Julia Kam, PhD

BA in Psychology, University of British Columbia, Canada
PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of British Columbia, Canada

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Areas of Research

Main Research Interests
I aminterested in understanding the neurophysiological and functional basis of internal attention. This is a core human experience that occupies up to half of our awake time. Commonly known as mind wandering, it involves attending internally to cognitive processes such as autobiographical memory recall, decision making and future planning.
Methodological Approaches
My lab uses a unique combination of cognitive neuroscience approaches to study internal attention, including behavior, pupillometry, scalp and intracranial EEG. We investigate internal attention in healthy individuals, clinical populations, neuropsychological patients with structural brain damage and neurosurgical patients with medically refractory epilepsy who are evaluated for surgical treatment to control their seizures.
Current Projects
We are interested in elucidating the causal relevance of brain regions in internal attention as well as the spatiotemporal dynamics supporting internal attention using scalp and intracranial EEG. My lab uses these EEG signatures and machine learning models to predict periods of internal attention. Finally, we are also interested in studying internal attention in naturalistic settings, and understanding the relationship between internal attention and other important aspects of our daily life, including creativity and task performance.

Supervising degrees

Psychology - Masters: Accepting Inquiries
Psychology - Doctoral: Accepting Inquiries
Neuroscience - Masters: Unavailable
Clinical Psychology - Masters: Unavailable
Clinical Psychology - Doctoral: Unavailable

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I am seeking passionate, highly motivated, intrinsically curious individuals who are interested in human attentional neuroscience. If this describes you, please get in touch!

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