Publications by Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez

Corticotropin-releasing hormone modulates NREM sleep consolidation through the thalamic reticular nucleus

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Olivia Zanoletti, Simone Astori

Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) is a peptide associated with stress and anxiety that acts as a potent modulator throughout the nervous system. The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) displays high expression of the CRH receptor 1 (CRHR1), but whether CR ...

Springer Science and Business Media LLC2025

Neural markers of social dominance: A female-focused perspective

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Michael Herzog, Janir Nuno Ramos Antunes Da Cruz, Wei-Hsiang Lin

Social interactions are fundamental to human life, with social dominance being a key factor in these interactions. Previous studies have shown that dominant males are faster in decision-making tasks compared to non-dominant ones, even in the absence of a s ...

Elsevier BV2025

Embracing the Modern Biochemistry of Brain Metabolism

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez

This editorial challenges the long‐held neuron‐centered view of brain metabolism, relying on ample evidence that it is a cooperative, multicellular process. Astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and other glia play active roles providing lactate, antioxidant suppo ...

Wiley2025

Mitochondrial control of ciliary gene expression and structure in striatal neurons

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Olivia Zanoletti, Dogukan Hazar Ülgen, Alessandro Chioino

Mitochondria play essential metabolic roles and are increasingly understood to interact with other organelles, influencing cellular function and disease. Primary cilia, as sensory and signalling organelles, are crucial for neuronal communication and functi ...

WILEY2025

Heterozygous females from a rat model for creatine transporter deficiency reveal altered behavioral response to stressors, normal body weight and slight metabolic changes

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Cristina Ramona Cudalbu, Dunja Simicic

Creatine (Cr) is an organic acid essential for recycling ATP, important in tissues with high energy demand such as muscle or brain. Cr is synthesized in a 2-step pathway by the enzymes AGAT and GAMT, and transported by SLC6A8 (also called CrT). Cerebral Cr ...

2025

Urolithin A abolishes high anxiety and rescues the associated mitochondria-related transcriptomic signatures and synaptic function

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Olivia Zanoletti, Jocelin Grosse, Marie-Isabelle Guillot de Suduiraut, Dogukan Hazar Ülgen, Davide D'Amico, Simone Astori

Background: Chronic anxiety is common, disabling, and often refractory to current therapies. Mounting evidence implicates mitochondrial abnormalities in anxiety-related phenotypes. Urolithin A (UA), a gut microbiota-derived metabolite known to enhance mito ...

Elsevier BV2025

Long term effects of peripubertal stress on the thalamic reticular nucleus of female and male mice

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez

Adverse experiences during infancy and adolescence have an important and enduring effect on the brain and are predisposing factors for mental disorders, particularly major depression. This impact is particularly notable in regions with protracted developme ...

Elsevier BV2024

Rescue of myocytes and locomotion through AAV2/9-2YF intracisternal gene therapy in a rat model of creatine transporter deficiency

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Cristina Ramona Cudalbu

Creatine de fi ciency syndromes (CDS), caused by mutations in GATM (AGAT), GAMT , and SLC6A8 , mainly affect the central nervous system (CNS). CDS show brain creatine (Cr) de fi ciency, intellectual disability with severe speech delay, behavioral troubles, ...

Cell Press2024

Dopamine dynamics in nucleus accumbens across reward-based learning of goal-directed whisker-to-lick sensorimotor transformations in mice

Carl Petersen, Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Sylvain Crochet, Jun Huang

The synaptic and neuronal circuit mechanisms underlying reward-based learning remain to be fully determined. In the mammalian brain, dopamine release in nucleus accumbens is thought to contribute importantly to reward signals for learning and promoting syn ...

Elsevier BV2024

A neurometabolic mechanism involving dmPFC/dACC lactate in physical effort-based decision-making

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Lijing Xin, Arthur Barakat, Nicolas Clairis

Motivation levels vary across individuals, yet the underlying mechanisms driving these differences remain elusive. The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dmPFC/dACC) and the anterior insula (aIns) play crucial roles in effort-b ...

Springer Science and Business Media LLC2024

Adolescent Stress-Induced Ventral Hippocampus Redox Dysregulation Underlies Behavioral Deficits and Excitatory/Inhibitory Imbalance Related to Schizophrenia

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Dogukan Hazar Ülgen, Thamyris Silva

Background and hypothesis: Redox dysregulation has been proposed as a convergent point of childhood trauma and the emergence of psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia (SCZ). A critical region particularly vulnerable to environmental insults during ad ...

2024

Diurnal cortisol profiles in autistic adolescents and young adults: Associations with social difficulties and internalizing mental health symptoms

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Olivia Zanoletti

Several autism-related characteristics, such as social difficulties, may contribute to high perceived stress and increased exposure to stressful life events in some autistic individuals. Repeated exposure to stress might lead to the dysfunction of the hypo ...

2024

[Commentary on] Cognitive Training as a Shield Against Stress-Induced Working Memory Deficits

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez

Elsevier BV2024

The brain’s go-getter circuit: Anterior cingulate cortex to nucleus accumbens and its disruption by stress

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Simone Astori

2024

Involvement of prelimbic cortex neurons and related circuits in the acquisition of a cooperative learning by pairs of rats

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Elias Georges Gebara, Ana del Rocio Conde Moro

Social behaviors such as cooperation are crucial for mammals. A deeper knowledge of the neuronal mechanisms underlying cooperation can be beneficial for people suffering from pathologies with impaired social behavior. Our aim was to study the brain activit ...

Springer2024

Psychosocial experiences are associated with human brain mitochondrial biology

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez

Psychosocial experiences affect brain health and aging trajectories, but the molecular pathways underlying these associations remain unclear. Normal brain function relies on energy transformation by mitochondria oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos). Two main ...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences2024

The Emerging Role of Brain Mitochondria in Fear and Anxiety

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Alessandro Chioino

The functional complexity of brain circuits underlies the broad spectrum of behaviors, cognitive functions, and their associated disorders. Mitochondria, traditionally known for their role in cellular energy metabolism, are increasingly recognized as centr ...

Springer Nature2024

Chromatin plasticity predetermines neuronal eligibility for memory trace formation

Liliane Glauser, Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Marion Leleu, Johannes Gräff, Simone Astori, Giulia Santoni

Memories are encoded by sparse populations of neurons but how such sparsity arises remains largely unknown. We found that a neuron’s eligibility to be recruited into the memory trace depends on its epigenetic state prior to encoding. Principal neurons in t ...

American Association for the Advancement of Science2024

Mitofusin-2 in nucleus accumbens D2-MSNs regulates social dominance and neuronal function

Bernard Schneider, Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Olivia Zanoletti, Jocelin Grosse, Elias Georges Gebara, Marie-Isabelle Guillot de Suduiraut, Simone Astori, Sriparna Ghosal, Eva Ramos Fernandez, Alessandro Chioino

The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a brain hub regulating motivated behaviors, including social competitiveness. Mitochondrial function in the NAc links anxiety with social competitiveness, and the mitochondrial fusion protein mitofusin 2 (Mfn2) in NAc neurons ...

2023

Transcriptomic analysis reveals mitochondrial pathways associated with distinct adolescent behavioral phenotypes and stress response

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Dogukan Hazar Ülgen, Thamyris Silva

Adolescent individuals exhibit great variability in cortical dynamics and behavioral outcomes. The developing adolescent brain is highly sensitive to social experiences and environmental insults, influencing how personality traits emerge. A distinct patter ...

2023