Dr Nelson J Trujillo Barreto

My profile

Biography

I received a BSc (Hons) Nuclear Physics, First Class Honours from the Higher Institute for Nuclear Science and Technology of Havana in 1995 and a PhD in Physical Sciences from the Havana University in 2006. From 1995 until 2014 I worked at the Cuban Neuroscience Centre where I was a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Brain Dynamics Department from 2007-2014. In 2014 I joined The University of Manchester as the recipient of an EPSRC Research Fellowship, until 2023 when I was appointed Lecturer in Computational Neuroscience at the same university. Since February 2024 I am a Reader (Associate Professor) in Computational Neuroscience at the Manchester Metropolitan University. I am also a Member of the EPSRC peer Review College, the European Commission college of experts and active grant reviewer for UKRI, the European Commission, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, the French National Research Agency and the Rosetrees Trust. 

I have established an extensive and productive collaboration network which includes world leading research groups in the area of human Neuroscience, such as the Functional Imaging Laboratory at UCL, the MRC Cognition and Brain Science Unit (CBU) at the University of Cambridge, the Max Planck Institute of Biological Cybernetics in Germany, the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University, the Brain Imaging Centre of the University of Maastricht, among others.

Interests and expertise

I have extensive expertise in the development of methods and models for the study of Brain Dynamics in both health and disease. I use computational modelling informed by Neuroimaging (fMRI, DTI), electrophysiology (LFP, EEG, MEG) and different brain stimulation techniques (DBS, tACS, tDCS, sensory) to understand the basic mechanisms underlying various brain processes (memory, action, perception, decision-making) and their disruption in a range of neurological conditions (Parkinson’s Disease (PD), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1)). In particular I investigate how invasive and non-invasive brain stimulation interact with ongoing brain dynamics to produce changes in behaviour and/or disease progression, and use this understanding to develop novel and improved interventions. My current research focuses on understanding how the brain controls movement, and look for ways to help people whose co-ordination or mobility are impaired - by ageing, developmental conditions or diseases such as Parkinson’s. To do this I use a wide range of techniques to modulate and measure brain activity and patients behaviour, such as in vivo wireless LFP recording, Neuroimaging (mobile EEG, DTI and fMRI), motion capture, DBS and sensory stimulation. By integrating these reach multimodal dynamical data with sophisticated computational models and Machine Learning approaches, I aim to develop better treatments for the factors that contribute to falls risk and improve motor co-ordination in this patient population.

Impact

 Ultimately, I aim to understand early changes in brain dynamics which can be used as early markers of abnormal brain function at different temporal and spatial scales; and using this knowledge to develop novel optimised interventions/therapies. Examples of these applications are:

  • Early diagnosis: Differentiating between healthy ageing and Neurodegeneration (Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases) at an early stage;
  • Therapeutic interventions: Developing closed-loop optimal stimulation therapies for the treatment of PD or the abatement of epileptic seizures based on the online detection of abnormal changes in brain dynamics.

The overarching idea is that early alterations in the way that functional brain networks evolve in time can precede detectable signs of Neurodegenerative behaviour (long temporal scale); or be a precursor of an imminent epileptic seizure or a sign of under/over medication in PD (short temporal scale).

Teaching

I have an extensive track record of postgraduate supervision at both PhD and MSc levels. I currently supervise a number of PhD and MSc projects studying the brain network changes associated with different neurological and psychiatric conditions, such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, Dementias and Psychosis.

My undergraduate and MSc teaching primarily focusses on the topics of Biopsychology and Medical Imaging techniques.

Courses

Supervision

Current PhD students

  • Yuping Yang
  • Jessica Haigh
  • Laura Johnson
  • Sam Roberts

Past PhD students

  • Roberto C Sotero Diaz (now Associate Professor at University of Calgary)
  • Yasser Iturria-Medina (now Assistant Professor at McGill University)
  • David Araya (now Assistant Professor at University Andres Bello)
  • Marta Czime Litwinczuk (now Postdoc at University of Manchester)
  • Ariane Delgado Sanchez (now Postdoc at Manchester Metropolitan University)

Research outputs

  • Chapters in books

    Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Daunizeau, J., Laufs, H., Friston, K.J. (2023) 'EEG–fMRI Information Fusion: Biophysics and Data Analysis.' EEG-fMRI: Physiological Basis, Technique, and Applications, Second Edition. pp. 695-726.

    Trujillo-Barreto, N.J. (2015) 'Bayesian Model Inference.' Brain Mapping: An Encyclopedic Reference. pp. 535-539.

