Dr Carmen Piñon
BSc PhD Rio de Janeiro
Stipendiary Lecturer
After a degree in Psychology and a PhD in Neuroscience, I started my scientific career investigating the connections and the Physiology of the visual cortex in primates. In 2000, I moved to Oxford to the group of Professor Alan Cowey at the Dept. Experimental Psychology to study the anatomical basis of the Blindsight phenomena. Later in 2004, I joined the group of Professor Zoltan Molnar, at the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics to work on the development of the interactions between thalamus and cortex. I joined Brasenose in 2013 as a College Lecture in Psychology. I teach Neurophysiology and Behavioural Neuroscience for Psychology students, and I also teach Psychology for Medical students. I have previously been a Stipendiary Lecturer at St Catherine’s, Queen’s, and Lady Margaret Hall. At present, I am also a Senior Lecturer at the Medical School of the University of Buckingham.
I teach Neurophysiology and Behavioural Neuroscience for Psychology students, and I also teach Psychology for Medical students.
I started my scientific career investigating the connections and physiology of the visual cortex in primates. In 2000 I moved to Oxford to the group of Professor Alan Cowey at the Dept. Experimental Psychology to study the anatomical basis of the Blindsight phenomena. Later in 2004, I joined the group of Professor Zoltan Molnar, at the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics to work on the development of the interactions between thalamus and cortex. With Professor Alan Cowey, I investigated the anatomical basis of the visual abilities that can be spared after a lesion in the primary visual cortex (blindshight).
With Professor Zoltan Molnar my research focus was on the cerebral cortical development. More specifically, how the development of cortical functional specialisation (arealization) is determined by genetic and environmental factors, especially by the thalamo-cortical interactions.
Feedforward and feedback connections and their relation to the CytOx modules of V2 in Cebus monkeys Sheila Nascimento-Silva, Maria Carmen Pinõn Juliana G.M. Soares, Aglai P.B. Sousa and Ricardo Gattass Journal of Comparative Neurology, 2014.
Subplate and the Formation of the Earliest Cerebral Cortical Circuits, 2010. Zoltán Molnár, Wei Zhi Wang, Maria Carmen Piñon, Daniel Blakey, Shinichi Kondo, Franziska Oeschger, and Anna Hoerder-Saubedissen. Book Chapter in “New Aspects of Axonal Structure and Function”. Springer Science.
Selective abnormalities in cortical layering and behavioral deficits in the cortex-specific Pax6cKO mice. Tuoc TC, Radyushkin K, Tonchev AB, Piñon MC, Ashery-Padan R, Molnár Z, Davidoff MS, Stoykova A. Journal of Neuroscience, July 1, 2009, 29(26):8335-8349.
Dynamic integration of subplate neurons into the cortical barrel field circuitry during postnatal development in the Golli-tau-eGFP (GTE) mouse. Maria Carmen Piñon, Ankeet Jethwa, Erin Jacobs, Anthony Campagnoni and Zoltán Molnár.Jounal of Physiology, April 2009, 587 (9).
Specificity and Plasticity of Thalamocortical Connections in Sema6A Mutant Mice Graham E Little, Guillermina López-Bendito, Annette E Rünker, Noelia García, Maria C Piñon, Alain Chédotal, Zoltán Molnár, Kevin J Mitchell. PLBio, April 2009, 28; 7 (4):e98.
Dissociation between molecular regionalization and area-specific cortical connectivity in the cortex specific Pax6 knock out mutant. Maria Carmen Piñon, Tran Cong Tuoc, Ruth-Ashery Padan, Zoltán Molnár and Anastassia Stoykova. Journal Neuroscience, 28(35) 8724-8734. August 27, 2008.
David A Keays, Guoling Tian, Karine Poirier, Guo-Jen Huang, Christian Siebold, James Cleak, Peter Oliver, Martin Fray, Robert Harvey, Zoltan Molnar, Maria Carmen Piñon, Neil Dear, Steve D.M. Brown, Nicholas J Rawlins, Kay E Davies, Nick Cowan, Patrick Nolan, Jamel Chelly, Jonathan Flint. Mutations in α-tubulin cause hippocampal defects in mice and lissencephaly in humans. Cell 128, 45-57, Jan 12, 2007
Genes involved in the formation of the earliest cortical circuits. Zoltán Molnár, Anna Hoerder, Wei Zhi Wang, Jamin De Proto, Kay Davies, Sheena Lee, Ole Paulsen, Maria Carmen Piñon, Amanda F.P. Cheung 2007, Cortical Development: Genes and Genetic Abnormalities. Novartis Foundation Symposium No. 288: 212-24; discussion 224-9, 276