Meet the BIM Lab
The Team
The BIM Lab is directed by Dr. Todd Girard and our current team includes undergraduate and graduate students at various levels of training, as well as volunteers and research assistants.
- All Members
- All Current
- Lab Director
- Graduate Students
- Graduate Alumni
- Research Assistants
Lab Director
Todd A. Girard
Associate Professor
Dr. Girard’s research interests span domains of clinical neuroscience, cognitive psychopathology, and cognitive pharmacology, particularly regarding memory, psychosis, fMRI, and sleep-paralysis hallucinations. For instance, his research aims to understand functional consequences of medial-temporal abnormalities in clinical conditions including psychosis, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as to inform and test cognitive theories. In this vein, Dr. Girard moved from being primarily a behavioural neuroscientist (Graduate studies, U Waterloo) to that of a cognitive neuroscientist studying human conditions via neuropsychological, cognitive-science, and neuroimaging methods (Post-doctoral studies, Center for Addiction & Mental Health/ U Toronto). Dr. Girard and lab members have also been exploring relations among recreational drug use and cognition, intelligence assessment, and the spatial and temporal nature of multimodal hallucinations accompanying sleep paralysis. The combination of these perspectives has made valuable contributions to current research approaches in the lab at Toronto Metropolitan University. Some current research questions include:
- How do individual differences in the medial-temporal lobe, brain networks, and strategy use relate to spatial memory performance in in people with psychosis?
- How do forms of memory and mnemonic processes differ across clinical spectra (psychosis, depression, traumatic stress)?
- How do emotional and self-referential thought processes relate to memory of one’s past, future thoughts, and symptoms of psychopathology (psychosis, PTSD, depression)?
- What are the relations among forms of recreational substance use, psychosis-like experiences, and cognitive performance?
Research Assistant
Yanchen
Yanchen is a high-school student completing her Senior year. As part of the Science Research Program, she completed an independent study with Dr. Girard on sleep paralysis and anomalous experiences among high-school students. She is currently an RA in the lab working on an extension of this research to university students.
PhD Student
Kesia
Kesia is a current PhD student in the Clinical Psychology program. For her MA thesis, Kesia investigated The emotional enhancement of memory in schizophrenia: The role of encoding strategy. Her doctoral studies focus on Self-concept across time in posttraumatic stress disorder.
PhD Student
Natalie
Natalie is a current PhD student in the Clinical Psychology program. For her MA thesis, Natalie investigated Using virtual reality to examine memory and the active navigation effect in younger and older adults. Her doctoral research is building upon this work.
PhD Student
Jess
Jess is a PhD student in the Clinical Psychology Program. Her research aims to improve the quality of life in pain patients, using a biopsychosocial lens. Specifically, her dissertation aims to clarify the cognitive profile of individuals with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders (HSD), and to understand the relationship between cognition, pain, and disability in hEDS/HSD. Jess is currently completing her pre-doctoral clinical internship at BC Children’s Hospital.
PhD Student
Carmel
Carmel is a PhD student in the Clinical Psychology program. For her PhD dissertation, she is examining cognitive functioning and clinical treatment in social anxiety disorder, psychosis, and depression.
PhD Student
Katie
Katie is a 3rd year doctoral student at York University studying Adult Clinical Neuropsychology. Her master’s research examined memory impairment among precariously housed individuals. Her doctoral dissertation explores the differential associations of cannabis and nicotine salt use with cognition in emerging adults with subclinical psychotic-like experiences. Her research and clinical interests broadly focus on psychosis, cognition, and early intervention.
MA/PhD Alumnus
Ronak
Ronak was an MA/PhD student in Clinical Psychology. His MA thesis investigated The fear factor: Effects of implicit and explicit processing on the emotional enhancement of memory and his PhD dissertation probed Subregional activation of the amygdala during emotional memory encoding in posttraumatic stress disorder: An fMRI investigation. Ronak is currently a board-certified Clinical Neuropsychologist and an Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Health Psychology, at the University of Manitoba.