    Valdes-Sosa, M., Iglesias, J., Torres, R., Trujillo-Barreto, N. (2013) 'Switching Attention between the Local and Global Levels in Visual Objects.' Cognitive Electrophysiology of Attention: Signals of the Mind. pp. 165-177.

    Penny, W., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Aubert, E. (2007) 'Spatio-temporal models for EEG.' Statistical Parametric Mapping: The Analysis of Functional Brain Images. pp. 323-336.

    Penny, W., Flandin, G., Trujillo-Barreto, N. (2007) 'Spatio-temporal models for fMRI.' Statistical Parametric Mapping: The Analysis of Functional Brain Images. pp. 313-322.

    Penny, W.D., Mattout, J., Trujillo-Barreto, N. (2007) 'Bayesian model selection and averaging.' Statistical Parametric Mapping: The Analysis of Functional Brain Images. pp. 454-467.

    Friston, K., Mattout, J., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Ashburner, J., Penny, W. (2007) 'Variational Bayes under the Laplace approximation.' Statistical Parametric Mapping. Elsevier, pp. 606-618.

  • Journal articles

    Honcamp, H., Duggirala, S.X., Rodiño Climent, J., Astudillo, A., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Schwartze, M., Linden, D.E.J., van Amelsvoort, T.A.M.J., El-Deredy, W., Kotz, S.A. (2024) 'EEG resting state alpha dynamics predict an individual’s vulnerability to auditory hallucinations.' Cognitive Neurodynamics,

    Delgado-Sanchez, A., Charalambous, C., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Safi, H., Jones, A., Sivan, M., Talmi, D., Brown, C. (2024) 'Test–retest reliability of Bayesian estimations of the effects of stimulation, prior information and individual traits on pain perception.' European Journal of Pain, 28(3) pp. 434-453.

    Litwińczuk, M.C., Muhlert, N., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Woollams, A. (2024) 'Impact of brain parcellation on prediction performance in models of cognition and demographics.' Human Brain Mapping, 45(2)

    Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Galvez, D.A., Astudillo, A., El-Deredy, W. (2024) 'Explicit modeling of brain state duration using hidden semi Markov models in EEG data.' IEEE Access, 12pp. 12335-12355.

    Litwińczuk, M.C., Muhlert, N., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Woollams, A. (2023) 'Using graph theory as a common language to combine neural structure and function in models of healthy cognitive performance.' Human Brain Mapping, 44(8) pp. 3007-3022.

    Larzabal, H.H., Araya, D., Rodriguez, L.L.G., Roman, C., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Guevara, P., El-Deredy, W. (2023) 'Efficient estimation of time-dependent brain functional connectivity using anatomical connectivity constraints.' IEEE Access, 11pp. 50215-50234.

    Litwińczuk, M.C., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Muhlert, N., Cloutman, L., Woollams, A. (2023) 'Relating cognition to both brain structure and function: a systematic review of methods.' Brain Connectivity, 13(3) pp. 120-132.

    Lea-Carnall, C.A., El-Deredy, W., Stagg, C.J., Williams, S.R., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J. (2023) 'A mean-field model of glutamate and GABA synaptic dynamics for functional MRS.' NeuroImage, 266

    Litwińczuk, M.C., Muhlert, N., Cloutman, L., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Woollams, A. (2022) 'Combination of structural and functional connectivity explains unique variation in specific domains of cognitive function.' NeuroImage, 262

    Silva-Passadouro, B., Delgado-Sanchez, A., Henshaw, J., Lopez-Diaz, K., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Jones, A.K.P., Sivan, M. (2022) 'Frontal alpha asymmetry: a potential biomarker of approach-withdrawal motivation towards pain.' Frontiers in Pain Research, 3

    Patel, K., Henshaw, J., Sutherland, H., Taylor, J.R., Casson, A.J., Lopez-Diaz, K., Brown, C.A., Jones, A.K.P., Sivan, M., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J. (2021) 'Using EEG Alpha States to Understand Learning During Alpha Neurofeedback Training for Chronic Pain.' Frontiers in Neuroscience, 14

    Lopez-Diaz, K., Henshaw, J., Casson, A.J., Brown, C.A., Taylor, J.R., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Arendsen, L.J., Jones, A.K.P., Sivan, M. (2021) 'Alpha entrainment drives pain relief using visual stimulation in a sample of chronic pain patients: A proof-of-concept controlled study.' NeuroReport, pp. 394-398.

