World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
Award Badge
Best Female Scientists
2025

D-Index & Metrics

Best Female Scientists

D-Index
113
Citations
59254
World Ranking
762
National Ranking
463

Neuroscience

D-Index
114
Citations
58164
World Ranking
463
National Ranking
269

Psychology

D-Index
114
Citations
58106
World Ranking
333
National Ranking
213

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2025 - Research.com Best Female Scientists Award
  • 2010 - Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • 2008 - William James Fellow Award, Association for Psychological Science (APA)
  • 2006 - Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
  • 1995 - Fellow of John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
  • 1992 - Troland Research Awards, United States National Academy of Sciences For her rigorous empirical and theoretical analysis of visual cognition, in which understanding of normal function and analysis of neurological deficits illuminate and strengthen one another.

Overview

Martha J. Farah is affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania in the United States and has an extensive publication record primarily in the fields of Medicine, Psychology, and Neuroscience. Their research focuses on various subfields including Cognitive Neuroscience, Clinical Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology, and Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health.

Their recent scholarly work spans a range of topics that include Functional Brain Connectivity Studies, Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development, Health, Environment, and Cognitive Aging, Health Disparities and Outcomes, Mental Health Research Topics, Stress Responses and Cortisol, and Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction.

Notable recent papers by Martha J. Farah include:

  • "Reflections on the past two decades of neuroscience" (2020), published in Nature Reviews. Neuroscience
  • "Human brain anatomy reflects separable genetic and environmental components of socioeconomic status" (2022), published in Science Advances
  • "The affective neuroscience of socioeconomic status: implications for mental health" (2020), published in BJPsych Bulletin
  • "Early childhood poverty and adult executive functioning: Distinct, mediating pathways for different domains of executive functioning" (2021), published in Developmental Science
  • "Randomized Manipulation of Early Cognitive Experience Impacts Adult Brain Structure" (2021), published in Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

Their frequent co-authors include Yu Hao, Alain Dagher, Danilo Bzdok, Gideon Nave, and Philipp Koellinger.

Martha J. Farah has published multiple papers in several prominent academic venues, including:

  • Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
  • BJPsych Bulletin
  • Scientific Reports
  • The Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics
  • Nature Reviews. Neuroscience

Over the course of their career, Martha J. Farah has received several awards. These include the Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010, the William James Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science in 2008, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2006, Fellowship of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1995, and the Troland Research Award from the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1992. The Troland award was granted for rigorous empirical and theoretical analysis of visual cognition, highlighting the integration of understanding normal visual function with neurological deficits analysis.

Best Publications

  • Parts and wholes in face recognition

    James W. Tanaka;Martha J. Farah

  • Role of left inferior prefrontal cortex in retrieval of semantic knowledge: A reevaluation

    Sharon L. Thompson-Schill;Mark D’Esposito;Geoffrey K. Aguirre;Martha J. Farah

  • Socioeconomic status and the developing brain

    Daniel A. Hackman;Martha J. Farah

  • Visual Agnosia

    Martha J. Farah

  • What is "special" about face perception?

    Martha J. Farah;Kevin D. Wilson;Maxwell Drain;James N. Tanaka

  • Socioeconomic status and the brain: mechanistic insights from human and animal research

    Daniel A. Hackman;Martha J. Farah;Michael J. Meaney;Michael J. Meaney

  • Neurocognitive Correlates of Socioeconomic Status in Kindergarten Children.

    Kimberly G. Noble;Kimberly G. Noble;M. Frank Norman;Martha J. Farah

  • Socioeconomic Gradients Predict Individual Differences in Neurocognitive Abilities.

    Kimberly G. Noble;Kimberly G. Noble;Bruce D. McCandliss;Martha J. Farah

  • Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy

    Henry Greely;Barbara Sahakian;John Harris;Ronald C. Kessler

  • A computational model of semantic memory impairment: modality specificity and emergent category specificity.

    Martha J. Farah;James L. McClelland

  • Childhood poverty: specific associations with neurocognitive development.

    Martha J. Farah;David M. Shera;Jessica H. Savage;Laura Betancourt

  • Neurocognitive enhancement: what can we do and what should we do?

    Martha J. Farah;Judy Illes;Robert Cook-Deegan;Howard Gardner

  • The neurological basis of mental imagery: a componential analysis.

    Martha J. Farah

  • Different Underlying Impairments in Decision-making Following Ventromedial and Dorsolateral Frontal Lobe Damage in Humans

    Lesley K. Fellows;Martha J. Farah

  • Visual agnosia : disorders of object recognition and what they tell us about normal vision

    Martha J. Farah

  • Is visual imagery really visual? Overlooked evidence from neuropsychology.

    Martha J. Farah

  • The neural basis of mental imagery

    Martha J. Farah

  • Ventromedial frontal cortex mediates affective shifting in humans: evidence from a reversal learning paradigm

    Lesley K. Fellows;Martha J. Farah

  • What causes the face inversion effect

    M J Farah;J W Tanaka;H M Drain

  • Visual and spatial mental imagery: Dissociable systems of representation

    Martha J Farah;Katherine M Hammond;David N Levine;Ronald Calvanio

  • A computational model of semantic memory impairment: Modality specificity and emergent category specificity (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 120(4), 339–357)

    M. J. Farah;J. L. McClelland

Frequent Co-Authors

Kimberly G. Noble
Kimberly G. Noble Columbia University
Mark D'Esposito
Mark D'Esposito University of California, Berkeley
Lynette J. Tippett
Lynette J. Tippett University of Auckland
Todd E. Feinberg
Todd E. Feinberg Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Lesley K. Fellows
Lesley K. Fellows Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital
Hengyi Rao
Hengyi Rao University of Pennsylvania
Thad A. Polk
Thad A. Polk University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
Geoffrey K. Aguirre
Geoffrey K. Aguirre University of Pennsylvania
Shaun P. Vecera
Shaun P. Vecera University of Iowa
Sharon L. Thompson-Schill
Sharon L. Thompson-Schill University of Pennsylvania

If you think any of the details on this page are incorrect, let us know.

Report an issue

We appreciate your kind effort to assist us to improve this page, it would be helpful providing us with as much detail as possible in the text box below:

Related Online Degrees & Career Pathways

Considering a psychology degree online can open up diverse career pathways in therapy, counseling, research, and more. When exploring options, it’s important to prioritize programs that offer strong value, flexibility, and career prospects. For example, the most valuable psychology degrees in Arizona balance cost, graduation rates, and job placement, helping students achieve their goals affordably.

Region also matters. If you're studying in different states, you’ll want to compare programs tailored to local opportunities. The best value psychology programs in Hawaii highlight how local market demands and salaries influence educational choices, while the most valuable psychology programs in Jacksonville focus on unique offerings in urban settings.

Rankings and value assessments, like the most valuable psychology degree programs ranking in New Jersey, make it easier to compare online degrees across the country. No matter where you study, finding the right fit can set you up for a rewarding psychology career in counseling, education, clinical settings, or beyond.

Best Scientists Citing Martha J. Farah

Trending Scientists