Laura Colgin

  • Professor
  • Director, Center for Learning and Memory
  • Karl Folkers Chair in Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
  • Neuroscience

Accepting graduate students 25-26 academic year

Profile image of Laura Colgin

Research

Brain rhythms reflect synchronized activity across many neurons and thus provide a means for studying how groups of neurons coordinate their activity during complex cognitive functions such as learning. My work uses multisite tetrode and Neuropixels recordings from freely behaving animals to investigate how brain rhythms coordinate neuronal populations during learning and memory operations, particularly in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. Currently, my lab focuses on understanding how coordinated populations of neurons represent memories and understanding how disturbances in coordination of neuronal populations relates to learning and memory impairments in rodent models of learning disabilities and memory disorders.  

Research Areas

  • Neuroscience
  • Learning and Memory
  • Health Promotion or Disease Prevention

Fields of Interest

  • Electrophys, Optogenetics & Chemogenetics
  • Behavior
  • Learning/Memory/Plasticity
  • Computational/Theoretical

Centers and Institutes

  • Center for Learning and Memory
  • Institute for Neuroscience
  • Center for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience

Publications

  • 2023 Villacres JE, Riveira N, Kim S, Colgin LL, Noebels JL, Lopez AY. Abnormal patterns of sleep and waking behaviors are accompanied by neocortical oscillation disturbances in an Ank3 mouse model of epilepsy-bipolar disorder comorbidity. Translational Psychiatry. 2023 Dec 20;13(1):403. doi: 10.1038/s41398-023-02700-2. PMID: 38123552; PMCID: PMC10733341.

    2022 Zhu N., Zhang Y, Xiao X, Wang Y, Yang J, Colgin LL, Zheng C. Hippocampal oscillatory dynamics in freely behaving rats during exploration of social and non-social stimuli. Cognitive Neurodynamics, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-022-09829-8

    2021 Zheng C, Hwaun E, Loza CA, Colgin LL. Hippocampal place cell sequences differ during correct and error trials in a spatial memory task. Nature Communications, 12(1):3373. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23765-x1.

    2019 Creson T, Rojas C, Hwaun E, Vaissiere T, Kilinc M, Jimenez-Gomez A, Holder JL Jr, Tang J, Colgin LL, Miller CA, Rumbaugh G. Re-expression of SynGAP protein in adulthood improves translatable measures of brain function and behavior. eLife, 8. pii: e467521.

    2019 Trettel SG, Trimper JB, Hwaun E, Fiete IR, Colgin LL. Grid cell co-activity patterns during sleep reflect spatial overlap of grid fields during active behavior, Nature Neuroscience, 22(4):609-6171.

    2019, Hwaun E, Colgin LL. CA3 place cells that represent a novel experience are preferentially reactivated during sharp wave-ripples in subsequent sleep, Hippocampus, 29(10):921-9381.

    2018 Gereke BJ, Mably AJ, Colgin LL. Experience-Dependent Trends in CA1 Theta and Slow Gamma Rhythms in Freely Behaving Mice. Journal of Neurophysiology, 119:476- 4891.

    2017, Trimper JB, Trettel SG, Hwaun E, Colgin LL. Methodological caveats in the detection of coordinated replay between place cells and grid cells. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 11:571,2.

    2017 Mably AJ, Gereke BJ, Jones DT, Colgin LL. Impairments in spatial representations and rhythmic coordination of place cells in the 3xTg mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Hippocampus, 27:378-3921.

    2016 Hsiao Y-T, Zheng C, Colgin LL. Slow gamma rhythms in CA3 are entrained by slow gamma activity in the dentate gyrus. Journal of Neurophysiology, 116(6):2594-26031.

    2016 Zheng C, Bieri KW, Hwaun E, Colgin LL. Fast gamma rhythms in the hippocampus promote encoding of novel-object place pairings, eNeuro, 3(2)1.

    2016 Zheng C, Bieri KW, Hsiao Y, Colgin LL. Spatial sequence coding differs during slow and fast gamma rhythms in the hippocampus, Neuron, 89(2):398-408.

