Dr. Juan Carlos Cerpa

Juan Carlos Cerpa graduated with a M.Sc. in Neurosciences and Neuropsychopharmacology from the University of Bordeaux, France, in 2016. In October 2016, Juan Carlos joined the group of Dr. Etienne Coutureau at the Bordeaux Neurocampus to carry out his Ph.D. Juan Carlos’s thesis work focused on understanding the role of neuromodulatory influence in the prefrontal cortex for flexible decision-making. To achieve this Juan Carlos combined anatomical, lesioning and chemogenetic methods in rats.

Juan Carlos joined the group of Unit collaborator Dr. Mark Walton (Experimental Psychology, Oxford) in January 2020, to advance a joint project between Dr. Walton and Prof. Rafal Bogacz. Juan Carlos’s research is focused on investigating how direct and indirect pathways in the basal ganglia evaluate costs and benefits of actions, as well as understanding the contribution of the dopaminergic neuromodulation on this mechanism. To address this, Juan Carlos uses experimental techniques (such as photometry in behaving mice) under the supervision of Dr. Walton, and computational modelling methods under the supervision of Prof. Bogacz.