Margot Taylor

Senior Scientist, Neurosciences & Mental Health

Dr. Margot J. Taylor received her doctorate from McGill and in 1981 was recruited to The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Neurology as Director of Evoked Potential Labs. In this position, she established a wide range of clinical and research applications of evoked and event-related potentials in paediatrics. She moved to Toulouse, France in 1998 as Directeur de Recherche, CNRS. Dr. Taylor was recruited back to SickKids in 2004 as Director of Functional Neuroimaging in Diagnostic Imaging. Her research centres on the use of MEG, fMRI and MRI to understand the neural bases of cognitive development and includes typical developmental research and clinical populations, such very preterm-born children and young children through to adults with autism. 

Research

Dr. Taylor‘s research is focused on the neural bases of social-cognitive development using MEG, fMRI and MRI.  She and her team assess functional and structural brain correlates of high-level cognitive skills, including emotional processing, Theory of Mind and working memory, from early childhood into adulthood. The studies include typically developing, autistic and very preterm-born populations. Her current focus is on the application of OPM-MEG to investigate emerging neural signatures of autism in toddlers and young children. 

Education and experience

Education

• 1977–1980: PhD, Experimental Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec 
• 1975–1977: MA, Psychophysiology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C. 
• 1970–1974: BA Honours, Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC 

Experience

• 2004–present: Professor, Departments of Medical Imaging and Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON 
• 2004–present: Senior Scientist, Neurosciences & Mental Health, Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON 
• 2004–present: Director of Functional Neuroimaging, Diagnostic Imaging, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON 
• 1998–2004: Directeur de Recherche, C.N.R.S. at CerCo (Cerveau et Cognition), Université Paul, Sabatier, Toulouse, France 
• 1981–1998: Neurophysiologist, Director of Evoked Potential Labs, Division of Neurology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON 
• 1980–1981: Post-doctoral fellow, Department of Neurology, Montreal Children's Hospital, Montreal, Quebec 

Academic appointments

• 2005–present: Full member of the Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
• 2004–present: Professor, Department of Paediatrics and Department of Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
• 2007: Cross-appointed as Professor in the Department of Psychology, U. of T, Toronto, ON
• 1994–1998: Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
• 1984–1994: Assistant Professor, Department of Paediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
• 1981–1984: Lecturer, Department of Paediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON

Achievements

• 2013: Surgeon General of Canada Medal for Service - Brigadier-General J.R. Bernier
• 2011: International Exchange Scholar - Royal Society of Edinburgh
• 2008: Excellence in MEG Research in Developmental Neuroscience - Josephine Mills Annual Research Award
• 1994–1995: Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM) Poste Orange, Unité INSERM #316, Tours, France
• 1998: Visiting Professor - Okazaki National Research Institutes, Okazaki, Japan

1. Mossad, S.I., Young, J.M., Wong, S.M., Dunkley, B.T., Hunt, B.A.E., Pang, E.W., Taylor, M.J. The preterm brain at rest: longitudinal social-cognitive network connectivity during childhood. Social, Cognitive and Affective Neurosciences, 2022, 17(4):377-386.
2. Sato, J., Vandewouw, M.M., Bando, N., O’Connor, D.L., Unger, S.L. Taylor, M.J. White matter alterations and cognitive outcomes in young children born very low birth weight. NeuroImage Clinical, 2021, 32:102843.
3. Vandewouw, M.M., Safar, K., Sato, J., Hunt, B.A.E., Urbain, C., Pang, E.W., Anagnostou, E., Taylor, M.J. Ignore the faces: Neural characterisation of emotional inhibition from child to adulthood using MEG. Human Brain Mapping, 2021, 42(17):5747-5760.
4. Safar, K., Vandewouw, M.M., Taylor, M.J. Atypical development of emotional face processing networks in autism spectrum disorder from childhood through to adulthood. Cogn. Neurosci, 2021, Oct;51:101003.
5. Vandewouw, M.M., Safar, K., Mossad, S.I., Lu, J., Lerch, J.P., Anagnostou, E., Taylor, M.J. Do shapes have feelings? Social attribution in children with autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Translational Psychiatry, 2021, 11(1):493.