What an International Declaration on Neurotechnologies and Human Rights Could Look like: Ideas, Suggestions, Desiderata.

International institutions such as UNESCO are deliberating on a new standard setting instrument for neurotechnologies. This will likely lead to the adoption of a soft law document which will be the first global document specifically tailored to neurotechnologies, setting the tone for further international or domestic regulations. While some stakeholders have been consulted, these developments have so far evaded the broader attention of the neuroscience, neurotech, and neuroethics communities. To initiate a broader debate, this target article puts to discussion twenty-five considerations and desiderata for recognition by a future instrument. They are formulated at different levels of abstraction, from the big picture to technical details, seek to widen the perspective of preparatory reports and transcend the narrow debate about "neurorights" which overshadows many richer and more relevant aspects. These desiderata are not an exhaustive enumeration but a starting point for discussions about what deserves and what requires protection by an international instrument.

Novel Neurorights: From Nonsense to Substance.

This paper analyses recent calls for so called "neurorights", suggested novel human rights whose adoption is allegedly required because of advances in neuroscience, exemplified by a proposal of the Neurorights Initiative. Advances in neuroscience and technology are indeed impressive and pose a range of challenges for the law, and some novel applications give grounds for human rights concerns. But whether addressing these concerns requires adopting novel human rights, and whether the proposed neurorights are suitable candidates, are a different matter. This paper argues that the proposed rights, as individuals and a class, should not be adopted and lobbying on their behalf should stop. The proposal tends to promote rights inflationism, is tainted by neuroexceptionalism and neuroessentialism, and lacks grounding in relevant scholarship. None of the proposed individual rights passes quality criteria debated in the field. While understandable from a moral perspective, the proposal is fundamentally flawed from a legal perspective. Rather than conjuring up novel human rights, existing rights should be further developed in face of changing societal circumstances and technological possibilities.

REM sleep in acutely traumatized individuals and interventions for the secondary prevention of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Increasing evidence supports a close link between REM sleep and the consolidation of emotionally toned memories such as traumatic experiences. In order to investigate the role of sleep for the development of symptoms related to traumatic experiences, beyond experimental models in the laboratory, sleep of acutely traumatised individuals may be examined on the first night after trauma. This might allow us to identify EEG variables predicting the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and guide the way to novel sleep interventions to prevent PTSD. Based on our experience, patients' acceptance of polysomnography in the first hours after treatment in an emergency room poses obstacles to such a strategy. Wearable, self-applicable sleep recorders might be an option for the investigation of sleep in the aftermath of trauma. They would considerably decrease the perceived burden for patients and thus increase the likelihood of successful patient recruitment. As one potential sleep intervention, sleep deprivation directly after trauma has been suggested to reduce the consolidation of traumatic memories and hence act as a secondary preventive measure. However, experimental data from sleep deprivation studies in healthy volunteers with the trauma film paradigm have been inconclusive regarding the beneficial or detrimental effects of sleep on traumatic memory processing. Depending on further insights into the role of sleep in traumatic memory consolidation through observational and experimental studies, several options for therapeutic sleep interventions are conceivable: besides behavioural sleep deprivation, selective REM sleep suppression or enhancement by a pharmacological intervention into the serotonergic, noradrenergic or cholinergic systems might provide novel therapeutic options. While REM-modulating drugs have been used with some success for the prevention of PTSD after trauma, they have never been tried before the first night of sleep. In conclusion, more experimental and observational research is needed before sleep interventions are performed in actual trauma victims.

La evidencia creciente respalda un vínculo cercano entre el sueño REM y la consolidación de recuerdos emocionalmente teñidos tales como las experiencias traumáticas. Con el fin de investigar el papel del sueño REM para el desarrollo de síntomas clínicos relacionados con experiencias traumáticas, más allá de los modelos experimentales en el laboratorio, se examinó el sueño de individuos traumatizados de forma aguda la primera noche después del evento traumático. Esto nos permitiría identificar las variables de EEG que predicen el desarrollo de los síntomas del trastorno de estrés postraumático (TEPT) y guiar el camino hacia nuevas intervenciones del sueño para prevenir el TEPT. Basado en nuestra experiencia, la aceptación de los pacientes de la polisomnografía completa en las primeras horas después de su tratamiento en una sala de emergencias plantea obstáculos para dicha estrategia. Sistemas de registro de sueño que sean portables y autoinstalables podrían ser una opción para la investigación del sueño en las secuelas del trauma. Disminuirían considerablemente la carga percibida para los pacientes y, por lo tanto, aumentarían la probabilidad de un reclutamiento exitoso de pacientes. Como una posible intervención del sueño, se ha sugerido que la privación total del sueño posterior al trauma reduce la consolidación de los recuerdos traumáticos y, por lo tanto, actúa como una medida preventiva secundaria.Sin embargo, los datos experimentales de estudios de privación del sueño en voluntarios sanos con el 'trauma film paradigm' no han sido concluyentes con respecto a los efectos beneficiosos o perjudiciales del sueño en el procesamiento de la memoria traumática.Dado que la privación del sueño en la primera noche después de la traumatización podría no ser aceptable para muchas personas traumatizadas, la supresión selectiva del sueño REM, por ejemplo, mediante una intervención farmacológica, podría ser una alternativa dado el papel del sueño REM en la consolidación de la memoria emocional. Si bien los antidepresivos supresores de REM ya se han utilizado con cierto éxito para la prevención del TEPT, hasta ahora no se han probado antes de la primera noche de sueño después de un trauma. En conclusión, se necesita más investigación experimental y observacional antes de que se realicen intervenciones de sueño en víctimas de trauma reales.

Autonomy and authenticity of enhanced personality traits.

There is concern that the use of neuroenhancements to alter character traits undermines consumer's authenticity. But the meaning, scope and value of authenticity remain vague. However, the majority of contemporary autonomy accounts ground individual autonomy on a notion of authenticity. So if neuroenhancements diminish an agent's authenticity, they may undermine his autonomy. This paper clarifies the relation between autonomy, authenticity and possible threats by neuroenhancements. We present six neuroenhancement scenarios and analyse how autonomy accounts evaluate them. Some cases are considered differently by criminal courts; we demonstrate where academic autonomy theories and legal reasoning diverge and ascertain whether courts should reconsider their concept of autonomy. We argue that authenticity is not an appropriate condition for autonomy and that new enhancement technologies pose no unique threats to personal autonomy.