I study the brain mechanisms that allow people to form and retain memories of events. This includes big events, like your wedding or your sixth birthday, as well as more mundane information, like where you parked your car or what the word "doughnut" means. One question that occupies much of my time is this: What information will we forget, and why? To address this and other questions, my students and I use a number of methods, including neuropsychological studies with memory-impaired patients, behavioral studies with healthy adults, and functional neuroimaging (fMRI) experiments. Our fMRI experiments are conducted at the new MRI Research Facility on BYU campus.
