Leader of the UOC Cognitive NeuroLab research group
What is your academic background?
I started my training by studying psychology at the Complutense University of Madrid and realized that the courses I most liked and felt comfortable with were related to psychobiology, neuroscience and, in particular, neuropsychology. At that time there was a specialization geared towards doing research where the basic cognitive processes were studied from the point of view of their normal performance and so I decided on that. I knew I wanted to do research into neuroscience and, specifically, neuropsychology. When I graduated, I took a master's degree in Neuropsychology while doing doctoral studies. In 2004, I completed the master’s degree and thesis and worked in different brain injury centres as a neuropsychologist, both in centres with patients with acquired brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases, mainly dementias, which I combined with university teaching. I worked in several universities until I joined the UOC in 2007.
What does neuropsychology involve?
The main objective of neuropsychology is the study of the relationship between the brain, the condition and behaviour. Neuropsychologists study cognitive processes, such as attention, memory and perception, the so-called executive functions. We look at their normal function, in healthy people, and how they can be altered by brain injury, whether at a structural level, because you have a traumatic brain injury, stroke or cerebrovascular accident, or at a functional level, in pathologies that do not involve an injured brain structure but in which this organ does not function correctly. Neuropsychologists focus on studying what is happening and what we can do to rehabilitate it. There is an aspect more concerned with basic research and another that is more applied or clinical.
What have been your personal and institutional points of reference in your specialization?
Working in neuropsychology, both research and clinical, by chance I came across non-invasive brain stimulation techniques because I went to a lecture by one of the foremost experts on the prefrontal lobe and its functions, Elkhonon Goldberg. There was also another speaker, Doctor Álvaro Pascual Leone, who I didn’t know and who is the leading figure on non-invasive brain stimulation techniques. Since then I have focused my research on the use of these techniques, both in the study of normal brain function and its potential in the rehabilitation of altered cognitive processes in patients with brain injury. In relation to centres of special importance in the use of these techniques, I would highlight the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, at Harvard University, led by Pascual Leone, an international benchmark. I had the good fortune to spend five months there training extensively in the techniques and it was an incredible experience. It involved working with researchers I have read so much about and acquiring knowledge of the latest technical advances. Although perhaps not of the same importance, there are other very interesting centres for highly enriching experiences, because in the end you see how your field is researched in other environments, with different regulations, other resources and other infrastructures; and, above all, you establish a relationship of exchange of knowledge with other researchers from all over the world that enriches everyone. All researchers must have this relationship at an international level.
You direct the Master’s Degree in Neuropsychology: what is its objective?
It is aimed at psychologists and doctors. Mainly psychologists, as most neuropsychologists have a background in psychology, but also quite a few neurologists who are already working in hospitals, in neurology units, and consider that this training in cognitive processes, in the relationship between the brain and the cognitive function, can enrich them in their work. The training objective of the master’s degree has two paths, a profession-focused pathway and a research- focused pathway. Most of our students follow the profession-focused pathway but many others pursue a double specialization because it is difficult to separate one from the other. Doing clinical practice without doing research or doing research without clinical practice is complicated in a field like ours. Neuropsychology involves a clinical focus but the training is mainly geared towards students acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to understand how the brain works, its influence on the cognitive processes or how they function, what alterations take place and why, and how it can be rehabilitated, designing efficient rehabilitation programmes that improve the patients' cognitive processes and their quality of life.
What book on neuropsychology would you recommend?
In the field of neuropsychology, I believe there is no neuropsychologist in the world who doesn’t know Oliver Sacks. You can’t go wrong with any of his works. His most famous publication is The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. The book describes some particularly curious neuropsychology cases in a very entertaining and informative way. Very recently, and in the same vein, a book has been published by José Ramón Alonso Peña, director of the neural plasticity and neurorehabilitation laboratory at the Instituto de Neurociencias de Castilla y León: Un esquimal en Nueva York y otras historias de neurociencia.
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science took place on 11 February. Have you experienced more professional difficulties because you are a woman?
A career as a researcher in general is difficult for everyone and as a woman you are likely to encounter more difficulties. Personally, although I have had some difficulties, they haven’t been excessive, or at least they haven’t held me back. But this is also because throughout my professional life I have been lucky to have had great women mentors, starting with my mother, who is a researcher and teacher, and my thesis supervisor. The truth is that at the UOC I have been lucky to have come into contact with great women professionals at a very high level in research, and at teaching level too. And at the laboratory that I direct, the Cognitive NeuroLab, we also have some exceptional women. On many occasions as a woman you have to do twice as much to get to the same place but I don’t think it’s been too bad for me.
When did you decide to go into research?
There is no specific moment when you say: “I’m going to work in research”. It just happens gradually. I’ve been lucky that from a young age my parents instilled in me a passion for knowledge and this has provided a very solid foundation. From there you meet people who motivate you. When I was studying I was already greatly attracted to research. I have always liked learning and still do. I don’t think it ever ends, you can go on learning forever. When you are about to complete your thesis you realize that your career will be in research. I’ve been lucky but I have always worked very hard, giving it my all, with great perseverance and never giving up, in order to do research, through predoctoral research grants and working with research centres and at the university.
What do you think about the role of dissemination in research?
It is fundamental for society to understand what we are doing in science, why we are doing it and what the benefits are. We researchers often get lost in the day-to-day. You go to scientific forums where you explain the research you are doing in very technical terms because it’s more interesting that way. On many occasions, we forget to make it more accessible and simple, so it can be understood by everyone and thereby allow society to be aware of the benefits of research. There are times when it is easier to understand, as in the case of applied research, while on other occasions it is more complicated, as when doing basic research. We must publicize the short-, medium- and long-term repercussions of the research we are doing.