The ability to form and retrieve memories is essential for survival. Our memories help define the very nature of who we are, and we flexibly draw on memories of our experiences to avoid repeating past mistakes and to plan for the future. When memory fails, we may find ourselves hopelessly lost in the city streets, incorrectly planning an event, or even providing mistaken information to a jury.

An overarching goal of research in the Memory, Affect, and Planning (MAP) Laboratory is to understand the complex mechanisms that support human memory and goal-directed behavior, enabling us to avoid such errors. Many factors, including stress and emotion, can influence these mechanisms in both health and disease.

From experiments targeting the memory functions of subfields of the hippocampus, to research characterizing dynamic network-level interactions that support spatial navigation, we study memory and memory-guided behavior from a systems-level perspective of the brain.

Cognitive neuroscience research in the MAP Lab is uniquely interdisciplinary: we bring cutting-edge statistical techniques, neuroimaging, virtual reality, and other emergent technologies to bear on understanding the mechanisms that allow humans to record and navigate their lives.

Click on the tabs above to learn more, and to contribute to our research!