    2016 Alexander GM, Farris S, Pirone JR, Zheng C, Colgin LL, Dudek SM. Social and novel contexts modify hippocampal CA2 representations of space, Nature Communications, 7:103001.

    2015 Zheng C, Bieri KW, Trettel SG, Colgin LL. The relationship between gamma frequency and running speed differs for slow and fast gamma rhythms in freely behaving rats, Hippocampus, 25(8):  924-938.

    2015 Colgin LL. Do slow and fast gamma rhythms correspond to distinct functional states in the hippocampal network?, Brain Research.

    2015 Zheng C, Colgin LL. Beta and gamma rhythms go with the flow, Neuron, 85(2): 236-237.

    2014 Colgin LL. Theta-gamma coupling in the entorhinal-hippocampal system, Curr Opin Neurobiol, 31C: 45-50.

    2014 Bieri KW, Bobbitt KN, Colgin LL. Slow and fast gamma rhythms coordinate different spatial coding modes in hippocampal place cells, Neuron, 82(3): 670-681.

    2014 Igarashi KM, Lu L, Colgin LL, Moser MB, Moser EI. Coordination of entorhinal-hippocampal ensemble activity during associative learning. Nature, 510(7503): 143-147.

    2013 Colgin LL. Mechanisms and functions of theta rhythms. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 36: 295-312.

    2012 Colgin LL. Slow gamma takes the reins in replay. Neuron, 75:549-550.

    2012 Colgin LL. Neuroscience: Recalling Space and Time. Science, 336(6082):671.

    2011 Colgin LL. Neuroscience: Periodicity without rhythmicity. Nature, 479(7371):46-47.

    2011 Colgin LL.  Oscillations and hippocampal-prefrontal synchrony.  Curr Opin Neurobiol, 21(3): 467-474.

    2010 Ellender TJ, Nissen W, Colgin LL, Mann EO, Paulsen O, Priming of hippocampal population bursts by individual perisomatic-targeting interneurons, The Journal of Neuroscience 30(17): 5979-5991

    2010 Colgin LL, Moser EI, Gamma oscillations in the hippocampus, Physiology 25(5): 319-329

    2010 Henriksen EJ, Colgin LL, Barnes CA, Witter MP, Moser MB, Moser EI, Spatial representation along the proximodistal axis of CA1, Neuron 68(1): 127-137

    2010 Colgin LL, Leutgeb S, Jezek K, Leutgeb JK, Moser EI, McNaughton BL, Moser MB, Attractor-map versus autoassociation based attractor dynamics in the hippocampal network, Journal of Neurophysiology 104(1): 35-50

    2009 Colgin LL, Denninger T, Fyhn M, Hafting T, Bonnevie T, Jensen O, Moser MB, Moser EI, Frequency of gamma oscillations routes flow of information in the hippocampus, Nature 462(7271) : 353-357 

    2005 Brunson KL, Kramar E, Lin B, Chen Y, Colgin LL, Yanagihara TK, Lynch G, Baram TZ, Mechanisms of late-onset cognitive decline after early-life stress, The Journal of Neuroscience 25(41): 9328-9338

    2004 Colgin LL, Kubota D, Jia Y, Rex CS, Lynch G, Long-term potentiation is impaired in rat hippocampal slices that produce spontaneous sharp waves, Journal of Physiology (London) 558(3): 953-961

    2004 Colgin LL, Kubota D, Brucher FA, Jia Y, Branyan E, Gall CM, Lynch G, Spontaneous waves in the dentate gyrus of slices from the ventral hippocampus, Journal of Neurophysiology 92: 3385-3398

Awards

  • Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) Distinguished Investigator, 2024
  • Suffrage Science Life Sciences Award, 2020
  • National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 2015
  • University of Texas at Austin College of Natural Sciences Teaching Excellence Award, 2014
  • Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, 2014
  • Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, 2012
  • Klingenstein Fellowship Award in the Neurosciences, 2011
  • Peter and Patricia Gruber International Research Award in Neuroscience, 2010