Ariane Delgado Sanchez, Psychology PhD student

Keywords: Chronic pain, fibromyalgia, traumatic life experiences, career path

Tune in for our conversation with Ariane, a PhD student at the University of Manchester whose project aims to develop diagnostic tool for chronic pain treatment in clinical settings using Bayesian models. We talk about her career trajectory and her experience in her PhD so far, as well as what it means to take a hollistic approach to understanding the human mind. Ariane completed her Master's degree in Neuroscience at the University of St. Andrews, where she studies stress and decision-making, and transitioned into pain research. Pain can be a wonderfully existential topic that is simultaneously subjective and objective. If you are interested in the role of early traumatic experiences in shaping experiences of pain later in life, and if you occasionally ponder about the adaptive brain, this episode is a gem!

As it happened, a digression was made to visit the relationship between microbiota and social behavior. A main paper of interest is linked here, and here is a further paper of interest that explored the role of stress response in this relationship.

• Research areas: Neuroscience, Clinical Science
• Career stage: PhD student
• Affiliation: University of Manchester
• Follow Ariane on Twitter @ArianeDelgadoS2, and her research account @ResearchPain!