East Asian perspective of responsible research and innovation in neurotechnology.

After more than half a century of research and development (R&D), Brain-computer interface (BCI)-based Neurotechnology continues to progress as one of the leading technologies of the 2020 s worldwide. Various reports and academic literature in Europe and the United States (U.S.) have outlined the trends in the R&D of neurotechnology and the consideration of ethical issues, and the importance of the formulation of ethical principles, guidance and industrial standards as well as the development of relevant human resources has been discussed. However, limited number studies have focused on neurotechnology R&D, the dissemination of neuroethics related to the academic foundation advancing the discussion on ethical principles, guidance and standards or human resource development in the Asian region. This study fills in this gap in understanding of Eastern Asian (China, Korea and Japan) situation based on the participation in activities to develop ethical principles, guidance, and industrial standards for appropriate use of neurotechnology, in addition to literature survey and clinical registries' search investigation reflecting the trends in neurotechnology R&D as well as its social implication in Asian region. The current study compared the results with the situation in Europa and the U.S. and discussed issues that need to be addressed in the future and discussed the significance and potential of corporate consortium initiatives in Japan and examples of ethics and governance activities in Asian Countries.

The way forward for neuroethics in Japan: A review of five topics surrounding present challenges.

Neuroethics is the study of how neuroscience impacts humans and society. About 15 years have passed since neuroethics was introduced to Japan, yet the field of neuroethics still seeks developed methodologies and an established academic identity. In light of progress in neuroscience and neurotechnology, the challenges for Japanese neuroethics in the 2020 s can be categorized into five topics. (1) The need for further research into the importance of informed consent in psychiatric research and the promotion of public-patient engagement. (2) The need for a framework that constructs a global environment for neuroscience research that utilizes reliable samples and data. (3) The need for ethical support within a Japanese context regarding the construction of brain banks and the research surrounding their use. It is also important to reconsider the moral value of the human neural system and make comparisons with non-human primates. (4) An urgent need to study neuromodulation technologies that intervene in emotions. (5) The need to reconsider neuroscience and neurotechnology from social points of view. Rules for neuroenhancements and do-it-yourself neurotechnologies are urgently needed, while from a broader perspective, it is essential to study the points of contact between neuroscience and public health.

Incidental findings of brain magnetic resonance imaging study in a pediatric cohort in Japan and recommendation for a model management protocol.

BACKGROUND: The increasing use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in brain researches has led to growing concern over incidental findings (IFs). To establish a practical management protocol for IFs, it is useful to know the actual prevalence and problems of IF management. In the present study, we report the prevalence proportion and some handling problems of IFs in healthy Japanese children, and suggest a management protocol from ethical and practical standpoints. METHODS: Between 2006 and 2008, 120 healthy children aged 5-8 years participated in a structural MRI study conducted in a pediatric cohort in Japan. All MRI images were reviewed by a pediatric neurologist, and detected IFs were classified into 4 categories. RESULTS: IFs of all categories were detected in 40 of the 110 participants (36.4%) for whom T2-weighted or 3D-T1-weighted images were available. Findings of sinusitis and/or otitis media were most frequent (26.4%). Excluding these findings, the prevalence of IFs was still 10.9% (12 findings): 9 findings were categorized as "no referral" (8.2%), 2 as "routine referral" (1.8%), 1 as "urgent referral" (0.9%), and 0 as "immediate referral" (0.0%). In "routine referral" category, only one participant was referred for further examinations. CONCLUSIONS: Although the prevalence of IFs was high, the proportion of those requiring further examination was low. This result revealed a fairly high false-positive rate and suggested that evaluating equivocal findings was the most difficult part of IF management. A management protocol needs to include a process to properly assess the clinical importance of findings.

Neuroethical Issues of the Brain/MINDS Project of Japan.

The Brain/MINDS project aims to further understand the human brain and neuropsychiatric disorders through "translatable" biomarkers. Here, we describe the neuroethical issues of the project that have arisen from clinical data collection and the use of biological models of neuropsychiatric disorders.

[Introduction of neuroethics: out of clinic, beyond academia in human brain research].

Higher cognitive function in human brain is one of well-developed fields of neuroscience research in the 21st century. Especially functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and near infrared recording system have brought so many non-clinical researchers whose background is such as cognitive psychology, economics, politics, pedagogy, and so on, to the human brain mapping study. Authors have introduced the ethical issues related to incidental findings during the fMRI recording for non-clinical purpose, which is a typical problem derived from such expanded human brain research under non clinical condition, that is, neuroethics. In the present article we would introduce neuroethical issues in contexts of "out of clinic" and "beyond academia".

Neuroethics Questions to Guide Ethical Research in the International Brain Initiatives.

Increasingly, national governments across the globe are prioritizing investments in neuroscience. Currently, seven active or in-development national-level brain research initiatives exist, spanning four continents. Engaging with the underlying values and ethical concerns that drive brain research across cultural and continental divides is critical to future research. Culture influences what kinds of science are supported and where science can be conducted through ethical frameworks and evaluations of risk. Neuroscientists and philosophers alike have found themselves together encountering perennial questions; these questions are engaged by the field of neuroethics, related to the nature of understanding the self and identity, the existence and meaning of free will, defining the role of reason in human behavior, and more. With this Perspective article, we aim to prioritize and advance to the foreground a list of neuroethics questions for neuroscientists operating in the context of these international brain initiatives.

Ethical considerations of neuroscience research: the perspectives on neuroethics in Japan.