    Lea-Carnall, C.A., Williams, S.R., Sanaei-Nezhad, F., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Montemurro, M.A., El-Deredy, W., Parkes, L.M. (2020) 'GABA modulates frequency-dependent plasticity in humans.' iScience, 23(11)

    Bajada, C.J., Costa Campos, L.Q., Caspers, S., Muscat, R., Parker, G.J.M., Lambon Ralph, M.A., Cloutman, L.L., Trujillo-Barreto, N. (2020) 'A tutorial and tool for exploring feature similarity gradients with MRI data.' NeuroImage, 221

    Patel, K., Sutherland, H., Henshaw, J., Taylor, J.R., Brown, C.A., Casson, A.J., Trujillo-Barreton, N.J., Jones, A.K.P., Sivan, M. (2020) 'Effects of neurofeedback in the management of chronic pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials.' European Journal of Pain (United Kingdom), 24(8) pp. 1440-1457.

    Arendsen, L.J., Henshaw, J., Brown, C.A., Sivan, M., Taylor, J.R., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Casson, A.J., Jones, A.K.P. (2020) 'Entraining Alpha Activity Using Visual Stimulation in Patients With Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: A Feasibility Study.' Frontiers in Neuroscience, 14

    Bajada, C.J., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Parker, G.J.M., Cloutman, L.L., Lambon Ralph, M.A. (2019) 'A structural connectivity convergence zone in the ventral and anterior temporal lobes: Data-driven evidence from structural imaging.' Cortex, 120pp. 298-307.

    Lea-Carnall, C.A., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Montemurro, M.A., El-Deredy, W., Parkes, L.M. (2017) 'Evidence for frequency-dependent cortical plasticity in the human brain.' Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(33) pp. 8871-8876.

    Mason, L., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Bentall, R.P., El-Deredy, W. (2016) 'Attentional bias predicts increased reward salience and risk taking in bipolar disorder.' Biological Psychiatry, 79(4) pp. 311-319.

    Lea-Carnall, C.A., Montemurro, M.A., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Parkes, L.M., El-Deredy, W. (2016) 'Cortical Resonance Frequencies Emerge from Network Size and Connectivity.' PLoS Computational Biology, 12(2)

    Brinthaupt, T.M., Benson, S.A., Kang, M., Moore, Z.D. (2015) 'Assessing the accuracy of self-reported self-talk..' Frontiers in psychology, 6

    Olivares, E.I., Iglesias, J., Saavedra, C., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Valdés-Sosa, M. (2015) 'Brain Signals of Face Processing as Revealed by Event-Related Potentials.' Behavioural Neurology, 2015

    Weise, A., Grimm, S., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Schröger, E. (2014) 'Timing matters: The processing of pitch relations.' Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8(JUNE)

    Moutoussis, M., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., El-Deredy, W., Dolan, R.J., Friston, K.J. (2014) 'A formal model of interpersonal inference.' Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8(MAR)

    Tavano, A., Widmann, A., Bendixen, A., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Schröger, E. (2014) 'Temporal regularity facilitates higher-order sensory predictions in fast auditory sequences.' European Journal of Neuroscience, 39(2) pp. 308-318.

    Köster, M., Friese, U., Schöne, B., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Gruber, T. (2014) 'Theta-gamma coupling during episodic retrieval in the human EEG.' Brain Research, 1577pp. 57-68.

    Iglesias-Fuster, J., Santos-Rodríguez, Y., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Valdés-Sosa, M.J. (2014) 'Asynchronous presentation of global and local information reveals effects of attention on brain electrical activity specific to each level.' Frontiers in Psychology, 5(OCT)

    Saupe, K., Widmann, A., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Schröger, E. (2013) 'Sensorial suppression of self-generated sounds and its dependence on attention.' International Journal of Psychophysiology, 90(3) pp. 300-310.

    Olier, I., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., El-Deredy, W. (2013) 'A switching multi-scale dynamical network model of EEG/MEG.' NeuroImage, 83pp. 262-287.

    Olivares, E.I., Saavedra, C., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Iglesias, J. (2013) 'Long-term information and distributed neural activation arerelevant for the "internal features advantage" in face processing: Electrophysiological and source reconstruction evidence.' Cortex, 49(10) pp. 2735-2747.

    Huneke, N.T.M., Brown, C.A., Burford, E., Watson, A., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., El-Deredy, W., Jones, A.K.P. (2013) 'Experimental Placebo Analgesia Changes Resting-State Alpha Oscillations.' PLoS ONE, 8(10)

    Hassler, U., Friese, U., Martens, U., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Gruber, T. (2013) 'Repetition priming effects dissociate between miniature eye movements and induced gamma-band responses in the human electroencephalogram.' European Journal of Neuroscience, 38(3) pp. 2425-2433.

