Our Team
The Ramirez Lab brings together researchers with diverse expertise in systems neuroscience, electrophysiology, and computational modelling. We are based at the Instituto de Neurociencias Alicante (CSIC-UMH), a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence in Alicante, Spain.
Principal Investigator
Juan F. Ramirez Villegas, PhD
Tenure-track Scientist, CSIC · Ramón y Cajal Fellow
I am a Tenure-track Research Scientist (Ramón y Cajal Fellow) at the Instituto de Neurociencias Alicante (CSIC-UMH). I am broadly interested in the neural basis of cognitive processes.
Prior to joining IN (CSIC-UMH), I was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Jozsef Csicsvari at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA). I earned a PhD in Neuroscience from the Eberhard-Karls University of Tübingen while conducting my research at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics under the supervision of Nikos K. Logothetis and Michel Besserve.
My laboratory combines a battery of in vivo experimental and computational approaches to understand how system-level interactions between the brainstem, thalamus, hippocampus, and neocortex support the formation and maintenance of memory in the brain.
Lab Members
Araceli R. Cardenas, MD, MA, PhD
Senior Guest Scientist
Dr. Araceli R. Cardenas is broadly interested in the neural basis of human cognition and behavior, with a particular focus on how large-scale brain dynamics support perception, memory, language, and conscious experience. Her research combines human intracranial electrophysiology with computational neuroscience to investigate the mechanisms underlying cognition in the human brain.
Prior to joining the Ramirez Lab, she led the Human Intracranial Recordings research program at Toronto Western Hospital. She previously completed postdoctoral training at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, where she conducted intracranial recordings in patients undergoing epilepsy surgery, and earned a PhD in Neuroscience at the Max Planck Research School and the Eberhard-Karls University of Tübingen under the supervision of Andreas Nieder.
Her research integrates intracranial electrophysiology, physiology, and advanced data analysis to understand how neural activity interacts with physiological states on the cardio-respiratory system, and autonomic regulation to support memory, speech, and perception in the human brain.
