Dr. Ernesto studied biology at the University of Chile. Then, he earned his PhD in neurosciences at the University of Tuebingen in Germany and at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. During his PhD, he investigated the dynamics between the hippocampus and cortex during sleep and its role in memory. Afterward, he started a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics where he investigated the role of locus coeruleus in memory and sleep. Ernesto did a second postdoc at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, where he studied the role of Locus coeruleus in normal and pathological conditions. In April 2024, he joined the International Center for Primate Brain Research (ICPBR).  He is a senior research associate at the Laboratory of Physiology of Cognitive Process headed by Prof. Nikos K. Logothetis.

In the ICPBR Ernesto will study the role of the locus coeruleus during sleep and its role in memory processes.

1. Marín, G. J., Durán, E., Morales, C., González-Cabrera, C., Sentis, E., Mpodozis, J., & Letelier, J. C. (2012). Attentional capture? Synchronized feedback signals from the isthmi boost retinal signals to higher visual areas. Journal of Neuroscience, 32(3), 1110-1122.

2. Lara-Vásquez, A., Espinosa, N., Durán, E., Stockle, M., & Fuentealba, P. (2016). Midline thalamic neurons are differentially engaged during hippocampus network oscillations. Scientific reports, 6(1), 1-16.

3. Durán, E., Oyanedel, C. N., Niethard, N., Inostroza, M., & Born, J. (2018). Sleep stage dynamics in neocortex and hippocampus. Sleep, 41(6), zsy060.

4. Feld, G. B., Ngo, H. V., Durán, E., Gebhardt, S., Kleist, L., Brugger, K., & Hallschmid, M. (2019). The gap junction blocker mefloquine impairs sleep-dependent declarative memory consolidation in humans. bioRxiv, 868901.

5. Fernández, M., Morales, C., Durán, E*., Fernández‐Colleman, S., Sentis, E., Mpodozis, J., & Marín, G. J. (2020). Parallel organization of the avian sensorimotor arcopallium: Tectofugal visual pathway in the pigeon (Columba livia). Journal of Comparative Neurology, 528(4), 597-623.

 6. Oyanedel, C. N., Durán, E*., Niethard, N., Inostroza, M., & Born, J. (2020). Temporal associations between sleep slow oscillations, spindles and ripples. European Journal of Neuroscience, 52(12), 4762-4778.

7. Durán, E., Yang, M., Neves, R., Logothetis, N. K., Eschenko, O. (2021). Modulation of prefrontal cortex slow oscillations by phasic activation of the locus coeruleus. Neuroscience, 453, 268-279.

8. Durán, E., Pandinelli, M., Logothetis, N. K., & Eschenko, O. (2023). Altered norepinephrine transmission after spatial learning impairs sleep-mediated memory consolidation in rats. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 4231.

* Denotes shared first authorship / equal contributions.