Carlos Julio Rivera Caballero

I am a research assistant in neuroscience with a background in occupational therapy. From the beginning of my academic training, I have been interested in understanding how collective and occupational experiences influence the health and well-being of vulnerable populations. This interest led to a nationally awarded undergraduate thesis, setting the foundation for my research career. Later, my master’s thesis focused on collective decision-making processes, expanding my understanding of contextual factors that shape human behavior. I have worked as a field coordinator and research assistant in the ReDLat project, a Latin American multicenter study aiming to identify clinical and genetic factors associated with frontotemporal and Alzheimer’s dementia. I am currently also a research assistant in an epigenetics subproject, investigating how molecular mechanisms such as DNA methylation relate to neurodegeneration. My research interest lies in exploring how contextual and occupational factors may influence epigenetic modifications that affect healthy aging, with the goal of identifying risk and protective factors for older adults from a Latin American contextualized perspective. I have developed technical skills in qualitative analysis (NVivo), data management (REDCap), experimental task programming (Python), and event-related potential analysis using EEG (MATLAB, EEGLAB, ERPLAB). My academic path blends theory and practice with a critical approach to context-sensitive and regionally impactful science.