Rate My Professor Tina Liu

Professor Tina Liu is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at Georgetown University Medical Center, where she serves as Director of the Visual Perception and Plasticity Lab. A cognitive neuroscientist specializing in human visual cognition and brain plasticity, she investigates the core principles of neuroplasticity in healthy and clinical populations across the lifespan. Her research integrates psychophysics, eye tracking, functional and structural MRI, transcranial direct current stimulation, and computational modeling. These techniques support well-controlled experiments with fine-grained measures, complemented by online crowdsourcing and consortium big data. The primary goal of her work is to uncover fundamental mechanisms of neuroplasticity and translate these insights into precise rehabilitation strategies for patients with brain lesions resulting from traumatic brain injury, stroke, brain tumors, and epilepsy surgery.

Dr. Liu earned her Ph.D. in Psychology with a focus on Cognitive Neuroscience from Carnegie Mellon University in 2018, advised by Dr. Marlene Behrmann. She holds an MPhil in Psychology specializing in Visual Cognition from the University of Hong Kong (2013) and a Bachelor of Social Sciences (First Class Honors) majoring in Psychology from the University of Hong Kong (2011). From 2018 to 2024, she was a Visiting and Postdoctoral Fellow, followed by Research Fellow, at the National Institute of Mental Health, mentored by Drs. Leslie Ungerleider and Elisha Merriam. She joined Georgetown in April 2024 and is a faculty member on the Neuroscience of Language T32 Training Grant. Key publications include "Unraveling nature and nurture in cortical (re)organization" in Nature Reviews Neuroscience (2024); "Microgenesis of plasticity in human visual cortex following large cortical resection" in Communications Biology (in press, 2024); "Holistic processing and face expertise after pediatric resection of occipitotemporal cortex" in Neuropsychologia (2024); "Layer-specific, retinotopically-diffuse modulation in human visual cortex in response to viewing emotionally expressive faces" in Nature Communications (2022); and "From Perugino to Picasso: holistic processing of faces in paintings" in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts (2023).