Neuroscience & Mental Health Research Institute

Prof. Kim Graham

Based at the Wales Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology

Research Keywords

Human memory, neuropsychology, functional neuroimaging, amnesia, neurodegeneration

Research Interests and Facilities

My main research interest is in human long-term memory (our store of episodes from the past and our factual knowledge about the world), and disorders that affect this type of memory (e.g., epilepsy, neurodegeneration and encephalitis).  I am particularly interested understanding how different brain structures contribute to long-term memory, and how this key cognitive system is dependent upon linguistic, spatial and perceptual representations.  I use a number of different techniques in my research, including cognitive neuropsychology (patient-based investigations), functional neuroimaging (the measurement of activity in the brain while participants perform cognitive tasks) and structural imaging (measurements of connectivity in the brain).  My aim is to develop a theoretical view of memory that provides a sensible account of brain-behaviour relationships, and use this to understand and predict clinical conditions that result in memory impairment.

Available PhD Projects

1. Is the distinction between implicit and explicit memory a useful way to conceptualise memory in amnesia?
2. How do medial temporal lobe regions support aspects of memory and perception?
3. Is spatial processing a useful marker for the early diagnosis and differentiation of dementia?
4. How is memory impaired in epilepsy?
5. Is it possible to re-learn new semantic information after brain damage, and what rehabilitative strategies are particularly useful?

Publications

1. Epstein, R., Graham, K.S. & Downing, P.E. (2003). Viewpoint-specific scene representations in human parahippocampal cortex.  Neuron, 37, 865-876.
2. Lee, A.C.H., Buckley, M.J., Pegman, S.J., Spiers, H., Scahill, V.L., Gaffan, D., Bussey, T., Davies, R.R., Kapur, N., Hodges, J.R. & Graham, K.S. (2005). Specialization of the medial temporal lobe for processing of objects and scenes.  Hippocampus, 15, 782-797.
3. Barense, M.D., Bussey, T.J., Lee, A.C.H., Rogers, T.T., Davies, R.R., Saksida, L.M., Murray, E.A. & Graham, K.S. (2005).  Functional specialization in the human medial temporal lobe.  Journal of Neuroscience, 25, 10239-10246.
4. Lee, A.C.H., Buckley, M.J., Gaffan, D., Emery, T., Hodges, J.R. & Graham, K.S. (2006). Differentiating the roles of the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex in processes beyond long-term declarative memory: a double dissociation in dementia.  Journal of Neuroscience, 26, 5198-5203.
5. Graham, K.S., Scahill, V.L., Hornberger, M., Barense, M.D., Lee, A.C.H., Bussey, T.J., & Saksida, L.M. (2006).  Abnormal categorization and perceptual learning in patients with hippocampal damage.  Journal of Neuroscience, 26, 7547-7554.
6. Milton, F., Muhlert, N., Pindus, D., Butler, C.R., Kapur, N., Graham, K.S., Hodges, J.R. & Zeman, A.J. (2010).  Remote memory deficits in transient epileptic amnesia.  Brain, 133, 1368-1379.
7. Watson, H.C., Wilding, E.L. & Graham, K.S. (2012).  Object representations in the perirhinal cortex can support memory for novel object-context associations.  Journal of Neuroscience, 32, 4473-4481.