Recent technologies and developments in neuroscience have contributed to remarkable scientific discoveries, and have also raised many new philosophical, ethical, legal, and social issues. Research in "neuroethics" has identified various ethical issues, which will be difficult for current biomedical ethics to resolve from both an experimental and a social perspective, such as criminal applications of brain scans, incidental findings during non-clinical brain imaging, and cognitive enhancement. Although American and European neuroscience societies have demonstrated immediate, concrete reactions to these ethical issues, including academic conferences, study programs, and publications, Japanese neuroscientists have so far produced little response. Ethics is tightly linked with one's religion, nationality, culture, and social background, whereas science is tightly linked with the demand, economics, and politics of the society to which individuals belong. Taken together, it is important and necessary for Japanese neuroscientists to consider the ethical problems in Japanese neuroscience. In this paper, we first review the history of neuroethics in the world, and then report the less-developed ethical issues in the Japanese neuroscience community, focusing on neuroimaging and manipulative neuroscience as a first step in discussing how to apply principles in neuroethics to this rapidly progressing field of research.

"Involving interface": an extended mind theoretical approach to roboethics.

In 2008 the authors held "Involving Interface," a lively interdisciplinary event focusing on issues of biological, sociocultural, and technological interfacing (see Acknowledgments). Inspired by discussions at this event, in this article, we further discuss the value of input from neuroscience for developing robots and machine interfaces, and the value of philosophy, the humanities, and the arts for identifying persistent links between human interfacing and broader ethical concerns. The importance of ongoing interdisciplinary debate and public communication on scientific and technical advances is also highlighted. Throughout, the authors explore the implications of the extended mind hypothesis for notions of moral accountability and robotics.

[Neuroethics in Japan--current view and future visions].

Neuroethics was originated in 2002 in the United States. In 2004, the Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX), a subsection of Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), launched a neuroethics research group as the first research group to focus on the academic study and public engagement in neuroethics in Japan. In this article, the authors summarize the activities of RISTEX, JST during the brief history of neuroethics in Japan, and subsequently compare their current activities in neuroethics to those in other Western countries. We also introduce brief results of public survey of neuroscience research in Japan that suggest the significance of ethics and education regarding neuroscience to overview the future vision on neuroethics. We further discuss the role of neuroscientists in the future progress in neuroethics.

Neural representation of response category and motor parameters in monkey prefrontal cortex.

Conditional motor behavior, in which the relationship between stimuli and responses changes arbitrarily, is an important component of cognitive motor function in primates. It is still unclear how cognitive processing for conditional motor control determines movement parameters to directly specify motor output. To address this issue, we studied the neuronal representation of motor variables relating to conditional motor control and also directly to the metrics of motor output in prefrontal cortex (PFC). Monkeys were required to generate a force that fell within one of two categories ("small" and "large"). We found that most PFC neurons were activated as a function of force category, suggesting a role in conditional motor control. At the same time, we found that activity in many PFC neurons varied continuously with the force that was eventually produced, suggesting they participated in specifying the metrics of movements as they were executed. The results suggest that the PFC neural population encodes both "what" motor response should be performed and "how" the selected movement should be realized immediately after the visual instruction.

Independence of reaction time and response force control during isometric leg extension.

In this study, we examined the relative control of reaction time and force in responses of the lower limb. Fourteen female participants (age 21.2 +/- 1.0 years, height 1.62 +/- 0.05 m, body mass 54.1 +/- 6.1 kg; mean +/- s) were instructed to exert their maximal isometric one-leg extension force as quickly as possible in response to an auditory stimulus presented after one of 13 foreperiod durations, ranging from 0.5 to 10.0 s. In the 'irregular condition' each foreperiod was presented in random order, while in the 'regular condition' each foreperiod was repeated consecutively. A significant interactive effect of foreperiod duration and regularity on reaction time was observed (P < 0.001 in two-way ANOVA with repeated measures). In the irregular condition the shorter foreperiod induced a longer reaction time, while in the regular condition the shorter foreperiod induced a shorter reaction time. Peak amplitude of isometric force was affected only by the regularity of foreperiod and there was a significant variation of changes in peak force across participants; nine participants were shown to significantly increase peak force for the regular condition (P < 0.001), three to decrease it (P < 0.05) and two showed no difference. These results indicate the independence of reaction time and response force control in the lower limb motor system. Variation of changes in peak force across participants may be due to the different attention to the bipolar nature of the task requirements such as maximal force and maximal speed.

Adaptation of arm trajectory during continuous drawing movements in different dynamic environments.

Human subjects can readily adapt their movement trajectories to different dynamic or visuomotor environments. The focus of the current study was to determine whether subjects could simultaneously adapt to multiple dynamic environments. Subjects ( n=5) drew ellipses continuously for 70 s using a torquable manipulandum under six distinct dynamic conditions, representing the combination of load type (spring, viscous, and inertia) and load direction (assisting and opposing). Each subject performed two control, ten load, and five washout trials. A significant effect of force condition on the trajectory of the movement was found in 26 of 30 cases (6 conditions x 5 subjects); the magnitude of the distortion differed across the conditions. The extent of adaptation also differed across the loads. Opposing inertia and viscosity led to fast adaptation. However, assisting inertia and viscosity were associated with relatively slow adaptation. The results of adaptation to the stiffness conditions were not consistent. Following sudden removal of the load we saw an additional disturbance of the trajectory (after-effect), which was often the mirror image of the original distortion. The shape and size of the after-effect were different across load conditions. These results show that human subjects can adapt to a variety of different dynamic transformations and that the time-course of adaptation is dependent on both the state space and the direction of the load.