Brian Wiltgen, PhD

My laboratory studies neurobiological mechanisms of learning and memory. We focus on a brain region called the hippocampus, which is essential for spatial and contextual learning in animals. My goal is to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms that this region uses to form and maintain memories across the lifespan. I am also interested in the contribution of the hippocampus to context-specific drug tolerance. This is a unique form of tolerance that is induced by environmental cues reliably paired with drug use. To study these topics, my lab combines behavioral analyses with observational techniques (immediate early gene expression, calcium imaging, fiber photometry, electrophysiology) and causal manipulations (optogenetics, chemogenetics, pharmacology). We use mice because of the powerful cellular and molecular tools that have been developed in these animals.