Daniel Zaldivar, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Zaldivar joined the SCNI in late summer 2018. He holds a M.D. by the National Polytechnic Institute and a Ph.D. by the Internationa Max Planck Research School, the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics and the University of Tuebingen in Germany. His Ph.D. studies consisted in investigating the influence of neuromodulation on neural circuits and its impact on neurovascular coupling. Dr. Zaldivar's current research focuses in understanding how neural networks undergo structural and functional changes through development. One prominent line of thinking is that network structure is initially only rudimentarily defined by genetic mechanisms, and that functional wiring is stablished through activity-dependent processes. Using fMRI, large scale electrophysiology and optogenetics Dr. Zaldivar investigates (1) whether circuits do require neural activity for maturation and (2) why activity is utilized for refinement of neural circuits, when developmental processes could be sufficient.

Selected Publications

Zaldivar D, Koyano KW, Ye FQ, Godlove DC, Park SH, Russ BE, Bhik-Ghanie R & Leopold DAL. (2022) Brain-wide functional connectivity of face patch neurons during rest . Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.119(36):E2206559119. PMID: 36044550.

Gambino G, Bhik-Ghanie R, Giglia G, Puig MV, Ramirez-Villegas J & Zaldivar D. (2022)  Editorial: Neuromodulatory Ascending Systems: Their Influence at the Microscopic and Macroscopic Level.  Frontiers Neural Circuits. 16:1028154. PMID: 3649561

Zaldivar D, Rauch A, Logothetis NK & Goense J. (2018) Two distinct profiles of fMRI and neurophysiological activity elicited by acetylcholine in visual cortex . Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 115(51):E12073-E12082. PMID: 30510000

Zaldivar D, Goense J, Lowe SC, Logothetis NK & Panzeri S. (2018) Dopamine Is Signaled by Mid-frequency Oscillations and Boosts Output Layers Visual Information in Visual Cortex . Curr Biol. 28(2):224-235.e5. PMID: 29307559

Fichtner ND, Giapitzakis IA, Avdievich N, Mekle R, Zaldivar D, Henning A & Kreis R. (2018) In vivo characterization of the downfield part of 1 H MR spectra of human brain at 9.4 T: Magnetization ex- change with water and relation to conventionally determined metabolite content . Magn Reson Med.79(6):2863-2873. PMID: 29034505