Research Interests

• development of face processing and recognition
• effect of emotions on face processing and attention
• frontal lobe and executive function development
• neuroimaging in preterm neonates

Research Activities

My research investigates the neural bases of cognitive development. Areas of study include development of early stages of visual processing and recognition, faces (+/-emotional expressions), frontal lobe functions using various protocols adapted for children, and visual attention. Current studies use functional MRI and MEG and include normative series and clinical populations (children with autism, preterm children, and children with epilepsy). Our recent studies have shown that there is a tremendous amount of processing that occurs very rapidly, in the first few hundred milliseconds after stimulus presentation. The research will determine the neural bases, temporal and spatial properties of the development of facial and emotional recognition, working memory, set-shifting, and how these cognitive skills emerge with typical and atypical development.

External Funding

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Predicting Neurobehavioural outcome in preterm neonates.
Taylor MJ, Whyte H, Moore A, Shroff M, Raybaud C, Donner EJ, Frisk V. 2008-2012

Centre for the Investigation of Neuroplasticity and Developmental Disorders. Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI).
Snead OC, Taylor MJ, Salter M, Josselyn S, Westall C, Dennis M, Tannock R, Sled J, Cheyne D, Campbell M. 2006-2011.

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Multimodal neuroimaging of frontal lobe cognitive function in children.
Taylor MJ, Donner EJ, Pang EW, 2006-2011

National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR).
Neuroimaging the development of frontal lobe cognitive function in autism.
Taylor MJ, Roberts W, Donner EJ, Shroff MM, Bayless SJ. 2006-2008.

Brain and behavioural plasticity after self-regulation intervention in FASD. 
Rovet, J., Koren, G., Lerch, J., Taylor, M.J.  CIHR BSB sept 15th, 2010. 3-yr grant, 1st year: $141,083.

Working memory in children with autism.   
Taylor, M.J., Smith, M.L., Lerch, J.P., Anagnostou, E.  CIHR CHI, 2010-2015,  1st year: $132,064; total :$ 660,318.

Developmental investigation of memory capacity using functional neuroimaging. 
NSERC Discovery Grant, Taylor, MJ.  2009-2014, Total:  $150,000; $30,000/yr .

Publications

Taylor, M.J., Mills, T., Pang, E.W.  The development of face recognition; hippocampal and frontal lobe contributions determined with MEG.  Brain Topography, April 2011, in press.

Nossin-Manor R., Chung, A.D., Whyte, H.E.A. Shroff, M.M. Taylor, M.J., Sled, J.G.  Magnetization Transfer Ratio of deep gray matter structures in the very preterm brain: Regional variations and pathology-related age-dependent changes.  Radiology, accepted for publication, April, 2011.

Mak-Fan, K.M., Taylor, M.J., Roberts, W., Lerch, J.P.  Measures of cortical grey matter structure and development in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).  Accepted for publication, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2011.

Anagnostou, E., Taylor, M.J.  Review of neuroimaging in ASD: what have we learned and where do we go from here.  Molecular Autism, 2011, 2:4.

Batty, M., Meaux, E., Wittemeyer, K.  Rogé, B., Taylor, M.J.  Early processing of emotional faces in children with autism.  J. Exp. Child Psychology, epub: 10.1016/j.jecp.2011.02.001.

Arsalidou, M., Morris, D. Taylor, M.J.  Converging evidence on the advantage of dynamic facial expressions.  Brain Topography, 2011, 2(2), 149-163.

Taylor, M.J., Bayless, S.J, Mills, T., Pang, E.W.  Recognising upright and inverted faces: MEG source localisation.  Brain Research, 2011, 1381:167-74.

Arsalidou, M., Taylor, M.J.  Does 2 + 2 = 4? Meta-analyses of brain areas needed for numbers and calculations.  NeuroImage, in press; Oct 12, 2010, [Epub ahead of print].

Bayless, S.J., Glover, M., Taylor, M.J., Itier R.J.  Is it in the eyes? Dissociating the role of emotion and perceptual features of emotionally expressive faces in modulating orienting to eye-gaze.  Visual Cognition, 2011, 19 (4), 483-510.

Morris D., Nossin-Manor R., Taylor M.J., Sled J.G.  Outlier correction prior to registration improves diffusion tensor estimates in preterm DTI data.  Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2011 Feb 8. [Epub ahead of print].

Nossin-Manor R., Chung, A.D., Morris, D., Soares-Fernandes, J.P, Thomas, B. Cheng, H-L., Whyte, H.E.A., Taylor, M.J., Sled, J.G, Shroff, M.M.  Optimized T1 and T2 weighted volumetric brain imaging as a diagnostic tool in very preterm neonates.  Pediatric Radiology, 2010 Dec 16. [Epub ahead of print]

Beal, D.S., Quraan, M.A., Cheyne, D.O., Taylor, M.J., Gracco V.L., De Nil. L.F.  Speech-induced suppression of evoked auditory fields in children who stutter.  Neuroimage, 2011; 54(4):2994-3003.

