María V. Sanchez-Vives, MD, PhD in Neurosciences, has been ICREA Research Professor at the IDIBAPS (Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer) since 2008, where she is Head of the Systems Neuroscience group. She is also co-Director of the Event Lab (Experimental Virtual Environments in Neuroscience and Technology) and Adjunct Professor at the Dept. of Basic Psychology, University of Barcelona. She previously held a position as Associate Professor of Physiology and Group Leader at the Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante (UMH-CSIC). She was postdoctoral fellow at Rockefeller University and at Yale University. Her independent research has been supported by national and international agencies. Since 2013 she has been Chief Editor of Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience.

Research interests

Neuronal and connectivity properties determining the emergent activity generated by neuronal networks. Aspects of spontaneous rhythmic neural activity: its regulating mechanisms, the information it encodes, and the consequences of this activity upon the network. We use an experimental and computational approach, with an interest in neurotechnology. The integration of the cortical information giving rise to bodily representation and the combination of brain activity and virtual reality for understanding these processes is another research line that we are pursuing.