About Nadja

I graduated with a BSc in Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) in 2015 and with a MSc in Health Sciences and Technology with a Major in Neuroscience at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) in 2017. In my Master’s Thesis I investigated the interhemispheric mechanisms associated with cross education of ballistic movements using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) under Prof Richard Carson’s supervision at Trinity College Dublin.
During my BSc and MSc, I worked as a Research Assistant in the Neural Control of Movement Lab (ETH Zurich) under supervision of Prof Nicole Wenderoth. By assisting in multiple studies, I acquired expertise in several neuroscientific methods such as electroencephalography (EEG), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), transcranial current stimulation (tCS) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). As part of my MSc, I also completed an internship at the Spinal Cord Injury Center, Balgrist University Hospital (Zurich, Switzerland) where I conducted neurophysiological measurements with stroke patients and tetraplegics to investigate the neural coupling of cooperative movements.
After finishing my MSc, I worked as a Research Assistant in the Neural Control of Movement Lab at ETH Zurich before coming to Trinity College Dublin to work as a Research Assistant in the Whelan Lab where I was using EEG, (f)MRI and behavioural methods to investigate potential predictors of successful smoking cessation and to examine how the brain changes in response to nicotine abstinence.

Current Research

My PhD research is funded by the Irish Research Council, Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship and it focuses on how brain-computer interface and direct neurofeedback can be used to investigate and improve the brain’s inhibitory control system.
The ability to inhibit unwanted behaviours or quickly cancel an initiated response is reliant upon effective and fast-acting inhibitory control in the brain. Poor inhibitory control is characteristic of a very wide range of psychiatric conditions. It is also seen in non-clinical populations in the form of addiction to drugs, smoking, gambling and other impulsivity related behaviours. Furthermore, inhibitory control has been shown to diminish during healthy ageing.
I am investigating how brain-computer interface, which provides real-time feedback about an individual’s brain rhythms, can be used to modulate specific processes involved in inhibitory control. My aim is to further understand the neural mechanism behind inhibitory control using different neuroimaging techniques, and develop an appropriate brain-computer interface based neurofeedback training to enhance an individual’s capacity for inhibitory control.

Publications

Ruddy, K.L., Balsters, J., Mantini, D., Liu, Q., Kassraian-Fard, P., Enz, N., Mihelj, E., Chander, B.S., Soekadar, S.R., Wenderoth, N. (2018). A different state of mind: neural activity related to volitionally up- versus downregulating cortical excitability. bioRxiv, 370130. Published in preprint.
Ruddy, K.L., Woolley, D.G., Mantini, D., Balsters, J., Enz, N., Wenderoth, N. (2017). Improving the quality of combined EEG-TMS neural recordings: Introducing the Coil Spacer. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 294, 34-39.

Professional Profiles

Contact me

enzn(at)tcd(dot)ie