Cristian David Avila Rincon

I am a researcher in the fields of neuroscience and epigenetics. My academic trajectory began in social neuroscience, with a particular interest in social cognition and processes such as theory of mind, exploring how we understand and predict the mental states of others. I later focused my research on how chronic adverse processes, including violence in the context of armed conflict, poverty, and discrimination, affect brain health and are linked to molecular mechanisms such as epigenetics. Currently, I focus on social epigenetics, analyzing how different life experiences are reflected in changes in DNA methylation and in the acceleration of epigenetic clocks, in order to understand how social adversity becomes biologically embedded in the body and contributes to brain aging and dementia.