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Dr. Adrián Ponce-Alvarez

Theoretical neuroscientist
Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow at
Department of Mathematics
Dynamical Systems Group
Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain.

About me

Selected publications

Complete list of publications

Janbon M, Amortegui M, Hansen ECA, Nourin S, Candat V, Sumbre G, Ponce-Alvarez A (2026) Critical neuronal avalanches arise from excitation-inhibition balanced spontaneous activity. iScience 29, 117212

Ponce-Alvarez A (2025) Network mechanisms underlying the regional diversity of variance and time scales of the brain's spontaneous activity fluctuations. Journal of Neuroscience 45, e1699242024.

Grabenhorst F, Ponce-Alvarez A, Battaglia-Mayer A, Deco G, Schultz W (2023) A view-based decision mechanism for rewards in the primate amygdala. Neuron 111, 1-14.

Ponce-Alvarez A, Kringelbach ML, Deco G (2023) Critical scaling of whole-brain resting-state dynamics. Nature Communications Biology 6, 627.

Ponce-Alvarez A, Uhrig L, Deco N, Signorelli CM, Kringelbach ML, Jarraya B, Deco G (2022) Macroscopic quantities of collective brain activity during wakefulness and anesthesia. Cerebral Cortex 32(2), 298–311

Pfeffer T, Ponce-Alvarez A, Meindertsma T, Gahnström C, van den Brink RL, Nolte G, Tsetsos K, Engel AK, Deco G, Donner TH (2021) Circuit mechanisms for the chemical modulation of cortex-wide network interactions and exploration behavior. Science Advances, 7(29), eabf5620.

Ponce-Alvarez A, Mochol G, Hermoso-Mendizabal A, de la Rocha J, Deco G (2020) Cortical state transitions and stimulus response evolve along stiff and sloppy parameter dimensions, respectively. eLife 9, e53268.

Hahn G, Ponce-Alvarez A, Deco G, Aertsen A, Kumar A (2019) Portraits of communication in neuronal networks. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 20, 117-127.

Ponce-Alvarez A*, Jouary A*, Privat M, Deco G, Sumbre G (2018) Whole-brain neuronal activity displays crackling noise dynamics. Neuron 100, 1446-1459.

Ponce-Alvarez A, Deco G, Hagmann P, Romani GL, Mantini D, Corbetta M (2015a) Resting-state temporal synchronization networks emerge from connectivity topology and heterogeneity. PLoS Computational Biology e1004100.

Ponce-Alvarez A*, Thiele A*, Albright TD, Stoner GR, Deco G (2013) Stimulus-dependent variability and noise correlations in cortical MT neurons. PNAS 110(32):13162-7.

Deco G*, Ponce-Alvarez A*, Mantini D, Romani GL, Hagmann P, Corbetta M (2013) Resting-state functional connectivity emerges from structurally and dynamically shaped slow linear fluctuations. Journal of Neuroscience 33(27):11239-52.

I am a theoretical neuroscientist employed as a Ramón y Cajal Research fellow at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain.

My research concerns the study of neural networks, at different scales and in different states. I focus primarily on how cognitive processes are represented in the spatiotemporal patterns of neuronal activity; how brain regions interact; how collective behaviors emerge in neural networks; and how these collective behaviors underlie brain function/dysfunction and different brain states (e.g., conscious wakefulness, sleep, anesthesia).

My approach uses a combination of data analysis and theory, by means of stochastic dynamical systems, information theory, statistical mechanics, machine learning, and network theory.

I am committed in favour of gender, race, and class equity in Academia. I was member of the Center for Gender Studies (CEdGE) at the Pompeu Fabra University from 2015-2022.