MA/PhD Alumnus
Jenn
Jenn was an MA/PhD student in the Clinical Psychology program. Her MA thesis investigated Relations among executive functioning, pain catastrophizing, and disability in mild traumatic brain injury patients with chronic pain. Her PhD dissertation focused on Unravelling test anxiety: A comprehensive study of relations with memory confidence, memory ability, and trait anxiety. Jenn is in the process of registering as a Clinical Psychologist.
MA/PhD Alumnus
Bev
Bev was an MA/PhD student in Clinical Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University. In the BIM lab, Bev explored her broad research interests in transdiagnostic processes underlying mental disorders. For her MA thesis, Bev conducted An examination of emotion regulation strategy use on recognition memory and her PhD dissertation involved Examining therapeutic alliance as a mechanism of change in dialectical behavior therapy for subgroups of individuals with borderline personality disorder. Bev is currently an Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, at the University of Winnipeg, and a registered Clinical Psychologist.
PhD Alumnus
Dora
Dora was a PhD student in Clinical Psychology. Her dissertation comprised a Comprehensive insomnia assessment following mild traumatic brain injury. Dora is currently working as a Clinical Psychologist.
PhD Alumnus
Matthew
Matthew was a PhD student in the Clinical Psychology program. For his doctoral dissertation, Matt investigated The role of metamemory in autobiographical memory performance in dysphoric individuals. Matt is currently working as a Clinical Psychologist.
MA Alumnus
Bailee
For her MA thesis, Bailee conducted An investigation of resting state functional connectivity of the anterior and posterior hippocampus in posttraumatic stress disorder and its relationship to symptoms. Bailee completed her PhD in Clinical Psychology in the Cognition and Psychopathology Lab and is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, at Stanford University.
MA/PhD Alumnus
Meera
Meera was an MA/PhD student in Psychological Science. Her MA thesis involved developing Human analogs of rodent spatial pattern association, separation, and completion tasks and her PhD dissertation investigated Neural networks involved in spatial and temporal pattern separation. Meera subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Cognitive Neuroscience lab at McGill University with Dr. Brenda Milner, taught as a University Instructor, and is currently Head of Investor Research and Behavioural Insights, Ontario Securities Commission.
MA/PhD Alumnus
Leanne
Leanne was an MA/PhD student in Psychological Science. Her MA thesis was a Virtual-reality investigation of spontaneous navigation strategies and spatial memory performance in schizophrenia and her PhD followed this up with an fMRI investigation of spatial memory abilities in individuals living with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Leanne subsequently completed postdoctoral fellowships with the CEO group at Toronto Metropolitan University and at CAMH, as well as working as a University Instructor. She is pursuing research to better understand youth substance use.
Research Assistant
Ilana
Ilana is a recent graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University where she completed her undergraduate thesis in the Brain Imaging and Memory Lab. Her thesis examined the relationship between subclinical paranoia, social perceptions, and memory. Ilana hopes to pursue graduate studies in Clinical Psychology, with a focus on schizophrenia and social biases.
Research Assistant
Sasha
Sasha graduated from York University in 2025 with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours majoring in Psychology. Her interests centre around schizophrenia and psychosis, and she joined the lab to investigate their neurocognitive and neurobiological correlates and related functional outcomes.
Research Assistant
Leah
Leah joined the BIM Lab in the summer of 2022 as an RA to assist with the Drug Use and Mental States (DUMS) Study. She holds a BA in Psychology from TMU and an MSW from UofT.
Research Assistant
Kaleigh
Kaleigh is a recent graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University with a Bachelor of Arts with honours and a double minor in Sociology and English. In her final year at TMU, she completed her undergraduate thesis with the Brain Imaging and Memory Lab. Her thesis examined the correlation between posttraumatic stress and perceptions of trustworthiness for unfamiliar faces as well as how these perceptions predict subsequent memory of faces. Kaleigh’s interests center around neurocognition as it relates to memory, posttraumatic stress, as well as social cognition.
Research Assistant
Lucas
Lucas is a current undergraduate at Toronto Metropolitan University.
