Dr. James Haxby is a preeminent cognitive neuroscientist whose pioneering work has fundamentally reshaped the field of functional brain imaging and neural data analysis. He currently serves as Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, where he previously held the distinguished position of Evans Family Distinguished Professor and directed both the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and the Dartmouth Brain Imaging Center from 2008 until 2021. His academic journey began with a B.A. in Psychology from Carleton College in 1973, followed by doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota where he earned his PhD in Clinical Neuropsychology in 1981. Prior to joining Dartmouth, Dr. Haxby established his research program at the National Institutes of Health, serving as Section Chief of the Functional Brain Imaging Section at the National Institute of Mental Health from 1993 to 2002 after earlier work at the National Institute on Aging.
Dr. Haxby revolutionized neuroimaging by becoming among the first to apply machine learning techniques to neural data analysis, transforming the field from searching for localized 'blobs of activity' to decoding distributed patterns of brain activity across cortical regions. His seminal 2001 Science paper demonstrated that neural representations of faces and object categories are encoded in a distributed fashion across the ventral temporal cortex, challenging prevailing modular accounts of face processing with evidence that has been cited over 70,000 times. He developed an influential model of face perception distinguishing between brain regions processing invariant facial features for identity recognition versus dynamic social cues, establishing foundational frameworks that continue to guide cognitive neuroscience research. His methodological innovations have enabled researchers to move beyond simple localization approaches to understand how information is represented across distributed neural systems throughout the brain.
As a scientific leader, Dr. Haxby has significantly shaped the trajectory of cognitive neuroscience through influential publications, leadership roles, and methodological advances that have become standard practice in the field. His scientific excellence has been recognized with prestigious honors including the Cognitive Neuroscience Society's Distinguished Career Contributions Award in 2016 and Carleton College's Alumni Association Award for Distinguished Achievement in 2023. Currently, Dr. Haxby continues to advance the field through his development of the Hyperalignment computational framework, which models shared information across idiosyncratic cortical functional topographies, and the ongoing HyperBrain project aimed at creating a normative dataset for individualized functional topography estimation. As a dedicated advocate of open neuroscience methodology, his work continues to influence theoretical frameworks and analytical approaches across the global cognitive neuroscience community.