    SanMiguel, I., Widmann, A., Bendixen, A., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Schröger, E. (2013) 'Hearing silences: Human auditory processing relies on preactivation of sound-specific brain activity patterns.' Journal of Neuroscience, 33(20) pp. 8633-8639.

    Friese, U., Köster, M., Hassler, U., Martens, U., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Gruber, T. (2013) 'Successful memory encoding is associated with increased cross-frequency coupling between frontal theta and posterior gamma oscillations in human scalp-recorded EEG.' NeuroImage, 66pp. 642-647.

    Müller, D., Roeber, U., Winkler, I., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Czigler, I., Schröger, E. (2012) 'Impact of lower-vs. upper-hemifield presentation on automatic colour-deviance detection: A visual mismatch negativity study.' Brain Research, 1472pp. 89-98.

    Scharinger, M., Bendixen, A., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Obleser, J. (2012) 'A sparse neural code for some speech sounds but not for others.' PLoS ONE, 7(7)

    Martens, U., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Gruber, T. (2011) 'Perceiving the tree in the woods: Segregating brain responses to stimuli constituting natural scenes.' Journal of Neuroscience, 31(48) pp. 17713-17718.

    Hassler, U., Trujillo Barreto, N., Gruber, T. (2011) 'Induced gamma band responses in human EEG after the control of miniature saccadic artifacts.' NeuroImage, 57(4) pp. 1411-1421.

    Kaspar, K., Hassler, U., Martens, U., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Gruber, T. (2010) 'Steady-state visually evoked potential correlates of object recognition.' Brain Research, 1343pp. 112-121.

    Carbonell, F., Worsley, K.J., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Sotero, R.C. (2009) 'Random fields - Union intersection tests for detecting functional connectivity in EEG/MEG imaging.' Human Brain Mapping, 30(8) pp. 2477-2486.

    Carbonell, F., Worsley, K.J., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Vega-Hernandez, M. (2009) 'The geometry of time-varying cross-correlation random fields.' Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, 53(9) pp. 3291-3304.

    Carbonell, F., Worsley, K.J., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J. (2009) 'On the Fisher's Z transformation of correlation random fields.' Statistics and Probability Letters, 79(6) pp. 780-788.

    González-Hernández, J.A., Pita-Alcorta, C., Castañeda, H., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Scherbaum, W.A. (2009) 'BET differences among simultaneous evoked frequency band responses during early-stage visual processing distinguish schizophrenia from healthy subjects.' Neuroscience Letters, 450(1) pp. 7-11.

    Sotero, R.C., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Jiménez, J.C., Carbonell, F., Rodríguez-Rojas, R. (2009) 'Identification and comparison of stochastic metabolic/hemodynamic models (sMHM) for the generation of the BOLD signal.' Journal of Computational Neuroscience, 26(2) pp. 251-269.

    Veser, S., O'Shea, R.P., Schröger, E., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Roeber, U. (2008) 'Early correlates of visual awareness following orientation and colour rivalry.' Vision Research, 48(22) pp. 2359-2369.

    Bendixen, A., Prinz, W., Horváth, J., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Schröger, E. (2008) 'Rapid extraction of auditory feature contingencies.' NeuroImage, 41(3) pp. 1111-1119.

    Friston, K.J., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Daunizeau, J. (2008) 'DEM: A variational treatment of dynamic systems.' NeuroImage, 41(3) pp. 849-885.

    Roeber, U., Widmann, A., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Herrmann, C.S., O'Shea, R.P., Schröger, E. (2008) 'Early correlates of visual awareness in the human brain: Time and place from event-related brain potentials.' Journal of Vision, 8(3)

    Gruber, T., Maess, B., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Müller, M.M. (2008) 'Sources of synchronized induced Gamma-Band responses during a simple object recognition task: A replication study in human MEG.' Brain Research, 1196pp. 74-84.

    Friston, K., Harrison, L., Daunizeau, J., Kiebel, S., Phillips, C., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Henson, R., Flandin, G., Mattout, J. (2008) 'Multiple sparse priors for the M/EEG inverse problem.' NeuroImage, 39(3) pp. 1104-1120.

    Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Aubert-Vázquez, E., Penny, W.D. (2008) 'Bayesian M/EEG source reconstruction with spatio-temporal priors.' NeuroImage, 39(1) pp. 318-335.

