Can we ‘predict’ autism?
by Pamela Villar González
Have you ever wondered how research on babies is done? How can we know anything about their behaviour even before they are able to speak? This period is extremely important for the development of the brain, but how can we know more about it? In this project, thanks to colourful labs and toys, modern neuroimaging techniques, and dedicated researchers, we were able to learn more about babies’ brains, behaviour and the impact of social interactions.
¡Hola! My name is Pamela Villar González, I am from Asturias (North Spain) and I have finished my fellowship Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) in December 2022. I was based at the University of Warsaw (Poland) with a secondment at the University of Birkbeck (London, UK). I was part of the Sapiens Project, a European Training Network investigating how early social exchanges tune critical brain functions in early childhood. That is, how the early experiences that we have as babies impact our brains.
The Sapiens Project
Fifteen early career researchers from all over the world have been working in the last 3 years within the Sapiens Project in different universities across Europe applying new methods in the lab, and cutting-edge techniques for analysis. The Sapiens Project tries to enlighten the importance of early behaviour (motor, language, vision) in the development of the brain. The main difference with previous projects is that communication acquires a key role and the focus is completely on the baby and their relation with caregivers and the external world.
My experience in the Sapiens Project
I had a challenging MSCA experience as I started in February 2020, meaning that I was on lockdown for more than a year in a country where I just arrived, where I could not speak the language, and didn’t have an internet connection at home at the beginning! Furthermore, because the project was not intended to happen in the lab, but in the homes of the babies, we could not even start working on it.
Moreover, due to health issues, I had a long sick leave and last but not least, my supervisor left both the university and the project. However, thanks to the support of the dean and his team of the faculty, the Project Officer of the European Commission, and the Principal Investigator from Birkbeck University, I got an opportunity to prepare a new and feasible project having access to their data in London. Unfortunately, this happened just at the end of the grant, but at least I could have a proper research experience for 3 months.
The new project
The project entitled ‘’Can we predict Language Outcomes from EEG Frequencies” was devoted to trying to predict the ‘amount of language’ and a prospective diagnosis of autism as soon as possible. Birkbeck University and King’s College have a fantastic database of infants that visited the lab several times (longitudinal study) and performed different tasks according to their age and development. Most of these infants have a sibling with autism, which increases their possibility of having autism by up to 20%. This kind of database is now being used in many countries (‘sibling studies’), and the one from London is one of the largest in the world.
For my project, I was planning to use data from electroencephalography (EEG) records of brain activity, and measure the amount of language and non-verbal communication.
My MSCA experience
My experience as an MSCA has been bitter-sweet as I started because I wanted to pursue a Ph.D. to have one day my own lab (‘PameLab’) and this was not possible.
On the other hand, I have met many interesting people and great researchers and I have learned a lot. Thanks to the funding from the grant, I was able to join many webinars, and during the last year I managed to attend several courses in person to hone my soft and hard skills.
My biggest regret is that I have not asked for advice or help from other principal investigators of the network. I have wrongly assumed that everyone within a network is informed about what happens inside, and I have realised close to the end that this is impossible, especially with the long periods of isolation that we have experienced during the past years.
The Science Communication project
During my PhD,I have had a small science communication project (PAMdemia Científica — Scientific PAMdemic) through social media since 2020, and in 2022 I was invited to present it and speak about the importance of communicating (neuro)science in Germany (thanks to CERFA, Society of Spanish Researchers in Germany), the Netherlands (Nijmegen University) and at Cambridge University (England, UK).
In the Scientific PAMdemic, I post researchers from all around the world explaining what their research is about, and why it is important. I alternate this kind of posts with others explaining basic concepts about science (what is a publication, how journals work, and similar topics).
What I have learned
I strongly recommend trying to be part of a network and/or starting to build your network as soon as possible, as it is a key factor for research. This could be especially useful to have when we are stuck and/or in a complicated situation and we need to seek advice.
In addition, we should all be more active in science communication. In my opinion, we cannot forget that we are researching to increase knowledge and since public money is involved, that is an extra reason to make this knowledge available to the wider public as well.
Last but not least, we should prioritise our wellbeing. A correct work-life balance will help us to perform better our responsibilities.
About the author
Pamela Villar González was a fellow researcher and Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Warsaw; she has a B.A. in English Studies from the University of Oviedo (Spain) with two Erasmus Academic Exchanges (Leipzig University and Duisburg-Essen University, both in Germany) and a M.Sc. in Cognitive Science from the Ruhr University Bochum (Germany).
Her previous work is in diverse fields like neuroscience (memory, study of biomarkers in healthy ageing and dementia, sleep) and psycholinguistics (brain lateralization of language, whistled languages). Apart from different European grants, she has received a grant from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), and a prize from the Science Night biannual context in Germany and has several papers, and a book chapter. Publications available here: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7987-1380
Apart from research, she has taught Spanish (Ruhr Universität Bochum and University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany), trained medical students (Ruhr Universität Bochum), wrote book-reviews for scholars (https://linguistlist.org/), and has her own project of science communication through social networks, such as Facebook, and Instagram.
