Gustavo Deco

Gustavo Deco is a Research Professor at the Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA) and holds a Professorship (Catedrático) at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). He leads the Computational Neuroscience Group and directs the Center of Brain and Cognition at UPF. His research focuses on computational models of brain dynamics, integrating biophysics, neuroimaging, and complex systems principles.

Deco’s academic journey includes a PhD in Physics (1987, thesis on Relativistic Atomic Collisions), postdoctoral work at the University of Bordeaux (France) and University of Giessen (Germany), and a Habilitation in Computer Science (1997, Technical University of Munich). He has led computational neuroscience research at Siemens Corporate Research Center (1990–2003) and pioneered whole-brain modeling frameworks like The Virtual Brain (TVB).

His research interests span critical brain dynamics, non-equilibrium thermodynamics in neural systems, psychedelics’ effects on brain hierarchy, and clinical applications of computational models in disorders such as Alzheimer’s and depression. Recent work emphasizes turbulence-like dynamics in healthy and diseased brains, and biomarker discovery using AI-driven simulations.

Deco’s articles (2024–2025) explore topics like entropy production in brain networks, psychedelics-induced flattening of functional hierarchies, sleep-like dynamics post-stroke, and the role of long-range connections in global brain communication. His work bridges theoretical models with clinical insights, aiming to advance personalized neurology and digital brain research.