Alfredo Kirkwood

About

Alfredo Kirkwood is a researcher affiliated with the Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute at Johns Hopkins University. His work focuses on understanding neural mechanisms underlying visual processing, brain network exploration, and synaptic plasticity. His research includes studying the effects of transcranial low-intensity focused ultrasound stimulation on the visual thalamus and its long-term impact on thalamocortical synapses, as well as investigating object representation in gravitational reference frames and plasticity in models of Alzheimer’s disease and aging. Kirkwood's contributions extend to examining the neural correlates of cognitive control, decision making, and the modulation of visual cortical responses by neuromodulators such as norepinephrine and serotonin. His research aims to elucidate the complex neural processes involved in perception, cognition, and neuroplasticity.

Research topics

• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Science
• Neuroscience
• Biology
• Physics
• Cognitive psychology
• Psychology
• Genetics

Selected publications

• SynGAP regulates synaptic plasticity and cognition independently of its catalytic activity

  Science · 2024 · 80 citations

  -related neurodevelopmental disorders.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Norepinephrine potentiates and serotonin depresses visual cortical responses by transforming eligibility traces

  Nature Communications · 2022 · 46 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Reinforcement allows organisms to learn which stimuli predict subsequent biological relevance. Hebbian mechanisms of synaptic plasticity are insufficient to account for reinforced learning because neuromodulators signaling biological relevance are delayed with respect to the neural activity associated with the stimulus. A theoretical solution is the concept of eligibility traces (eTraces), silent synaptic processes elicited by activity which upon arrival of a neuromodulator are converted into a…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• NMDA Receptor–Arc Signaling Is Required for Memory Updating and Is Disrupted in Alzheimer’s Disease

  Biological Psychiatry · 2023-02-14 · 26 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Mouse models of <i>SYNGAP1</i> -related intellectual disability

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2023-09-05 · 17 citations

  articleOpen access

  SYNGAP1 is a Ras-GTPase-activating protein highly enriched at excitatory synapses in the brain. De novo loss-of-function mutations in SYNGAP1 are a major cause of genetically defined neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). These mutations are highly penetrant and cause SYNGAP1 -related intellectual disability (SRID), an NDD characterized by cognitive impairment, social deficits, early-onset seizures, and sleep disturbances. Studies in rodent neurons have shown that Syngap1 regulates developing exci…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Transcranial Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Stimulation of the Visual Thalamus Produces Long-Term Depression of Thalamocortical Synapses in the Adult Visual Cortex

  Journal of Neuroscience · 2024-02-05 · 16 citations

  articleOpen access

  Transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (tFUS) is a noninvasive neuromodulation technique, which can penetrate deeper and modulate neural activity with a greater spatial resolution (on the order of millimeters) than currently available noninvasive brain stimulation methods, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). While there are several studies demonstrating the ability of tFUS to modulate neuronal activity, it is unclear whether it…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R03TW007171

  NIH · $117k · 2010

• PROJECT 1-Neural encoding based on lateral and medial entorhinal information processing streams in behaviorally-characterized aged rats

  NIH · $72.5M · 1997–2027

• Regulation of Synaptic Plasticity in Visual Cortex

  NIH · $8.0M · 1998–2023

Frequent coauthors

• Hey‐Kyoung Lee

  Johns Hopkins University

  55 shared

• Daniel Severín

  Johns Hopkins University

  48 shared

• Mark F. Bear

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  44 shared

• Michelle Bridi

  West Virginia University

  38 shared

• Shiyong Huang

  Hubei University of Arts and Science

  29 shared

• Trinh Tran

  National Institutes of Health

  26 shared

• Richard L. Huganir

  Johns Hopkins Medicine

  25 shared

• Bernardo Morales

  Universidad de Santiago de Chile

  23 shared

Labs

• Collaborative studies across MBI labsPI

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• Patricia Janakh-88