I study how we remember past events and imagine future events, and the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying both processes or specific to each of them. I am interested in the role of (self- and event-) schemata during remembering and imagining, and in the mechanism by which memories and thoughts capture attention, moving it away from the present (perceptual) reality, towards our inner world and across subjective time (mind-wandering). These studies are focused on the interplay among the hippocampus, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and the posterior parietal cortex during mental event construction. I am also interested in the psychological function of episodic memory and future thinking, for example when making choices or interacting with others. Finally, I study how to rehabilitate memory in patients with brain lesion or dysfunction.
