The Effects of Closed-Loop Brain Implants on Autonomy and Deliberation: What are the Risks of Being Kept in the Loop?

Neuroethics Now welcomes articles addressing the ethical application of neuroscience in research and patient care, as well as its impact on society.

Neurociencia y Educación: ¿podemos ir de la investigación básica a su aplicación? Un posible marco de referencia desde la investigación en dislexia1 / Neurociencia y Educación: ¿podemos ir de la investigación básica a su aplicación? Un posible marco de referencia desde la investigación en dislexia

La neurociencia podría transformar la educación, pues proporciona nuevos métodos para comprender el aprendizaje y el desarrollo cognitivo, sus mecanismos causales y una forma empírica de evaluar la eficacia de diferentes pedagogías. No obstante, éste sería un objetivo a largo plazo. Desde la neurociencia educativa se debería empezar estudiando cómo los sistemas cognitivos se construyen sobre los sensoriales a lo largo del desarrollo. Aquí me centraré en el lenguaje. Pequeñas diferencias individuales iniciales en una función sensorial, por ejemplo la auditiva, podrían ser el origen de notables diferencias individuales en el desarrollo lingüístico. La neurociencia podría proporcionar una comprensión detallada de los mecanismos causales del desarrollo que vinculan la audición, el desarrollo fonológico y el desarrollo de la alfabetización. Este tipo de investigación neurocientífica básica podría orientar al campo de la educación y la pedagogía explorando los efectos que sobre estos mecanismos ejercen diferentes contextos pedagógicos y de aprendizaje

Neuroscience has the potential to transform education because it provides novel methods for understanding human learning and cognitive development. It therefore offers deeper understanding of causal mechanisms in learning and an empirical approach to evaluating the efficacy of different pedagogies. However, this will be a long-term enterprise and there will be few immediate pay-offs. Here I set out one possible framework for linking basic research in neuroscience to pedagogical questions in education. I suggest that the developing field of educational neuroscience must first study how sensory systems build cognitive systems over developmental time. I focus on one cognitive system, language, the efficient functioning of which is critical for reading acquisition. Small initial differences in sensory function, for example auditory function, have the potential to cause large differences in linguistic performance over the learning trajectory. The tools offered by neuroscience can enable better understanding of the causal developmental mechanisms linking audition, phonological development and literacy development, in fine-grained detail. Following this basic research, neuroscience can then inform education and pedagogy by exploring the effects on these neural mechanisms of different learning contexts and pedagogies

Mindfulness en perspectiva / Mindfulness into perspective

El Midfulness (Mf) es un tipo de psicoterapia basada en el budismo y que tiene un uso creciente en trastornos de ansiedad, afectivos y por dolor. Una de sus principales técnicas es la focalización de la atención en el momento presente. Al tener una fundamentación explícita en las prácticas espirituales budistas, y al proceder de un entorno cultural oriental, su aplicación clínica debe buscar mecanismos para facilitar su encaje. Se realiza una revisión narrativa con el objetivo de proporcionar la integración del Mf con otras técnicas de psicoterapia. Se clarifican concretamente: 1) los orígenes budistas comunes al Mf y a otras formas de psicoterapia y 2) la integración del conocimiento sobre los mecanismos neurobiológicos del Mf en los actuales modelos de neurociencia. Se concluye que el Mf puede integrarse con otros programas psicoterapéuticos y que sus postulados son falsables en el diálogo científico actual con la neurociencia clínica (AU)

Mindfulnes (Mf) is a Buddhism based type of psychotherapy and has an increasing application in anxiety, affective and pain disorders. Focusing of attention in present moment is one of its mainly techniques. As it has an explicit foundation in Buddhist spiritual practice, and also proceed from an eastern cultural environment, implementation in the clinical practice should be provided. A narrative review is performed in order to facilitate Mf integration with other psychotherapy techniques. Manly to aspects are addressed: 1) Mf common Buddhist origins and other psychotherapy types and 2) inclusion of Mf neurobiological mechanism knowledge in present neuroscience models. We conclude that Mf can be integrated with other psychotherapy programs and that contain falsifiable assumptions on current scientific dialog with clinical neuroscience (AU)

Translating neuroethics: reflections from Muslim ethics: commentary on "Ethical concepts and future challenges of neuroimaging: an islamic perspective".

Muslim ethics is cautiously engaging developments in neuroscience. In their encounters with developments in neuroscience such as brain death and functional magnetic resonance imaging procedures, Muslim ethicists might be on the cusp of spirited debates. Science and religion perform different kinds of work and ought not to be conflated. Cultural translation is central to negotiating the complex life worlds of religious communities, Muslims included. Cultural translation involves lived encounters with modernity and its byproduct, modern science. Serious ethical debate requires more than just a mere instrumental encounter with science. A robust Muslim approach to neuroethics might require an emulsion of religion and neuroscience, thought and body, and body and soul. Yet one must anticipate that Muslim debates in neuroethics will be inflected with Muslim values, symbols and the discrete faith perspectives of this tradition with meanings that are specific to people who share this worldview and their concerns.

Ethical concepts and future challenges of neuroimaging: an Islamic perspective.

