Maxine Gorter

Combining science and clinical work to help people with brain injury, that is what I want to do. Fascinated by the complex interplay of brain function and cognition, I tried to get an understanding of the neurobiological and behavioral mechanisms in humans during my studies. In addition, I was always trying to balance my interests in the brain and performing clinical work. In the research master Cognitive Neuropsychology, I was very happy to be able to combine these interests and ambitions. Besides studying, I gained practical experience as a research/student assistant in the MS center and Alzheimer center. With my interdisciplinary background, I feel very comfortable in multidisciplinary teams that pursue the goal of improving the wellbeing of patients with brain injury.

After gaining both clinical and research experience in multiple fields within neuroscience, I am ready to dive into the field of neuro-oncology. Although there have been great improvements in diagnostics and treatments in the last couple of years, the neuro-oncology field still has challenges. After treatment, glioma patients still face a lot of difficulties in daily life. As a neuropsychologist, I am particularly interested in cognitive (dis)functioning. Therefore, in my PhD project, I will focus on the cognitive problems of these patients. Within the GRIP project (GuaRding qualIty of survivorshiP), I will investigate the treatment of cognitive impairment with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). In the MULTINET lab, we will use network analyses to analyze multimodality measurements in combination with cognitive data of glioma patients to understand more of the underlying mechanisms.

I am excited to work on these projects together with a multidisciplinary team! I hope that, at the end of my PhD, we have contributed to the wellbeing of glioma patients, and that we understand a bit more of the mechanisms underlying the problems that they face in daily life.