Hi! This is a bit of a “hello world” post to introduce myself and the MindCORE Neuroimaging Facility. My name is Brock Kirwan, I’m the inaugural director of the MindCORE Neuroimaging Facility at the University of Pennsylvania. The Facility houses a new Siemens Cima.X MRI scanner dedicated to cognitive neuroscience research in addition to several behavioral testing rooms. We currently have plans to build out an EEG testing suite as well. Get in touch if you have any interest in using the space (bonus: we have free parking!).
My research interests center around how the brain forms and retains long-term memories. In particular, I’m interested in how we form memories for specific events and are later able to retrieve those memories in particular without remembering absolutely everything even remotely similar to that memory (i.e., how do we avoid interference between similar memories?). We’ve developed a series of behavioral and neuroimaging tests to try to get at this question. Additionally, I’m interested in how we use memories of past events to guide future decisions, because after all, the point of having a memory system is to avoid making the same mistakes twice.
From 2009 to 2024, I was a professor of psychology and neuroscience at BYU where I mostly taught undergraduate courses on brain and behavior. If my Rate My Professor profile is to be believed, my courses were likable but not too difficult (though if you turn in 10-page philosophy papers when I ask for 2-page article summaries, you’re not going to like your grade). This coming Spring Semester I’m going to be adapting my graduate fMRI Methods seminar as an undergrad Intro to fMRI course at Penn. Watch this space for updates on how that goes!