I am interested in how our perceptual experiences are transformed into memories and how we recreate and selectively recall these experiences. Research in my lab makes use of behavioral and neuroimaging methods (fMRI, EEG) with an emphasis on applying machine learning algorithms and multivariate pattern analyses in order to understand how memories are represented and transformed in distributed patterns of brain activity.
Some of the specific topics my lab addresses include: What are the cognitive and neural mechanisms that cause forgetting? How is competition between memories signaled and resolved in the brain during retrieval? How do we reduce interference between memories during encoding? Addressing these questions involves understanding the interactions and relative contributions of fronto-parietal cortex and medial temporal lobe structures.
Dr. Kuhl is interested in accepting new doctoral students for Fall 2025.
Selected Publications:
Favila SE, Chanales, AJH, & Kuhl BA (2016). Experience-dependent hippocampal pattern differentiation prevents interference during subsequent learning. Nature Communications. doi:10.1038/ncomms11066
Richter FR, Chanales AJH, & Kuhl BA (2016). Predicting the integration of overlapping memories by decoding mnemonic processing states during learning. NeuroImage, 124, 323-335.
Kuhl BA, Chun MM (2014). Successful remembering elicits event-specific activity patterns in lateral parietal cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 34, 8051-8060.
Cowen AS, Chun MM, & Kuhl BA (2014). Neural portraits of perception: Reconstructing face images from evoked brain activity. NeuroImage, 94, 12-22.
Kuhl BA, Johnson MK, & Chun MM (2013). Dissociable neural mechanisms for goal-directed versus incidental memory reactivation. Journal of Neuroscience, 33, 16099-16109.
Kuhl BA, Rissman J. Chun MM, & Wagner AD (2011). Fidelity of neural reactivation reveals competition between memories. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: USA, 108, 5903-5908.
Kuhl BA, Shah AT, DuBrow S, & Wagner AD (2010). Resistance to forgetting associated with hippocampus-mediated reactivation during new learning. Nature Neuroscience, 13, 501-506.
Kuhl BA, Dudukovic NM, Kahn I, & Wagner AD (2007). Decreased demands on cognitive control reveal the neural processing benefits of forgetting. Nature Neuroscience, 10, 908-914.