Stephen Lisberger

Stephen Lisberger

George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor for Research in Neurobiology

We investigate how the brain learns motor skills, and how we use what we see to guide how we move. Our approaches involve studies of eye movements using behavior, neural recordings, and computational analysis. Our work is done on behaving non-human primates. 

Appointments and Affiliations

  • George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor for Research in Neurobiology
  • Professor of Neurobiology
  • Chair in the Department of Neurobiology
  • Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

Contact Information

  • Office Location: Bryan Research Building, 311 Research Drive Room 327D, Durham, NC 27710
  • Office Phone: +1 919 681 7088
  • Email Address: lisberger@neuro.duke.edu

Education

  • Ph.D. University of Washington, 1976

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

  • Elected Member. National Academy of Sciences. 2022
  • Fellow. American Association for the Advancement of Science. 2021
  • Elected Member. American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 2008
  • Investigator/Alumni Investigator. Howard Hughes Medical Institute. 1997
  • Young Investigator Prize. Society for Neuroscience. 1986

Courses Taught

  • NEUROSCI 493: Research Independent Study 1
  • NEUROSCI 150: Research Practicum

In the News

Representative Publications

  • Lisberger, SG; Medina, JF, How and why neural and motor variation are related., Curr Opin Neurobiol, vol 33 (2015), pp. 110-116 [10.1016/j.conb.2015.03.008] [abs].
  • Yang, Y; Lisberger, SG, Purkinje-cell plasticity and cerebellar motor learning are graded by complex-spike duration., Nature, vol 510 no. 7506 (2014), pp. 529-532 [10.1038/nature13282] [abs].
  • Yang, Y; Lisberger, SG, Role of plasticity at different sites across the time course of cerebellar motor learning., J Neurosci, vol 34 no. 21 (2014), pp. 7077-7090 [10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0017-14.2014] [abs].
  • Joshua, M; Lisberger, SG, A framework for using signal, noise, and variation to determine whether the brain controls movement synergies or single muscles., J Neurophysiol, vol 111 no. 4 (2014), pp. 733-745 [10.1152/jn.00510.2013] [abs].
  • Yang, Y; Lisberger, SG, Purkinje-cell plasticity and cerebellar motor learning are graded by complex-spike duration, Nature, vol 510 no. 7506 (2014), pp. 529-532 [10.1038/nature13282] [abs].
  • Yang, Y; Lisberger, SG, Interaction of plasticity and circuit organization during the acquisition of cerebellum-dependent motor learning, eLife, vol 2013 no. 2 (2013) [10.7554/eLife.01574] [abs].
  • Yang, Y; Lisberger, SG, Interaction of plasticity and circuit organization during the acquisition of cerebellum-dependent motor learning., Elife, vol 2 (2013) [10.7554/eLife.01574] [abs].
  • Lee, J; Lisberger, SG, Gamma synchrony predicts neuron-neuron correlations and correlations with motor behavior in extrastriate visual area MT., J Neurosci, vol 33 no. 50 (2013), pp. 19677-19688 [10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3478-13.2013] [abs].
  • Hohl, SS; Chaisanguanthum, KS; Lisberger, SG, Sensory population decoding for visually guided movements., Neuron, vol 79 no. 1 (2013), pp. 167-179 [10.1016/j.neuron.2013.05.026] [abs].
  • Lee, J; Yang, J; Lisberger, SG, Control of the gain of visual-motor transmission occurs in visual coordinates for smooth pursuit eye movements., J Neurosci, vol 33 no. 22 (2013), pp. 9420-9430 [10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4846-12.2013] [abs].
  • Joshua, M; Medina, JF; Lisberger, SG, Diversity of neural responses in the brainstem during smooth pursuit eye movements constrains the circuit mechanisms of neural integration., J Neurosci, vol 33 no. 15 (2013), pp. 6633-6647 [10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3732-12.2013] [abs].
  • Huang, X; Lisberger, SG, Circuit mechanisms revealed by spike-timing correlations in macaque area MT., J Neurophysiol, vol 109 no. 3 (2013), pp. 851-866 [10.1152/jn.00775.2012] [abs].
