About

About  Jorge Miranda-Barrientos, Ph.D., is a Staff Scientist II–Lead in the Translational Science Division at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development and an Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He leads the Neuronal Circuits group, which focuses on understanding the physiology and cellular mechanism of neural circuits related to complex behaviors and their implication in neuropsychiatric disorders. Dr. Miranda-Barrientos received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), where he studied mechanisms of synaptic plasticity. He then completed his postdoctoral training at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), where he investigated neural circuits underlying motivated behaviors, with a particular emphasis on catecholaminergic systems. At the Lieber Institute, his research focuses on the mechanistic roles of catecholaminergic circuits in cognition and motivated behaviors.  Research  The Neuronal Circuits team integrates intersectional approaches to target specific neural circuits and cell populations and define their contributions to motivated behavior and cognition. We combine established and cutting-edge techniques for in vitro and in vivo monitoring of neuronal activity (e.g., electrophysiology, calcium imaging, and biosensor imaging) with circuit manipulation tools (e.g., optogenetics and chemogenetics) to directly test how circuit dynamics shape behavior. Ultimately, our goal is to identify neuronal populations and molecular targets within these circuits that can be leveraged for the development of novel pharmacological treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders.  Selected publications:  

• Miranda-Barrientos, J., Adiraju, S., Rehg, J.J. et al. Patterns of neural activity in prelimbic cortex neurons correlate with attentional behavior in the rodent continuous performance test. Transl Psychiatry 15, 468 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-025-03707-7 

• Jason J. Rehg, Daniel E. Olivares, Ye Li, Keri Martinowich, Gregory V. Carr, Jorge Miranda-Barrientos. (2025) Top-down control of sustained attention by the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) - locus coeruleus (LC) circuit during the rodent continuous performance test (rCPT) bioRxiv 2025.12.01.691673; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2025.12.01.691673