MDRMarc Duque Ramírez
PhD candidateCambridge, MA

Research index

Program 2022—present

Neural dynamics and behavioral change.

How does ongoing activity across the brain influence what an animal does?

How does activation of specific circuits, through neuromodulators and receptors, cause that activity to shift between states?

Projects 01—03

Current projects

The work uses controlled behavior, whole-brain imaging, connectomics, and pharmacology to move between molecular mechanisms and changes in behavior.

01

Virtual reality · Behavior · Neuromodulation

Futility-induced passivity

How does evidence that an action is futile lead an animal to stop trying?

A tail-free virtual-reality assay makes the switch from struggling to passivity experimentally accessible. Current work tests how the serotonergic dorsal raphe and downstream circuits compute futility and modulate this transition.

Futility-induced passivity using virtual realityWhole-brain imagingElectron microscopyOptogenetics
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© Marc Duque Ramírez
Futility-induced passivity: a controlled switch from struggling to giving up01
02

Ketamine · Astroglia · Plasticity

Ketamine, astroglia, and persistent behavioral change

How can one dose of ketamine produce a long-lasting change in the response to futility?

A brief ketamine exposure produces a norepinephrine-dependent calcium response in astroglia and persistently suppresses futility-induced passivity after washout. The same behavioral assay is now being adapted for higher-throughput antidepressant screening.

PharmacologyCircuit imagingQuantitative behaviorCellular signaling
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© Duque et al. 2025
Astroglial activity following ketamine exposure02
03

Anesthesia · Whole-brain imaging · Recovery

General anesthesia across the whole brain

How do anesthetic compounds move the whole brain into and out of a different state?

I use whole-brain imaging to compare how anesthetic compounds with different molecular targets induce anesthesia and support recovery.

Whole-brain light-sheet imagingSingle-cell analysisPharmacologyBehavior
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© Marc Duque Ramírez
Whole-brain activity during propofol anesthesia03

Experimental toolkit

Methods

Futility-induced passivity using virtual reality

Control the relationship between action and sensory feedback.

Whole-brain imaging

Follow distributed neural dynamics at cellular resolution.

Electron microscopy

Connect functional observations to circuit architecture.

Optogenetic perturbation

Test causal roles of defined neural and glial populations.

Quantitative behavior

Measure the structure and timing of behavioral change.

Pharmacology

Use compounds to perturb receptor and neuromodulatory pathways and follow the consequences across scales.

Model organisms & imaging

Larval zebrafish and light-sheet imaging connect molecular perturbations, brain-wide activity, and behavior in the same experiment.

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Research journey

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