Dr Oscar Peña passed yesterday his PhD with flying colours (despite some connection issues). The Thesis dissertation is entitled “Optimized acquisition and estimation techniques in diffusion MRI for quantitative imaging”. Thanks so much to the external examiners and welcome Oscar to the dark side of the post-PhD life.

The LPI, in collaboration with the Headache Units of Hospital Universitario de la Princesa (Madrid), Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valladolid and Hospital Clínico Universitario Lozano Blesa (Zaragoza), has contributed to the assessment of the clinical course of migraine during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Approximately half of the migraine patients who participated in the study reported worsening of their usual pain during the COVID-19 lockdown. The emotional impact of the lockdown and changes in the migraine triggers worsened the clinical course of migraine.

The article is available here (Open Access): https://academic.oup.com/painmedicine/advance-article/doi/10.1093/pm/pnaa449/6154429

The cover image of the latest issue of Human Brain Mapping (March 2021) is related to the LPI article "Multimodal fusion analysis of structural connectivity and gray matter morphology in migraine".

Link to the cover image: https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25054

Link to the article (Open Access): https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25267

The International Day of Women and Girls in Science, celebrated on 11 February, is an opportunity to promote full and equal access to science for women and girls. The challenge is getting more women working in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Diversity in research brings in fresh perspectives, talent and creativity.

This Day is a reminder that women and girls play a critical role in science and technology communities and that their participation should be strengthened.

LPI adheres to this initiative and, especially today, highlights the work of its women researchers.

Members of the LPI, in collaboratation with the Headache Units of the Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valladolid and the Hospital Clínico San Carlos (Madrid), have characterized diverse phenotypes of headache attributed to COVID-19. A phenotype with migraine characteristics and another one with tension-type headache features were found. Moreover, a possible third "COVID-19 specific" phenotype was hypothesized, possibly related to anosmia. The full paper published in Frontiers in Neurology can be found here (Open Access): https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2020.583870/full