Research

My main goal is to study the neuronal circuits of normal and abnormal social behavior using neurophysiology and neuronal manipulations in interacting humans and animals. I am also deeply interested on how primates interact with another and its cognitive basis.

Purview

Group Leader

Short Profile

I was born and raised in Mexico City where I studied Psychology at UNAM -the largest public university in Latin America. I then studied my masters with Nikos Logothetis and Kari Hoffman at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany. Followed by PhD Studies at Cambridge University working under the supervision of Wolfram Schultz. Where I studied how the basal ganglia responds to rewards in social contexts.

I did my Postdoc with Ziv Williams at the Department of Neurosurgery of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School to uncover the neuronal basis of social interactions. From 2018 until my move to the DPZ in 2022, I was an instructor in research at MGH, where I co-mentored two postdocs, four graduate- and six undergraduate students.

 

Service

Member of the board of governors of the Society for Social Neuroscience

Publications

See publications of the Social Neurobiology Lab

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