Jorge Vera Research

• MSc. Neuroscience, University of Chile, Faculty of Sciences (2010).
  Advisor Dr. Cecilia. Vergara.
• PhD. Neuroscience, University of Chile, Faculty of Sciences (2014).
  Advisor Dr. Magdalena Sanhueza
• Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Chile, Faculty of Sciences (2015-2017).
  Advisor Dr. Julio Alcayaga.

• Taste and Smell Center, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado. USA. August-October 2015. Advisor Dr. Diego Restrepo.
• Laboratory of missfolded protein and neurodegenerative diseases, University of Texas, Houston, USA. August-September 2014. Advisor Dr. Claudio Soto.
• Taste and Smell Center, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado. USA. August-October 2012. Advisor Dr. Diego Restrepo.

Neurons are specialized to receive, process and transmit electrical signals, providing a fast communication mechanism that allows the coordination between moving organism and their always-changing environment. I’m fascinated by the extremely complex nature of neuron’s activity and by how their activity is able to crate something so attractive and mysterious like our self-consciousness. In general, among the complex neural processes that give rise to animal behavior I’m interested in two of them:

• 1) The temporal coordination of neuronal activity that allows a rapid on-line processing of sensory and internal signals and
• 2) the cellular and network mechanisms behind memory generation and recall.

In particular, I’ve studied the rhythmic properties of neuronal activity in cortical neurons from mammalian brain, focused in the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex and cortical amygdala (Patch and sharp recordings in brain slices and spike recordings behaving animals).
Currently I’m investigating the contribution of intrinsic frequency preference of cortical neurons (i.e. resonance) in the setting of network rhythmic and coherent activity at theta (4-10 Hz) and gamma frequency ranges (30-60 Hz).

• Characterization of chronic and acute effect of the antiepileptic drug Phenytoin on neuronal excitability: From cellular to network level
  (Advisor Dr. Julio Alcayaga).
• Characterization of neuronal activity in the cortical amygdala of behaving mice.
  (Collaborative work with Dr. Alexia Nuñez-Parra, Dr. Diego Restrepo and Dr. Magdalena Sanhueza).

• Whole-cell patch-clamp in dissociated cells and brain slices
• Dynamic clamp
• Intracellular sharp recordings
• Synaptic local field potential (LFP) recordings
• Chronic recording of neuronal activity (drive implant)
• Computational modeling (Point process & Neuron)

• Vera J., Alcayaga J. and Sanhueza M. (2017) Competition between persistent Na+ and muscarine-sensitive K+ currents shapes perithreshold resonance and spike tuning in CA1 pyramidal neurons. Front Cell Neurosci,11:61. doi: 10.3389/fcel.2017.00061 Link to paper
  
• Guthman E. and Vera J. (2016) A cellular mechanism for main and accessory olfactory integration at the medial amygdala. J Neurosci 36(7):2083-2085. Download paper


• Vera J., Pezzoli M., Pereira U., Bacigalupo J. and Sanhueza M. (2013) Electrical resonance in the theta frequency range in olfactory amygdala neurons. PloS One 9(1): e85826. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0085826. Download paper.


• González-Silva C., Vera J., Bono MR, González-Billaoult C., Baxter B., Hansen A., Lopez R., Gibson E., Restrepo D. and Bacigalupo J. (2013) Ca+2-activated Cl- channels of the ClCa family express in the cilia of a subset of rat olfactory sensory neurons. PloS ONE 8(7): e69295. Doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069295 Download paper.

• Vera J., Pereira U., Reynaert B., Bacigalupo J. and Sanhueza M. Structural determination and transient modulation of neuronal resonance
• Vera J., Drechler A., Astudillo D., Mpodosis, J., Bacigalupo J. and Sanhueza M. Electrophysiological and morphological characterization of resonant and non-resonant neurons from layer II of the anterior nucleus of the cortical amygdala.