My research is focused in unravelling how our brain encodes rewarding and aversive events to drive motivated behaviors.

How do our brains compute that a stimulus is “good” or “bad”? How is valence represented in the mammalian brain? What are the neural substrates underlying a rewarding or an aversive experience? What lies between the stimulus and the behavioural response?

On top of these exciting fundamental neuroscience questions, I am also exploring how stress in specific developmental windows can imprint long-lasting marks in these processes, leading to maladaptive behaviours (depression, addiction).

My team uses a multidisciplinary approach, combining behavioral assessments, optogenetics, electrophysiology, pharmacology, and live imaging with genetically-encoded sensors in rodent models to understand how reward and aversion are encoded in the brain. Our research excellence has been recognized through prestigious awards, including the inaugural Janssen Neuroscience Prize, and competitive funding from the La Caixa Foundation and a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant. Beyond research, I am deeply committed to science communication and public engagement, having led multiple initiatives over several years to promote scientific literacy in the general public.