Fraser Sparks Email & Phone Number

Our brain is us. Who we are, what we do, and the vast records of our past all depend on this complex organ. When something bad happens to our brains, the world around us can quickly fall to pieces. The devastating effects of brain damage are both personal and social, and underlie the importance of understanding how the brain incorporates experience, uses this experience within the act of thinking, and how this process is sensitive to disruption. My research aims to understand how everyday experiences can combine with past memories to enable learning and remembering new information. By understanding the way that the brain normally performs this process we call memory, we will begin to assess the root of disorders of memory and cognition, that this in turn will shed light on disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, and Autism Spectrum Disorder.