RESEARCH
I’m currently focusing on the neural processes underlying extinction learning, and on models of hippocampal function.
BACKGROUND
I graduated as an Electrical Engineer (Universidad de Chile) and obtained a M.Sc. in Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience (University of Sheffield). During my doctoral studies (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), I focused on the mechanisms responsible for the generation of fast oscillations (90–220 Hz) in the hippocampus, which have been implicated in the consolidation of recently acquired memories. There, I combined computational models with experiments in vitro to clarify several previously unexplained features of these oscillations.
Donoso JR, Packheiser J, Pusch R, Lederer Z, Walther T, Üngör M, Lachnit H, Güntünkür O, Cheng S (2021) Emergence of complex dynamics of choice due to repeated exposures to extinction learning. Anim Cogn
Imbrosci B, Nitzan N, McKenzie S, Donoso JR, Swaminathan A, Böhm C, Maier N, Schmitz D (2021) Subiculum as a generator of sharp wave-ripples in the rodent hippocampus. Cell Rep 35(3):109021.
Walther T, Diekmann N, Vijayabaskaran S, Donoso JR, Manahan-Vaughan D, Wiskott L, Cheng S (2021) Context-dependent extinction learning emerging from raw sensory inputs: A reinforcement learning approach. Sci Rep 11(1):1-4.
Packheiser J, Donoso JR, Cheng S, Güntürkün O, Pusch R (2020) Trial-by-trial dynamics of reward prediction error-associated signals during extinction learning and renewal. Prog Neurobiol 197:101901.
Donoso JR, Maier N, Schmitz D, Kempter R (2018) Hippocampal ripples and inhibition-first network models: Frequency dynamics and response to GABA modulators. J Neurosci. 38: 3124-3146
Klein AS, Donoso JR, Kempter R, Schmitz D, Beed P (2016) Early Cortical Changes in Gamma Oscillations in Alzheimer’s Disease. Front Sys Neurosci. 10.
Pangalos M, Donoso JR, Winterer J, Zivkovic AR, Kempter R, Maier N, Schmitz D (2013) Recruitment of oriens-lacunosum-moleculare interneurons during hippocampal ripples. PNAS USA. 110:4398-403.
Perez CA, Donoso JR, Medina LE (2010) A critical experimental study of the classical tactile threshold theory. BMC Neurosci. 11:76.
Perez CA, Cohn TE, Medina LE, Donoso JR (2007) Coincidence-enhanced stochastic resonance: Experimental evidence challenges the psychophysical theory behind stochastic resonance. Neurosci Lett. 424:31-5.
How does learning unfold over time? This question can be studied in experimental data and with computational modeling. We analyze behavioral and neural activity data that was collected by collaborating labs. In our theoretical work, we employ simple associative models as well as deep reinforcement learning, which allows us to study the emerging representations and to correlate them to experimental data.
The Institut für Neuroinformatik (INI) is a central research unit of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. We aim to understand the fundamental principles through which organisms generate behavior and cognition while linked to their environments through sensory systems and while acting in those environments through effector systems. Inspired by our insights into such natural cognitive systems, we seek new solutions to problems of information processing in artificial cognitive systems. We draw from a variety of disciplines that include experimental approaches from psychology and neurophysiology as well as theoretical approaches from physics, mathematics, electrical engineering and applied computer science, in particular machine learning, artificial intelligence, and computer vision.
Universitätsstr. 150, Building NB, Room 3/32
D-44801 Bochum, Germany
Tel: (+49) 234 32-28967
Fax: (+49) 234 32-14210
