Dr. Elena Urrestarazu has used a mathematical technique, called Independent Component Analysis, to separate brain activities of different origin. In her doctoral thesis , presented at the School of Medicine of the University of Navarra, Dr. Urrestarazu has shown that this technique can be applied to brain recordings in humans.

Thus, in epileptic patients, it allows the study of brain electrical activity, differentiating normal brain activities from those of epilepsy. In this way, epileptic activity is better visualized and consequently it is possible to locate it in the brain area where it originates and in the areas to which it spreads, helping to define easily and accurately the epileptic focus.

Independent Component Analysis is a technique used in Physics to decompose complex signals. An example is the application for the separation of voices of people who are talking at the same time, the so-called cocktail party. This technique allows isolating each of the voices. The application to epileptic patients has been possible thanks to the partnership of the engineers of the group of research multidisciplinary in which the research has been developed. The team's telecommunications engineer, Miguel Valencia, has improved this tool in the electroencephalograms to enable the analysis of epileptic seizures.

Advances in surgery

As a direct effect, epilepsy surgery is facilitated, since with this method it is possible to solve problems in the localization of the epileptic focus that were not possible with traditional methods. The first results of this research have already been published in the journals Epilepsia (official journal of the International League Against Epilepsy) and Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology (journal of the American Society of Clinical Neurophysiology).

The work was directed by Dr. Jorge Iriarte, from the Epilepsy Unit of the Clínica Universitaria de Navarra, and was funded by grants from research of the Government of Navarra and the Basque Government. The board that judged the thesis awarded it the maximum grade.

The new doctor, born in Placencia de las Armas (Guipuzcoa), graduated in Medicine at the University of Navarra and, after obtaining the issue 39 at the civil service examination spanish medical residency program , she did the specialization program in Neurology at the University Clinic of Navarra. He now joins the prestigious high school Neurological of Montreal, Canada, to continue his research work in the field of epileptology.