MICCAI 2021 Daily – Thursday

25 DAILY MICCAI Thursday Estefania Hernandez-Martin “I hung up and told my partner: Okay! We’re moving to Nairobi!” I try to publish work in the optics field. When I arrived in California, with my current advisor, I changed fields completely. This field that I’m developing here is in electrophysiology. Children with dystonia. Dystonia is a pathology similar to Parkinson’s . They cannot eat. They cannot walk. They have a deterioration in the muscles. In this case, we implant electrodes in the brain, called deep brain stimulation electrodes. My current advisor developed the new processors. We created new protocols, new stimulation targets, and data processing. The team develops tools to see what’s happening in the brain with these dystonic patients. How can you observe what’s happening in the brain? When you measure thermodynamics, you have one kind of information. It’s indirect information. When you measure electrophysiology, you can read directly in the brain. It’s super complex because you have a lot of noise. You need many repetitions to get some information. The problem in both cases is how you interpret the data. How does the brain work? Is that what you want to know? Exactly! This is my focus. I want to know what is happening in this small area. It’s a small area because it’s only in the motor pathway. Do you know how the brain works now? I do not think that we’ll ever know! [ laughs ] But you want to! Exactly. I want to know, but the only thing I do know is that I don’t know anything! With the interpretation “Everyone needs to be curious!”