Welcome to the Gillespie lab!
We are a research group at the University of Washington focused on using hippocampal spatial representations as a window into cognitive decline during aging and neurodegenerative disease.
To do this, we record the spiking activity of large ensembles of neurons from the hippocampus of rats while they learn and perform challenging spatial memory tasks. We use computational models to understand how the spiking activity we observe relates to the subject’s behavior. By comparing such recordings from young, healthy animals to those of much older animals, and even rat strains that have been designed to recapitulate some aspects of Alzheimer’s disease, we can ask how the patterns of neural activity change and drive age and disease-related impairments in cognition. For more details about our ongoing projects, see Research).
We believe in doing rigorous, exciting science in a supportive and fun environment. We welcome colleagues of all backgrounds and identities, and are committed to their well-being and success. We strive to advance scientific knowledge while also pushing to improve academic culture in all the scientific communities we are part of. We are looking for new lab members to join the team (Join us!) !
We are grateful for funding from the University of Washington, the NIH BRAIN Initiative, the National Institute on Aging, and the Simons Collaboration on Plasticity and the Aging Brain.
News
Jan 2025
New neurofeedback paper from the Frank lab officially out!
October 2024
Gabby and Anna attend their first conference together - the SCPAB annual meeting in NYC!
July 2024
Anna will teaching at RIKEN summer school in Tokyo - more info here
May 2024
Anna will present at the Association for Psychological Science meeting in SF! Get in touch if you’d like to meet up!
Apr 2023
Anna will attend Learnmem2023 and present a poster! Get in touch if you’d like to meet up!
Mar 2023
Anna will attend Cosyne and present at the workshops! Get in touch if you’d like to meet up!
Mar 2023
Abhilasha’s paper is accepted at Nature! Publication date tbd, preprint here
Feb 2023
Anna will be speaking at WCNP in Mexico
Jan 2023
THe lab officially opens its doors!