  • Yang, J; Lee, J; Lisberger, SG, The interaction of bayesian priors and sensory data and its neural circuit implementation in visually guided movement., J Neurosci, vol 32 no. 49 (2012), pp. 17632-17645 [10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1163-12.2012] [abs].
  • O'Leary, JG; Lisberger, SG, Role of the lateral intraparietal area in modulation of the strength of sensory-motor transmission for visually guided movements., J Neurosci, vol 32 no. 28 (2012), pp. 9745-9754 [10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0269-12.2012] [abs].
  • Joshua, M; Lisberger, SG, Reward action in the initiation of smooth pursuit eye movements., J Neurosci, vol 32 no. 8 (2012), pp. 2856-2867 [10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4676-11.2012] [abs].
  • Hohl, SS; Lisberger, SG, Representation of perceptually invisible image motion in extrastriate visual area MT of macaque monkeys., J Neurosci, vol 31 no. 46 (2011), pp. 16561-16569 [10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3166-11.2011] [abs].
  • Li, JX; Medina, JF; Frank, LM; Lisberger, SG, Acquisition of neural learning in cerebellum and cerebral cortex for smooth pursuit eye movements., J Neurosci, vol 31 no. 36 (2011), pp. 12716-12726 [10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2515-11.2011] [abs].
  • Niu, Y-Q; Lisberger, SG, Sensory versus motor loci for integration of multiple motion signals in smooth pursuit eye movements and human motion perception., J Neurophysiol, vol 106 no. 2 (2011), pp. 741-753 [10.1152/jn.01025.2010] [abs].
  • Chaisanguanthum, KS; Lisberger, SG, A neurally efficient implementation of sensory population decoding., J Neurosci, vol 31 no. 13 (2011), pp. 4868-4877 [10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6776-10.2011] [abs].
  • Li, JX; Lisberger, SG, Learned timing of motor behavior in the smooth eye movement region of the frontal eye fields., Neuron, vol 69 no. 1 (2011), pp. 159-169 [10.1016/j.neuron.2010.11.043] [abs].
  • Yang, Y; Lisberger, SG, Learning on multiple timescales in smooth pursuit eye movements., J Neurophysiol, vol 104 no. 5 (2010), pp. 2850-2862 [10.1152/jn.00761.2010] [abs].
  • Lisberger, SG, Visual guidance of smooth-pursuit eye movements: sensation, action, and what happens in between., Neuron, vol 66 no. 4 (2010), pp. 477-491 [10.1016/j.neuron.2010.03.027] [abs].
  • Medina, JF; Lisberger, SG, Encoding and decoding of learned smooth-pursuit eye movements in the floccular complex of the monkey cerebellum., J Neurophysiol, vol 102 no. 4 (2009), pp. 2039-2054 [10.1152/jn.00075.2009] [abs].
  • Osborne, LC; Lisberger, SG, Spatial and temporal integration of visual motion signals for smooth pursuit eye movements in monkeys., J Neurophysiol, vol 102 no. 4 (2009), pp. 2013-2025 [10.1152/jn.00611.2009] [abs].
  • Lisberger, SG, Internal models of eye movement in the floccular complex of the monkey cerebellum., Neuroscience, vol 162 no. 3 (2009), pp. 763-776 [10.1016/j.neuroscience.2009.03.059] [abs].
  • Huang, X; Lisberger, SG, Noise correlations in cortical area MT and their potential impact on trial-by-trial variation in the direction and speed of smooth-pursuit eye movements., J Neurophysiol, vol 101 no. 6 (2009), pp. 3012-3030 [10.1152/jn.00010.2009] [abs].
  • Yang, J; Lisberger, SG, Relationship between adapted neural population responses in MT and motion adaptation in speed and direction of smooth-pursuit eye movements., J Neurophysiol, vol 101 no. 5 (2009), pp. 2693-2707 [10.1152/jn.00061.2009] [abs].
  • Medina, JF; Lisberger, SG, Links from complex spikes to local plasticity and motor learning in the cerebellum of awake-behaving monkeys., Nat Neurosci, vol 11 no. 10 (2008), pp. 1185-1192 [10.1038/nn.2197] [abs].
  • Heuer, HW; Tokiyama, S; Lisberger, SG, Doing without learning: stimulation of the frontal eye fields and floccular complex does not instruct motor learning in smooth pursuit eye movements., J Neurophysiol, vol 100 no. 3 (2008), pp. 1320-1331 [10.1152/jn.90492.2008] [abs].
  • Schoppik, D; Nagel, KI; Lisberger, SG, Cortical mechanisms of smooth eye movements revealed by dynamic covariations of neural and behavioral responses., Neuron, vol 58 no. 2 (2008), pp. 248-260 [10.1016/j.neuron.2008.02.015] [abs].
  • Osborne, LC; Palmer, SE; Lisberger, SG; Bialek, W, Combinatorial coding in neural populations (2008) [abs].