Steven R. Livingstone is a postdoctoral fellow at the SMART Lab, and the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. He completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science from The University of Queensland, and received undergraduate training in Computer Science and Physics from The University of Queensland. Steven has completed postdoctoral training at McGill University in the Department of Psychology with Dr. Caroline Palmer.
Dr Livingstone’s research examines the cognitive bases of vocal emotional communication in healthy and clinical populations. He is particularly interested in the temporal dynamics of multisensory integration of facial and vocal emotion. At the SMART lab he has developed the Ryerson Audio-Visual Database of Emotional Speech and Song (RAVDESS). Comprised of 24 actors, speaking and singing with seven emotions and two levels of emotional intensity, the full corpus of 7,500 files will be released in 2015.
One of the most distinctive features is a loss of facial movements, termed the “masked face” syndrome of PD. Despite wide recognition, there remain few non-pharmacological treatments. In collaboration with the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Dr Livingstone is conducting a novel imitative singing therapy to rehabilitate facial and vocal expression in patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Papers:
Livingstone, S. R., Thompson, W.F., Wanderley, M. M., & Palmer, C. (in press). Common cues to emotion in the dynamic facial expressions of speech and song. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Livingstone, S. R., Choi, D., & Russo, F. A. (2014). The influence of vocal training and acting experience on measures of voice quality and emotional genuineness in male singers. Frontiers in Cognitive Science, 5. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00156Livingstone, S. R. (2013). The kinematics of musical expression in the spatiotemporal dimension. Empirical Musicology Review, 7, 124-127.
Chan, L. P., Livingstone, S. R., & Russo, F. A. (2013). Facial mimicry in response to song. Music Perception, 30, 361-367.
Livingstone, S. R., Palmer, C., & Schubert, E. (2012). Emotional response to musical repetition. Emotion, 12, 552-567.
Livingstone, S. R., Muhlberger, R., Brown, A. R., & Thompson, W.F. (2010). Changing musical emotion: A computational rule system for modifying score and performance. Computer Music Journal, 34, 41-64.
Thompson, W.F., Russo, F.A., & Livingstone, S. R. (2010). Facial expressions of pitch structure in music performance. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 17, 317-322.
Livingstone, S.R., Thompson, W.F., & Russo, F.A. (2009). Facial expressions and emotional singing: A study of perception and production with motion capture and electromyography. Music Perception, 26, 475-488.
Livingstone, S. R. & Thompson, W. F. (2009). The emergence of music from the Theory of Mind. Musicae Scientiae, Special Issue 2009/10 “Music and Evolution”, 83-115.
Livingstone, S. R., Muhlberger, R., Brown, A. R., Loch, A. (2007). Controlling Musical Emotionality: An Affective Computational Architecture for Influencing Musical Emotion. Digital Creativity, 18, 43-54.
Livingstone, S. R. & Thompson, W. F. (2006). Multi-modal affective interaction: A comment on musical origins. Music Perception, 24, 89-94.