"I have a relationship with the participants and from there I also learn a lot"

2018/01/05 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna
• Medikuntza
• Berdintasuna
• Ingeniaritza
• Anatomia/Fisiologia

Maddi Ibarbia Garate is at its point of sale in the research center on cognition BCBL, the brain and language performing the thesis. Recognize that you have come down the right path.

In fact, the knowledge of medicine and the human body always attracted him and, being in second of high school, he saw that there was an open day to know the degree of Biomedical Engineering. It was a new grade, so until then he had no intention of learning that, but he soon thought it could be suitable for him. Guess! This is what Ibarbia says: “If I had to start studying now, I would choose Biomedical Engineering again, without a doubt.”

After studying the degree, he studied the Master in Biomedical Data Analysis and then was created the possibility of carrying out the thesis in BCBL. He is now in the first year of the thesis and, although he has arrived without interruption, he perceives a difference between his previous studies and the current work: “When you are also studying practices, but everything is focused on them. You just have to do it yourself. Instead, now I have to design the experiments, I do them, and the responsibility is mine.”

However, he did not repent because it was what he wanted. “Since I started studying the degree, I was sure I wanted to do a thesis, because I thought it would serve to deepen my training and open the doors to the world of work. And so it has been,” said Ibarbia.

The aim of Ibarbia is to obtain the maximum benefit of the different magnetic resonance methods. He explains that he is working with a new method of statistical data analysis: “So far the methods admitted a single variable and I work with a method that can include several variables. This allows us to perform a statistical analysis of the brain in its entirety, instead of analyzing one by one each part of the brain.”

Creativity as a research element

However, not all the work is done in front of the computer and with the numbers, but also with the people: “I now work on an experiment to analyze the creative process and participants are the cooks of the Mugaritz restaurant. Specifically, we study their brains in magnetic resonance before and after the creative process to check for changes.”

In addition, a new experiment is being prepared for chefs. “In this case, they must perform an exercise of creativity during the magnetic resonance test. In this way we want to analyze which zones are activated”. He also collaborates with other BCBL researchers in a study on memory.

Ibarbia says that direct contact with people is very satisfactory and he really likes this aspect of his work: “In other research centers they only work with numbers, but here I have the opportunity to design the experiment and contact participants, we also do magnetic resonance tests. In many other sites they extract data from databases and only make an analysis of them, I have another closeness with the participants and from there I also learn a lot.”

Ibarbia has indicated that stays abroad have also been very useful: "With the thesis I intend to leave out. Before I have been and has been very enriching. With the Erasmus grant I was in Belgium, Leuven, and with the master's project in Berlin".

For the moment it does not have a plan for a distant future, for the moment it has "enough" with the thesis, but despite the difficulties, I have accepted to be satisfied: "I'm lucky, because I love what I'm doing."