Sarael Alcauter Solorzano

My lines of research converge in the study of the functional organization of the brain, its relationship with the emergence of complex behaviors and its modulation throughout development, both normal and altered. To do this, I make use of behavioral studies, neuroimaging and neurochemistry, both in humans and rodents. My publications have been pioneers in the description of patterns of brain functional connectivity and its development in childhood and adolescence, as well as its association with motor, visuospatial skills and working memory. Recently, we have demonstrated the relationship between pubertal development and brain connectivity, with the onset of puberty being a turning point in the developmental trajectories of brain connectivity, properties that are associated with the performance of subjects in cognitive flexibility tasks. I have also made important contributions in the description of functional connectome alterations in neurological and mental health disorders, including attention deficit disorder, depressive disorder, spinocerebellar ataxia, cognitive impairment and in subjects at risk of developing schizophrenia. Given the complexity of the study of multidimensional functional and structural neuroimaging data, I have also contributed to the development and implementation of new methodological tools through the use of algebraic topology, and the implementation of novel methods of statistical analysis of brain networks in longitudinal samples. I have contributed to the development and implementation of new methodological tools for brain network analysis using algebraic topology. Additionally, together with one of my students, we developed a statistical software package, Network Based Rstatistics (NBR), for the application of mixed linear models in network analysis using unbalanced repeated and/or longitudinal measure samples, available for free in the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN, cran.r-project.org) repository, currently with more than 8,500 downloads (https://cranlogs.r-pkg.org/badges/grand-total/NBR).
Together with a multidisciplinary team of researchers, we have created the Mexican Twin Registry, TwinsMX, an ambitious project focused on promoting genetic epidemiology research in the country, identifying the weight of genetic and environmental contributions in various aspects of health and disease in the Mexican population, including the study of brain structure and function using neuroimaging techniques.
I have authored and co-authored more than 50 publications, including high-impact neuroscience journals such as Journal of Neuroscience, Cerebral Cortex, NeuroImage, Brain Connectivity, and Human Brain Mapping, among others. I have directed 2 doctoral theses, 11 master’s theses, 3 bachelor’s theses, and I have advised 3 medical specialty theses, all of them graduated. I currently direct 2 PhD students and 3 Master’s students. I regularly teach the course “Introduction to Functional Magnetic Resonance”, receiving master’s and doctoral students, including the Doctorate in Psychology.
I have actively participated in the Doctoral Program in Psychology as an external member of tutoring committees, postulation examination jury, candidacy exam jury and degree exam jury.