Neuroscience is advancing at a rapid pace, with new technologies and approaches that are creating ethical challenges not easily addressed by current ethical frameworks and guidelines. One fascinating technology is neuroimaging, especially functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Although still in its infancy, fMRI is breaking new ground in neuroscience, potentially offering increased understanding of brain function. Different populations and faith traditions will likely have different reactions to these new technologies and the ethical challenges they bring with them. Muslims are approximately one-fifth of world population and they have a specific and highly regulated ethical and moral code, which helps them deal with scientific advances and decision making processes in an Islamically ethical manner. From this ethical perspective, in light of the relevant tenets of Islam, neuroimaging poses various challenges. The privacy of spirituality and the thought process, the requirement to put community interest before individual interest, and emphasis on conscious confession in legal situations are Islamic concepts that can pose a challenge for the use of something intrusive such as an fMRI. Muslim moral concepts such as There shall be no harm inflicted or reciprocated in Islam and Necessities overrule prohibitions are some of the criteria that might appropriately be used to guide advancing neuroscience. Neuroscientists should be particularly prudent and well prepared in implementing neuroscience advances that are breaking new scientific and ethical ground. Neuroscientists should also be prepared to assist in setting the ethical frameworks in place in advance of what might be perceived as runaway applications of technology.

Haunted by the ghost in the machine. Commentary on "The spirituality of human consciousness: a Catholic evaluation of some current neuro-scientific interpretations".

Metaphysical and epistemological dualism informs much contemporary discussion of the relationships of science and religion, in particular in relation to the neurosciences and the religious understanding of the human person. This dualism is a foundational artifact of modern culture; however, contemporary scientific research and historical theological scholarship encourage a more holistic view wherein human personhood is most fittingly understood as an emergent phenomenon of, but not simply reducible to, evolutionary and developmental neurobiology.

The spirituality of human consciousness: a Catholic evaluation of some current neuro-scientific interpretations.

Catholic theology's traditional understanding of the spiritual nature of the human person begins with the idea of a rational soul and human mind that is made manifest in free will--the spiritual experience of the act of consciousness and cause of all human arts. The rationale for this religion-based idea of personhood is key to understanding ethical dilemmas posed by modern research that applies a more empirical methodology in its interpretations about the cause of human consciousness. Applications of these beliefs about the body/soul composite to the theory of evolution and to discoveries in neuroscience, paleoanthropology, as well as to recent animal intelligence studies, can be interpreted from this religious and philosophical perspective, which argues for the human soul as the unifying cause of the person's unique abilities. Free will and consciousness are at the nexus of the mutual influence of body and soul upon one another in the traditional Catholic view, that argues for a spiritual dimension to personality that is on a par with the physical metabolic processes at play. Therapies that affect consciousness are ethically problematic, because of their implications for free will and human dignity. Studies of resilience, as an example, argue for the greater, albeit limited, role of the soul's conscious choices in healing as opposed to metabolic or physical changes to the brain alone.

Compassion, ethics, and neuroscience: neuroethics through Buddhist eyes.

As scientists advance knowledge of the brain and develop technologies to measure, evaluate, and manipulate brain function, numerous questions arise for religious adherents. If neuroscientists can conclusively establish that there is a functional network between neural impulses and an individual's capacity for moral evaluation of situations, this will naturally lead to questions about the relationship between such a network and constructions of moral value and ethical human behavior. For example, if cognitive neuroscience can show that there is a neurophysiological basis for the moral appraisal of situations, it may be argued that the world's religions, which have traditionally been the keepers and purveyors of ethical values, are rendered either spurious or irrelevant. The questions point up broader dilemmas in the interface between science and religion, and raise concerns about the ethics of neurological research and experimentation. Since human beings will still arbitrate what is "moral" or "ethical," how can religious perspectives enrich the dialogue on neuroethical issues and how can neuroscience enrich dialogue on religion? Buddhist views on the nature of consciousness and methods of practice, especially meditation practice, may contribute to discussions on neuroscience and theories about the interrelationship between consciousness and ethical awareness by exploring the role that karma, intentionality, and compassion play in Buddhist understandings of the interrelationship between consciousness and ethics.

Direct brain interventions to "treat" disfavored human behaviors: ethical and social issues.

As neuroscience learns more about the causes of human behaviors, it will give us new ways to change those behaviors. When behaviors are caused by "brain diseases," effective actions that intervene directly in the brain will be readily accepted, but what about direct brain interventions that treat brain-based causes of socially disfavored behaviors that are not generally viewed as diseases?

Neuroethics: a guide for the perplexed.

Like filings to a magnet, issues of all shapes, sizes, and degrees of importance are sticking to the idea of neuroethics. Martha Farah, an early thinker in this new field, proposes that, numerous as they are, the problems actually fall into just three categories. She finds that neuroethics has made a quick start sizing up many practical--and some unique--questions swirling up from brain science, but, she writes, watch for challenges that reach beyond these to the metaphysical. Neuroscience may one day explain in terms of neural tissue virtually all aspects of human cognition and emotion--realms traditionally deemed apart from physical law. Thus, we should also expect neuroethics to grapple with our fundamental distinction between persons and mere "things." If mental processes prove to result from purely physical events, this opens to question our notions of consciousness, spirituality, free will, and moral responsibility.