 89: 2726-2742.
Livingstone, M.S. and Conway, B.R. (2003 Substructure of Direction-Selective Receptive Fields in Macaque V1. J. Neurophysiol. 89: 2743-2759.
Pack, C.C., Livingstone, M.S., Duffy, K.R., and Born, R.T. (2003) End-stopping and the aperture problem: two-dimensional motion signals in Macaque V1. Neuron 39: 671-680.
The Livingstone Lab Page
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