    Sotero, R.C., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J. (2008) 'Biophysical model for integrating neuronal activity, EEG, fMRI and metabolism.' NeuroImage, 39(1) pp. 290-309.

    Harrison, L.M., Penny, W., Ashburner, J., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Friston, K.J. (2007) 'Diffusion-based spatial priors for imaging.' NeuroImage, 38(4) pp. 677-695.

    Schröger, E., Bendixen, A., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Roeber, U. (2007) 'Processing of abstract rule violations in audition.' PLoS ONE, 2(11)

    Supp, G.G., Schlögl, A., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Müller, M.M., Gruber, T. (2007) 'Directed cortical information flow during human object recognition: Analyzing induced EEG gamma-band responses in brain's source space.' PLoS ONE, 2(8)

    Penny, W., Flandin, G., Trujillo-Barreto, N. (2007) 'Bayesian comparison of spatially regularised general linear models.' Human Brain Mapping, 28(4) pp. 275-293.

    Giabbiconi, C.M., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Gruber, T., Müller, M.M. (2007) 'Sustained spatial attention to vibration is mediated in primary somatosensory cortex.' NeuroImage, 35(1) pp. 255-262.

    Sotero, R.C., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J. (2007) 'Modelling the role of excitatory and inhibitory neuronal activity in the generation of the BOLD signal.' NeuroImage, 35(1) pp. 149-165.

    Friston, K., Mattout, J., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Ashburner, J., Penny, W. (2007) 'Variational free energy and the Laplace approximation.' NeuroImage, 34(1) pp. 220-234.

    Sotero, R.C., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Iturria-Medina, Y., Carbonell, F., Jimenez, J.C. (2007) 'Realistically coupled neural mass models can generate EEG rhythms.' Neural Computation, 19(2) pp. 478-512.

    Gruber, T., Giabbiconi, C.M., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Müller, M.M. (2006) 'Repetition suppression of induced gamma band responses is eliminated by task switching.' European Journal of Neuroscience, 24(9) pp. 2654-2660.

    Grimm, S., Roeber, U., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Schröger, E. (2006) 'Mechanisms for detecting auditory temporal and spectral deviations operate over similar time windows but are divided differently between the two hemispheres..' NeuroImage, 32(1) pp. 275-282.

    Gruber, T., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Giabbiconi, C.M., Valdés-Sosa, P.A., Müller, M.M. (2006) 'Brain electrical tomography (BET) analysis of induced gamma band responses during a simple object recognition task.' NeuroImage, 29(3) pp. 888-900.

    Penny, W.D., Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Friston, K.J. (2005) 'Bayesian fMRI time series analysis with spatial priors.' NeuroImage, 24(2) pp. 350-362.

    Trujillo-Barreto, N.J., Aubert-Vázquez, E., Valdés-Sosa, P.A. (2004) 'Bayesian model averaging in EEG/MEG imaging.' NeuroImage, 21(4) pp. 1300-1319.

    Alonso-Prieto, E., Palmero-Soler, E., Cuspineda-Bravo, E., Cordero-Eiriz, A., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Trujillo-Matienzo, C., Fernández-Concepción, O., Jiménez-Conde, A. (2004) 'Cognitive diagnosis of cerebrovascular disease by event-related potentials: Anatomical sources that generate P300.' Revista de Neurologia, 38(3) pp. 229-233.

    Bosch-Bayard, J., Valdés-Sosa, P., Virues-Alba, T., Aubert-Vázquez, E., John, E.R., Harmony, T., Riera-Díaz, J., Trujillo-Barreto, N. (2001) '3D Statistical Parametric Mapping of EEG Source Spectra by Means of Variable Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography (VARETA).' Clinical EEG and Neuroscience, 32(2) pp. 47-61.

  • Conference papers

    Borrego, M., Trujillo-Barreto, N., Rodríguez-Puentes, Y., Bosch-Bayard, J., Martínez-Montes, E., Melie-García, L., Aubert, E., Valdés-Sosa, P. (2013) '"Neuronic localizador de fuentes": Sistema para el cálculo de la tomografía eléctrica/magnética cerebral.' 33 IFMBE. pp. 1110-1113.

    El-Deredy, W., Olier, I., Trujillo-Barreto, N. (2012) 'A Bayesian model of EEG/MEG source dynamics and effective connectivity.' In 16th World Congress of Psychophysiology of the International Organization of Psychophysiology (IOP). 85. Pisa, ITALY, 13/9/2012 - 17/9/2012. ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV, pp. 346-346.