People

 

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Kalina Christoff is an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department and the Brain Research Centre at the University of British Columbia.

She completed her doctoral work at Stanford University with John D. E. Gabrieli, and her postdoctoral training at Cambridge, UK with Adrian M. Owen. Her work focuses on the neural and cognitive mechanisms of human thought, reasoning and memory, using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).

Her work on the functions of the anterior prefrontal cortex (PFC) has linked this part of the brain to the uniquely human mental processes of introspection and meta-awareness. Dr. Christoff’s most recent work focuses on examining spontaneous forms of thought, such as memories and thought streams occuring in the form of mind wandering. She is also interested in examining meditation-based thought phenomena such as mindfulness, and developing clinical applications for fMRI using real-time fMRI feedback to train modulation of activation in specific brain regions.


GRADUATE STUDENTS


Matt Dixon

Melissa Ellamil

Kieran Fox

Zach Stansfield




UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS & RESEARCH ASSISTANTS


Savannah Nijeboer

Tamar O'Shea

Doris Pham

Tanya Barr

Mara Puertolas
  


LAB COORDINATORS

Doris Pham and Kieran Fox




ASSOCIATES & COLLABORATORS


Pierre Zakarauskas
University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia

Jonathan Schooler
University of California at Santa Barbara
Sean Pritchard
Fielding Graduate University

Silvia A. Bunge
University of California
at Berkeley

Evan Thompson
University of Toronto


Charles Dobson
Emily Carr Univesity

Mark Beeman
Northwestern University



ALUMNI

Rachelle Smith

Kamyar Keramatian

Alan Gordon

Cade Warren

Graeme McCaig

Ivan Kouznetsov

Jonathan Erez

Jason Winters

Lanna Bessel

Conor Lavelle

Irene Liu

Brian Luus

Stan Geller

Alex Weinberg





KIERAN FOX

 

Kieran is currently a PhD student in the Christoff lab. When he's not busy chanting 'Om' on mountaintops, he researches the neural basis of meditation and the behavioral improvements it engenders. During his undergraduate years his research focused on the memory sources of dreams and nightmares, specifically memories underlying the hypnagogic state. For his MA work at UBC, he worked on demonstrating better introspection in people who practice meditation. For his PhD he is investigating mind-wandering, metacognition, and the evolutionary basis of brain complexity.

EDUCATION

• Ph.D Psychology (in progress) University of British Columbia
• M.A. Psychology (Cognitive Neuroscience) University of British Columbia (2012)
• B.A. Psychology (minors in Neuroscience and World Religion) McGill University (2008)

CURRICULUM VITAE
• November 2012

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• Fox, K.C.R., Zakarauskas, P., Dixon, M.L., Ellamil, M., Thompson, E. & Christoff, K. (2012). Meditation experience predicts introspective accuracy. PLoS ONE, 7(9), e45370.

• Stenstrom, P., Fox, K.C.R., Solomonova, E. & Nielsen, T. A. (2012). Mentation during sleep onset theta bursts in a trained participant: A role for NREM stage 1 sleep in memory processing? International Journal of Dream Research, 5(1), 37-46.

CONTACT

PUBLIC TALKS

• "Enhanced Brain Grey Matter Concentration in Long-term Meditation Practitioners" (April 2012) MA Thesis Talk at Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia.
 

MENTORS, COLLABORATORS, ASSOCIATES

• Dr. Tore A. Nielsen, University of Montreal
• Richard Sears, Mingan Island Cetacean Study
• Dr. Evan Thompson, University of Toronto