Neuroscience NFT
Ready for an adventure? Neuroscience NFT is a collection that combines the work of the studies of forensic neuroscientist Carmen Sergiou and the talented 3D/Visual Artist Sytske Nijp. The collection is based on the studies CS conducted during her PhD in to using neuromodulation to reduce aggression in forensic patients. The research is shared in numerous international journals such as Biological Psychiatry Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging and Aggression and Violent Behavior. With this collaboration CS and SN share their ultimate passion: the Brain.
An addition to this project is entrepreneur and neuroscience enthusiast Emanuel Boderash, with a background in Computer Science, whom without this project would never have existed. His vision in to creating a platform to decentralising science is more than fascinating.
Read more about the decentralisation of science (DeSci), the future plans for research and the NFT collection below.
Decentralisation of Science
#DeSci
*What is DeSci?
* DeSci is a movement to build and support a public commons for knowledge sharing, discovery, and innovation by scientists worldwide. The DeSci community embraces the principles of decentralized web-native collectives to coordinate, fund, and execute scientific research in a global distributed network. (DeSciWorld,2022).
The DeSci movement aims to enhance scientific funding; unleash knowledge from silos; eliminate reliance on profit-hungry intermediaries such as publisher conglomerates; and increase collaboration across the field (Sarah Hamburg, 2022).
Must read DeSci Explainer by Sarah Hamburg, PhD
https://future.a16z.com/what-is-decentralized-science-aka-desci/
https://desci.medium.com/why-we-need-to-fundamentally-rethink-scientific-publishing-43f2ae39af76
Websites to follow and stay in the loop:
Neuroscience NFT project
With the publishing of NFT’s created from brain-modelling, EEG’s and neuromodulation they wish to accomplish more awareness for the studies to detangle the brain of offenders and forensic patients. More research into the neural underpinnings of forensic groups is needed and with the emerging pressure of big funding companies the competition is high. Therefore, with this collection we hope to further fund research into the fascinating brains of these groups and to enhance innovative treatment options for this difficult to treat patient group. Furthermore, we are motivated to contribute to the decentralisation of science, to make science available for everyone in the world regardless of a university affiliation.
Holding a Neuroscience NFT
Support the Project
The Neuroscience NFT project is featured on the DeSciWorld website and will be supporting the decentralisation of science and the DeSciWorldDAO. Furthermore, the support will go into the funding of new research in the field of forensic neuroscience. With each contribution the realisation of a funded post-doctoral position and the neuro measurements such as VR, EEG and Neuromodulation will be achieved. Do you want to support future research and contribute to DeSciWorld? Get yourself a Neuroscience NFT.
Funding of New Research
Next to the amazing art that the Neuroscience NFT depicts, you also support neuroscience research. The collection will contribute to funding of a post-doc positions which enables this important research to be conducted. Furthermore, the funding will make it possible to buy VR equipment, EEG systems or neuromodulation devices to be an independent researchlab. With this opportunity the decentralisation of science can be further stimulated. An overview of the studies to be conducted are listed below in the future studies section.
Ownership Privileges
The ownership of a Neuroscience NFT will allow collectors to be involved in our Discord.
This involves:
- Contributing to new research ideas
- Collaborating with forensic experts and interview options to first hand get intel into the forensic field.
- Possibilities in co-authoring on papers
- Future airdrops to preliminary findings of the studies
- Access to exclusive future collections only available for collectors
- updates on important developments within forensic care
- Access to articles and mini conferences
Future research plans
So which studies would the funding through the Neuroscience NFT project support?
Virtual Reality (VR)
Virtual Reality (VR)
In order to reduce offender behavior and facilitate treatment to reduce recedivism, we need to understand what goes through their minds. Although targeting offender patterns, targeting characteristics, using interviews, surveys and laboratory tasks have produced a valuable and consistent body of work, the most important limitations of the above mentioned methods is the lack of observing actual offender behaviour and not enough experimental research. A method that can bypass the problems associated with studying offenders is the use of virtual reality (VR).
VR is a computer-generated environment, which is viewed in 3D. The goal of using VR is to transform the offenders in VR into another world – a virtual created environment that can as close to the real world as possible or has added fictional elements-and have the participants feel as if they really emerge in this virtual environment. With VR the context of any scene – including a situation that can provoke aggressive behavior, burglar scouting, an in-house setting- can be simulated in a realistic way. VR offers new possibilities to face the challenges in offender research and has contributed to understanding offender decision-making while they are in the virtual scenes.
