Anna K. Gillespie, PhD

Clinical and Research Background

The Gillespie Lab strives to understand how the neural mechanisms underlying memory processes degrade over the course of healthy aging and in the context of neurodegenerative disease. The lab uses in vivo electrophysiology to record simultaneously from hundreds of hippocampal neurons in rats as they learn and perform complex memory-dependent tasks. We use advanced computational approaches to evaluate how neural populations encode ongoing experience and store such experience as memory. We can then identify how changes in these processes lead to impairments in memory-guided behavior in aged animals and in rat models of Alzheimer’s disease. We are working to develop novel interventional tools to prevent or reduce detrimental changes in neural activity and preserve cognitive ability throughout the lifespan.