Epilepsy Lecture: The Neurophysiological Basis of Internal Attention

Abstract: Understanding the neural basis of internal attention is an emerging topic in contemporary cognitive neuroscience. In an era dominated by experimental models that focus on external processes, the study of internal cognition faces a unique challenge: how can inner experience be measured and attributed to neural signals? In this lecture, Julia Kam will discuss the neurophysiological basis of internal attention, drawing on paradigms designed to tackle this challenge in combination with scalp and intracranial EEG recordings. She will review work highlighting internal attention broadly, including the switching between attention states and the specific thought content engaged during internal attention. Kam will also introduce ongoing clinically oriented research examining cognitive states that can modulate interictal epileptiform discharges.

Bio: Julia Kam is an Associate Professor of Psychology and a full member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary. She completed her PhD at the University of British Columbia and trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. Her lab aims to develop a mechanistic model of the neural basis of internal attention, which will ultimately drive the development of tools that optimize attentional control. In particular, the lab studies how the human brain processes internal representations and aims to translate this research to applied and clinical contexts, including predicting attention states in the real world and studying this in psychiatric and neurological populations.

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