Dr. Demetrio Sierra Mercado
Associate Professor
Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology
School of Medicine
University of Puerto Rico
demetrio.sierra@upr.edu

*Webpage currently under construction, please come back soon.*

Current Lab Members:
Melissa Rivera Lopez, M.A.
melissa.rivera9@upr.edu
Doctoral Student
University of Puerto Rico – School of Medicine
Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology
Funding and Support: RISE http://mbrs-rise.rcm.upr.edu/; PRCEN CREST https://www.prcen.org/

Mauricio Cáceres Chacón, M.D.
mauricio.caceres@upr.edu
Doctoral Student
University of Puerto Rico – School of Medicine
Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology
Funding and Support: PRCEN CREST https://www.prcen.org/

Raúl Ramos Sánchez
raul.ramos10@upr.edu
Undergraduate student
University of Puerto Rico – Rio Piedras
Funding and Support: PRCEN CREST https://www.prcen.org/

David Ojeda Martínez
david.ojeda@upr.edu
Undergraduate student
University of Puerto Rico – Río Piedras
Funding and Support: NeuroID http://neuroid.uprrp.edu/

Funding and Support: NIH RCMI; Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (NARSAD Young Investigator Award); NIGMS Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE); Puerto Rico Clinical and Translational Research Consortium (PRCTRC)

Research Focus:

Publications

• Sierra-Mercado D and Lázaro-Muñoz G. (2018) Enhance Diversity Among Researchers to Promote Participant Trust in Precision Medicine Research. American Journal of Bioethics. 18:44-46.

• Gatica FI, Pérez-Valenzuela, Sierra-Mercado D, Fuentealba JA. (2017) The expression of amphetamine sensitization is dissociable from anxiety and aversive memory: effect of an acute injection of amphetamine. Neuroscience Letters. 2017 Jan 18; 638:21-26.

• Ishizawa Y, Ahmed OJ, Patel SR, Gale JT, Sierra-Mercado D, Brown EN, Eskandar EN. (2016) Dynamics of propofol-induced loss of consciousness across primate neocortex. Journal of Neuroscience. 36(29):7718-7726.

• Sierra-Mercado D, McAllister LM, Lee CCH, Milad MR, Eskandar EN, Whalen MJ.  (2015) Controlled cortical impact before or after fear learning does not affect fear extinction in mice. Brain Research. 1606:133-41.

• Sierra-Mercado D, Deckersbach T, Arulpragasam AR, Chou T, Rodman AM, Duffy A, McDonald EJ, Eckhardt CA, Corse AK, Kaur N, Eskandar EN, Dougherty DD.  (2015) Decision making in avoidance-reward conflict: a paradigm for non-human primates and humans. Brain Structure & Function.  220(5):2509-17.

• Sotres-Bayon F, Sierra-Mercado D, Pardilla-Delgado E, Quirk GJ.  (2012) Gating of fear in prelimbic cortex by hippocampal and amygdala inputs.  Neuron. 76, 804-812.

• Sierra-Mercado D, Padilla-Coreano N, Quirk GJ.  (2011) Dissociable roles of prelimbic and infralimbic cortices, ventral hippocampus, and basolateral amygdala in the expression and extinction of conditioned fear.  Neuropsychopharmacology. 36(2): 529-38.

• Sotres-Bayon F, Corcoran KA, Peters J, Sierra-Mercado D.  (2008) Neural Correlates of Individual Variability in Fear Extinction. Journal of Neuroscience. 28(47):12147-12149.

• Sierra-Mercado D, Dieguez D Jr, and Barea-Rodriguez EJ.  (2008) Brief Novelty Exposure Facilitates Dentate Gyrus LTP in Aged Rats. Hippocampus. 18(8):835-43.

• Devan BD, Sierra-Mercado D, Jimenez M, Bowker JL, Duffy KB, Spangler EL, Ingram DK.  (2004) Phosphodiesterase inhibition by sildenafil citrate attenuates the learning impairment induced by blockade of cholinergic muscarinic receptors in rats. Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior.  79:691-9.

• Devan BD, Pistell PJ, Daffin LW Jr, Nelson CM, Duffy KB, Bowker JL, Bharati IS, Sierra-Mercado D, Spangler EL, Ingram DK.  (2007) Sildenafil citrate attenuates a complex maze impairment induced by intracerebroventricular infusion of the NOS inhibitor Nomega-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester. European Journal of Pharmacology.  563(1-3):134-40.7.

• Sierra-Mercado D,Corcoran KA, Lebron-Milad K, Quirk GJ. (2006) Inactivation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex reduces expression of conditioned fear and impairs subsequent recall of extinction. European Journal of Neuroscience. 24:1751-8.8.

• Devan BD, Bowker JL, Duffy K, Bharati IS, Jimenez M, Sierra-Mercado D, Nelson CM, Spangler EL, Ingram DK. (2006) Phosphodiesterase inhibition by sildenafil citrate attenuates a maze learning impairment in rats induced by nitric oxide synthase inhibition. Psychopharmacology. 183:439-45.