Adrián Ponce Alvarez

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Talk Title: Whole-brain models, brain states, and phase transitions

Adrián Ponce Alvarez I am a theoretical neuroscientist and Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) in Barcelona, Spain. I hold a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in physics from Paris University XI (France) and a PhD in Neuroscience from Aix-Marseille University (France). I am also affiliated with the Institute of Mathematics of UPC-BarcelonaTech (IMTech) and the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (CRM).

My research seeks to understand the organization and dynamics of neural networks across different scales and brain states. In particular, I study how cognitive processes are represented in the spatiotemporal patterns of neuronal activity, how brain regions interact, how collective behaviors emerge in neural populations, and how these dynamics support or disrupt brain function across states such as wakefulness, sleep, and anesthesia.

My approach combines data analysis and theoretical modeling, drawing on methods from stochastic dynamical systems, information theory, statistical mechanics, machine learning, and network theory.