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By Lindsey Grubbs Lindsey Grubbs is a PhD student in the English Department at Emory University , where she is also working on a certificate in bioethics. She holds a master’s degree in English and gender studies from the University of Wyoming . She is interested in the relationship between literature and science, and works with American literature from the nineteenth century until today to interrogate and complicate the boundaries between health and wellness, normalcy and aberrance, and physical and mental complaints. As neuroscientists begin to approach topics usually falling under the purview of other specialties, how can they ethically incorporate various forms of knowledge rather than provide simplified metrics that will, in a data hungry society, be easier for most to latch onto? In 2013, we saw the publication of at least two high profile studies claiming neuroscientific proof for the potential moral benefits of reading fiction. Greg Berns and his associates published “ Short- ...

By Henry T. Greely, J.D. Henry T. (Hank) Greely is the Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law and Professor, by courtesy, of Genetics at Stanford University. He directs the Stanford Center for Law and the Biosciences and the new Stanford Program in Neuroscience and Society   SPINS).  He is also a member of the  AJOB Neuroscience  Editorial Board. Would you want to know the date and time of your death? Life-Line , the first published fiction by Robert A. Heinlein, one of the giants of 20 th century science fiction, explored that question. The story’s protagonist, Hugo Pinero, had invented a machine that could tell precisely when individuals would die, but, as Pinero found to his distress, he could not intervene to change their fates. Would you want to know whether you would be diagnosed with Alzheimer disease (AD)? This question is rapidly leaving the realm of science fiction; indeed, it already has for some unlucky people. Our ability to pred...

The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues is an advisory panel that counsels the President on bioethical issues in light of scientific and medical advances. Most recently, the panel published Gray Matters: Integrative Approaches for Neuroscience, Ethics, and Society as a part of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative . This document touched on relevant ethical issues related to neuroscience and made recommendations for integrating ethics into various facets of neuroscience research, education, and policy making. On June 9–10, 2014, a public meeting of the President’s Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues will be taking place at Emory University in the Rollins School of Public Health Building. The complete agenda is listed here , but the Commission will discuss the BRAIN Initiative and current work taking place in the field of neuroscience. Watch the live webcast and follow AJOB Neuroscience on Twitter if yo...

By Carolyn C. Meltzer, MD Dr. Carolyn C. Meltzer is a professor at the Emory University School of Medicine Departments of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Neurology. She is also a member of the AJOB Neuroscience Editorial Board. “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” ― George Orwell , 1984 In the iconic geopolitical thriller “ The Manchurian Candidate ,” advanced mind control techniques are used on a Korean War prisoner to turn him into an assassin. As we move into an era in which functional neuroimaging may be applied in ways akin to “mind reading,” such as applied to lie detection and economic choices, this fictional work more closely mimics reality. Functional neuroimaging tools have helped us to tease out neuronal networks and to better understand how we think and act in health and disease. With the exception of few specific instances of validated clinical use (such a...