Christian Cazares, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Cognitive Science
University of California San Diego
Thursday, April 9, 2026, 10:00-11:00 AM
3-6408- K-307 Auditorium (In-person only)
Cross-scale electrophysiological biomarkers of cortical dysfunction and behavior in Rett syndrome
Rett syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder mostly caused by mutations in the X-linked MECP2 gene and characterized by developmental regression in speech and motor skills, yet no reliable biomarkers capture symptom heterogeneity across scales from neurobiology to behavior. Progress has been limited in part by fragmentation across model systems and recording modalities, where findings from patient EEG and animal electrophysiology are interpreted within separate frameworks. My research addresses this by organizing across scales around a shared analytical measure: the aperiodic exponent, a physics-based feature of neural activity that can be derived from the power spectra of any electrophysiological recording, from scalp EEG to intracranial probes. I will present converging evidence establishing the aperiodic exponent as a translational biomarker of cortical dysfunction in Rett syndrome. By applying spectral parameterization to patient scalp EEG, I show that the aperiodic exponent is reduced in Rett syndrome and negatively associated with visual reception and clinical severity. Intracranial recordings in female MECP2 heterozygous mice reveal that this signature is recapitulated across cortical layers in visual cortex. These animals also exhibit impaired visual acuity, reduced contrast sensitivity, and postural and gait abnormalities. Ongoing immunohistochemistry and single-nucleus RNA sequencing will connect these electrophysiological and behavioral phenotypes to cell-type-specific molecular disruptions. By treating the same measure as a translational bridge across patients and experimental models, these findings use cross-species convergence to lay the groundwork for transforming subjective
Save the date!
Looking forward to our NEUROYES speaker, this Thursday 👇
Christian Cazares, PhD, of University of California San Diego
Talk title: Cross-scale electrophysiological biomarkers of cortical dysfunction and behavior in Rett syndrome
Learn more about NEUROYES: buff.ly/louTYM1