Todd, R.M., Evans, J.W., Morris, D., Lewis, M.D., Taylor, M.J.  The changing face of emotion: Age related patterns of amygdala activation to salient faces.  Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience, 2011 6: 12-23

Misic, B.V., Mills, T. Taylor, M.J., McIntosh, A.R.  Brain noise is task-dependent and region-specific.  J. of Neurophysiology, 2010, 104(5):2667-76.

Arsalidou, M., Barbeau, E.J., Bayless, S.J., Taylor, M.J.  Brain responses differ to faces of mothers and fathers.  Brain and Cognition, 2010, 74(1):47-51.

Sun, F., Morris, D., Lee, W., Taylor, M.J., Mills, T, Babyn, P.S.  Feature-space-based fMRI analysis using the Optimal Linear Transformation.  IEEE Trans. Information Techn. in BioMedicine, 2010, 14(3), 1279-1290.

Beal, D.S., Cheyne, D.O., Gracco V.L., Quraan, M.A., Taylor, M.J., De Nil, L.F.  Auditory evoked responses to vocalization during passive listening and active generation in adults who stutter.  NeuroImage, 2010, 52(4):1645-53.

Latinus, M., VanRullen, R. Taylor, M.J.  Top-down and bottom-up attentional modulation in processing bimodal face/voice stimuli.  BMC Neuroscience, 2010, 11:36 doi: 10.1186/1471-2202-11-36.

Hung Y.I., Smith, M.L, Bayle, D.J., Mills, T., Cheyne, D.O., Taylor, M.J.  Unattended fear elicits early frontal-amygdala and fusiform activations.  NeuroImage, 2010, 50, 727–733.

Bayle, D.J., Taylor, M.J.  Attention inhibition of early cortical activation to fearful faces.  Brain Research, 2010, 1313, 113-123.

Evans, J.W., Todd, R.M., Taylor, M.J. Strother, S.C.  Group specific optimisation of fMRI processing steps for child and adult data.  NeuroImage, 2010, 50, 479–490.

Séverac Cauquil, A., Delaux, S., Lestringant, R., Taylor, M.J. Trotter, Y.  Neural correlates of chromostereopsis: an evoked potential study.  Neuropsychologia, 2009, 47, 2677–2681.

Taylor, M.J. Pang, E.W.  Using MEG to image cognition in children.  Down Syndrome Quarterly, 2009, 11: 10-17.

Taylor, M.J., Arsalidou, M., Bayless, S.J., Morris, D., Evans, J.W. Barbeau, E.J.  Neural correlates of personally familiar faces: Parents, partner and own faces.  Human Brain Mapping, 2009, 30, 2008-2020.  

Taylor, M.J., Mills T., Smith, M.L, Pang E.W.  Face processing in adolescents with and without epilepsy. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 2008, 68, 94-103.

MBarbeau EJ, Taylor MJ, Regis J, Marquis P, Chauvel P, Liégeois-Chauvel C. Spatio-temporal dynamics of face recognition. Cerebral Cortex, e-pub, Aug. 22nd, 2007.

Bentin S, Taylor MJ, Rousselet GA, Itier RJ, Caldara R, Schyns PG, Jacques C, Rossion B. Much ado about nothing: controlling interstimulus perceptual variance does not abolish N170 face sensitivity. Nature Neuroscience, 2007, 10(7) 801-802.

Picton TW, Taylor MJ. Electrophysiological evaluation of human brain development. Developmental Neuropsychology, 2007, 31, 3: 251-280.

Latinus M, Taylor MJ. Face processing stages: impact of difficulty and the separation of effects. Brain Research, 2006, 1123(1), 179-187.

Bayless SJ, Gaetz W, Cheyne DO, Taylor MJ. Spatial and temporal localization of feedback processing using MEG and event-related synthetic aperture magnetometry. Neuroscience Letters, 2006, 410, 31-36.

Itier RJ, Herdman AT, George N, Cheyne DO, Taylor MJ. Inversion and contrast-reversal effects on face encoding and recognition assessed by MEG. Brain Research, 2006, 1115: 108-120.

Lobaugh NJ, Gibson E, Taylor MJ. Children recruit distinct neural systems for implicit emotional face processing. NeuroReport, 2006, 17, 215-219.

Batty M, Taylor MJ. The development of emotional face processing during childhood. Developmental Science, 2006, 9:2, 207-220.

Séverac Cauquil A, Trotter Y, Taylor MJ. At what stage of neural processing do perspective depth cues make a difference? Experimental Brain Research, 2006, 170(4) 457-63.

Itier RJ, Latinus M, Taylor MJ. Face, eye and object early processing: what is the face specificity? NeuroImage, 2006, 29, 667-676.

Latinus M, Taylor MJ. Holistic processing of faces; learning effects with Mooney faces. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2005, 17(8), 1316-1327.

Lobaugh NJ, Chevalier H, Batty M, Taylor MJ. Accelerated and amplified neural responses in visual discrimination: two features are processed faster than one. NeuroImage, 2005, 26(4), 986-995.