Jose Luis Perez-Velazquez, PhD
Research Institute
Associate Scientist
Neurosciences & Mental Health
University of Toronto
Associate Professor
Department of Paediatrics and the Institute of Medical Science
Phone: 416-813-7715
Fax: 416-813-7717
e-mail: jose-luis.perez-velazquez@sickkids.ca
Brief Biography
Jose Luis Perez Velazquez was born in Zaragoza, Spain. He undertook undergraduate studies in Chemistry (University of Zaragoza) and Biochemistry (University of Madrid) and in 1992, he obtained his PhD from the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Baylor College of Medicine. In 1997, Perez Velazquez was granted a Doctorate in Chemistry by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. He has worked in Toronto since 1992, initially at the Toronto Western Hospital. He joined The Hospital for Sick Children in 2001.
Research Interests
My interests lie in seeking an understanding of the relation between brain function and behaviour. I was originally trained as a biochemist and, after doing much work on molecular aspects of neuroscience, I understood that to better understand the relation between brain and behaviour I would have to change levels of description. I began performing more "holistic" approaches and thus studied neurophysiology and dynamical system theory that we are now applying to brain recordings.
One of our key research themes is the investigation of the patterns of coordinated activity in brain networks, associated with some pathologies and cognitive functions. During the past few years my colleagues and I have determined a few specific dynamical regimes in brain activity - epilepsy in particular. Research is done in collaboration with clinicians at SickKids and other hospitals and, we have begun to use magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recordings to determine brain coordination dynamics. We are extending our work on brain pathologies, so that in addition to continuing work on epilepsy, we have started work on brain dynamics resulting from traumatic brain injury, autism and schizophrenia. These experimental studies are complemented with more theoretical investigations using dynamical system theory to elaborate frameworks that capture the essence of cellular interactions in the brain and their relation to behaviour.
Achievements
1998-2000: Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation Personnel Award
1998-2000: Fragile X Research Foundation of Ontario
2002: Merit Award, Basic Science Competition, Heart and Stroke Clinical Update, Toronto: Consequences of gap junctional communication in ischemic/traumatic brain injury: A novel therapeutic strategy”.
Publications
Perez Velazquez JL, Garcia Dominguez l, Guevara Erra R, Wennberg R. The fluctuating brain: dynamics of neuronal activity, in Nonlinear Phenomena Research Perspectives (C.W. Wang Ed.). pp. 417-444, Nova Science Publishers, Inc. (New York) 2007.
Perez Velazquez JL, Garacia Dominguez L, Guevara Erra R. Fluctuations in neuronal synchronization in brain activity correlate with the subjective experience of visual recognition. Journal of Biological Physics, 33, 49-59 (2007)
Perez Velazquez JL. Brain research: a perspective from the coupled oscillators field. NeuroQuantology 4, 155-165 (2006)
Perez Velazquez JL. Brain, behaviour and mathematics: are we using the right approaches? Physica D 212, 161-182 (2005)
Perez Velazquez JL, Frantseva MV, Naus CN. Gap junctions and neuronal injury: protectants or executioners? The Neuroscientist 9(1), 5-9 (2003)
Perez Velazquez JL, Carlen P. Gap junctions, synchrony and seizures. Trends in Neurosciences 23, 68-74 (2000)