Matthew Dylan Lieberman is a

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

and Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab Director at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

Department of

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

Psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial psych ...

and Biobehavioral Sciences.

Personal life and education

Lieberman was born on May 5, 1970 in

Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497.

. His father was a lawyer and his mother an art teacher. His wife,

Naomi Eisenberger Naomi I. Eisenberger (born in San Francisco) is a social psychologist known for her research on the neural basis of social pain and social connection. She is professor of social psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where ...

, is a full professor on the

Department faculty. Lieberman is a graduate of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, where he later taught several classes. Naomi Eisenberger and Matthew Lieberman have a son.

Research and Career

Lieberman's work has been funded by the

National Institute of Mental Health The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH, in turn, is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the prima ...

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

, Guggenheim Foundation,

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

, and the

Office of Naval Research The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Established by Congress in 1946, its mission is to plan ...

. Lieberman conducts

research Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...

into the neural bases of

social cognition Social cognition is a sub-topic of various branches of psychology that focuses on how people process, store, and apply information about other people and social situations. It focuses on the role that cognitive processes play in social interactio ...

and social experience, with particular emphasis on the neural bases of emotion regulation, persuasion,

social rejection Social rejection occurs when an individual is deliberately excluded from a social relationship or social interaction. The topic includes ''interpersonal rejection'' (or peer rejection), ''romantic rejection'' and ''familial estrangement''. A pers ...

, self-knowledge, theory of mind, and fairness. Lieberman coined the term

social cognitive neuroscience Social cognitive neuroscience is the scientific study of the biological processes underpinning social cognition. Specifically, it uses the tools of neuroscience to study "the mental mechanisms that create, frame, regulate, and respond to our experi ...

. His research interests also include Neural Bases of Automatic and Controlled Social Cognition & Affect and Neural Bases of Personality.Social cognitive neuroscience focuses on how the

human brain The human brain is the central organ of the human nervous system, and with the spinal cord makes up the central nervous system. The brain consists of the cerebrum, the brainstem and the cerebellum. It controls most of the activities of the ...

carries out social information processing. Lieberman uses

functional neuroimaging Functional neuroimaging is the use of neuroimaging technology to measure an aspect of brain function, often with a view to understanding the relationship between activity in certain brain areas and specific mental functions. It is primarily used a ...

(fMRI) and neuropsychology to test new hypotheses regarding social cognition. Lieberman is the founding editor of the journal, ''

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience ''Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering social neuroscience published by Oxford University Press. Its focus is on empirical research reports. According to the ''Journal Citation Repo ...

''. In 2007, he won the

APA Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology The Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology is an annual award that has been given by the American Psychological Association since 1974. It is given to outstanding research psychologists who are in the early st ...

. In 2011, he was the recipient of UCLA Gold Shield Faculty Prize.

Selected publications

* Lieberman, M. D. (2013). Social: Why our brains are wired to connect. New York, NY: Crown * Lieberman, M. D. (2010). Social cognitive neuroscience. In S. T. Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, & G. Lindzey (Eds). Handbook of Social Psychology (5th ed.) (pp. 143–193). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. * Falk, E. B., Berkman, E. T., Mann, T., Harrison, B, & Lieberman, M. D. (2010). Predicting persuasion-induced behavior change from the brain. Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 8421-8424. * Lieberman, M. D., Eisenberger, N. I., Crockett, M. J., Tom, S., Pfeifer, J. H., Way, B. M. (2007). Putting feelings into words: Affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity to affective stimuli. Psychological Science, 18, 421-428. * Eisenberger, N. I., Lieberman, M. D., & Williams, K. D. (2003). Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion. Science, 302, 290-292.

References

External links

*
Putting Feelings Into Words
'
''Which ads are winners? Your brain knows''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lieberman, Matthew University of California, Los Angeles faculty Living people Harvard University alumni 1970 births American neuroscientists