In addition, VR can serve as an innovative tool for therapy sessions and intergration back in to society, with as the main goal to reduce recedivism and gain a better understanding of the underlying processes of offender decisison-making. Furthermore, VR can be used to enhance empathic abilities to make laboratory tasks more vivid and let the participants enhance their brain state of interest for testing.
Electroencephalography (EEG)
Electroencephalography (EEG)
Ofcourse the behavioral aspects of researchfindings are of great importance. But to understand the brain processes underlying externalizing behavior it is crucial to understand what happens in the brain.
One method of measuring this is the use of Electroencephalography (EEG). EEG is a method used to record and analyze the electrical activity of the brain and is an excellent instrument to measure neurobiological dysregulation (Sur & Sinha, 2019). Using EEG, cognitive processing can be investigated in using different methods. One method is to explore event-related potentials (ERPs) to measure a certain moment in time linked to a certain stimuli or task, another method is to investigate ongoing activity in a particular frequency band (power) and the coherence between different electrodes (connectivity). In my dissertation I have investigated all the above-mentioned methods.
But to further investigate the underlying brain processes of offenders we can also use EEG as a tool to see if for example a VR intervention or neuromodulation intervention also generates changes in electrophysiological responses. Therefore more research should be conducted using EEG.
Reference used in this paragraph:
Sur, S., & Sinha, V. K. (2009). Event-related potential: An overview. Industrial psychiatry journal, 18(1), 70–73. https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-6748.578
Neuromodulation
Neuromodulation to reduce aggression
Aggressive behavior is still a major problem in society. The brain processes underlying aggressive behavior and the prediction of this behavior are crucial for treatment in forensic care. Nevertheless, current treatment options within forensic care often seem insufficient to reduce aggressive behavior and violent recidivism. Therefore, the interest towards innovative interventions in neuroscience has increased. Using neuroscience, diminished brain activity and deficits of the brain in relation to aggressive behavior can be investigated. A promising add-on treatment option is the use of transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS). This is a technique to modulate brain regions of interest to enhance brain activity.
During my PhD research I explored the effects of High-Definition (HD)tDCS in a forensic sample to see whether empathic abilities could be enhanced and subsequent aggression could be reduced. Furthermore, this dissertation investigated the behavioral and neurophysiological measures of aggression and empathy to get a better insight into the effects of tDCS in the treatment of forensic patients. To examine these aims we studied the effect of using multiple session HD-tDCS in a forensic sample and investigated the neural mechanisms underlying the aggressive brain.
The results following this study demonstrated that reactive aggression both using a laboratory task and a self-report questionnaire can be reduced after a week of intervention. In addition, we demonstrated the effectiveness of tDCS in modulating electrophysiological responses.
We can conclude based on this study that HD-tDCS seems to be an effective intervention to reduce aggressive behavior and modulate electrophysiological responses. Although this is a proof-of-concept study, the findings contribute to a better understanding of the aggressive brain and the implementation of using HD-tDCS as an add-on therapy in forensic care.
Before implementation in forensic care a lot more research is needed. Therefore funding to generate more studies using HD-tDCS in forensic samples is needed. Studies with different type of offenders, and with the focus on brain network modelling instead of just one brain region of intrest are needed to further develop a protocol to use HD-tDCS as an add-on therapy in forensic care.
nnovative Treatment Interventions is something where my heart lays. In this ever emerging field of science we need to keep on improving our interventions to see what works and what does not. My dream is that with the funding through the Neuroscience NFT project more research can be achieved and I can continue to work on a better understanding of the brain of offenders.In order to enable the research that I want to conduct I have to either get a post-doctoral position for which I have to bring my own funding or to register as my own individual lab. The Neuroscience NFT project would be a unique funding opportunity to achieve my dream goals.
Sytske Nijp
The artist behind this Neuroscience NFT Collection is Sytske Nijp. She is a 3D visual artist and VJ. Her art is a combination between her fascination for the brain and everything that makes the nightlife fascinating. Her installations and VJ shows have been featured on Kraft und Licht, and other events. When we met our passion about the brain was a never ending conversation and she started to design my PhD dissertation. Based on the pictures of my neuromodulation we sat down and came up with this amazing first collection. The next collection will be based on my neuromodulation electrical field modelling and will depict the deficits and brain processes that can be linked to certain disorders and addictions.