Lilian Konicar
Member of the research training group 'Bioethics'
E-Mail: lilian.konicar@uni-tuebingen.de
PhD-Thesis
Self-Design and Regulation Skills in Violent Offenders; Neurofeedback: Treatment, Evaluation and Mode of Action
In light of the ethical challenges, which are presented by the newest neuroscience findings in the field of psychopathy and criminal offenders, the collaboration between Ethics, Jurisdiction and Neuroscience gets extremely important.
The outcomes of this are ethical and philosophical questions at different levels:
Why do some people act in an amorally way and commit violent offences? Is the human being able to control itself or are there some unconscious parts of behavior? Could a human being always be held responsible for its behavior or is it a victim of its instincts? Should the society judge and imprison human beings while knowing about their psychophysiological and cortical deficits?
As seen in those questions, research on violent offenders and psychopaths is not possible without considerations and discussions about the free will, the freedom of action or responsibility. Especially neurophysiological and neuroimaging studies in the area of emotion, personality, conscious freedom of action and unconscious instincts are incompatible with the “strict” definition of free will -according to the principle of alternativism-. Many studies verify that psychopathic offenders show structural and functional deficits in several brain areas, which are associated with anticipatory planning, emotion regulation, empathy and behavioural control.
Additionally some psychophysiological findings reveal characteristics like a reduced skin conductance response (SCR) or several differences in electroencephalography (EEG) and event related potentials (ERP).
Therefore it is one of the main aims of my study to investigate the impact of emotions, cortical patterns of activation and physiological abnormality in the process of developing aggressive behaviour and impulsivity. Moreover I want to find out, to what extent (aggressive) behavior could be controlled by one’s own free will and which ethical challenges are associated with this question. A case of a verified abnormality would lead us in further consequence to the question of regulation and self-designing. One of the most promising investigations for self-regulation and self-designing is definitely Neurofeedback. This neurophysiologic self-regulation allows human beings to gain voluntary control over the neurophysiological mechanisms that underlie behaviour, by simple feed back their brain signals. Thus the second objective of this study is to evaluate the self regulation abilities and cortical flexibility of criminal offenders and psychopaths with Slow- Cortical- Potential- (SCP) and Near Infrared Spectroscopy - (NIRS) Neurofeedbacktraining.
Biography
Double degree in Psychology and Communication Science.
Studies of Psychology with specialization in: Clinical & Health- Psychology, Psychiatry, Educational Psychology, Evaluation & Research Methods at the University of Vienna, Austria. Master degree in natural science (Mag. rer nat), 2008.
Studies of Communication Science with specialization in: Communication Research, Health Communication and PR at the University of Vienna, Austria. Baccalaureate and Master degree in Philosophy (Bacc. phil. Mag. phil.), 2007/2010.
Afterwards Research Assistant at the Institute of Medical Psychology and Neurobiology, Tübingen, Germany. Since autumn 2010 Ph.D. student at the Graduate School of Neural & Behavioral Sciences, International Max Planck Research School, Tübingen, Germany. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Dr. hc. Niels Birbaumer, Advisory Board: PD Dr. Ute Strehl und Dr. Ralf Veit (Institute of Medical Psychology and Neurobiology, Tübingen).