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By Hannah Maslen  Hannah Maslen is the Deputy Director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics , University of Oxford. She works on a wide range of topics in applied philosophy and ethics, from neuroethics to moral emotions and criminal justice. Hannah is Co-PI on BrainCom, a 5-year European project working towards the development of neural speech prostheses. Here, she leads the work package on ‘Ethics, Implants and Society’.   Scientists across Europe are combining their expertise to work towards the development of neuroprosthetic devices that will restore or substitute speech in patients with severe communication impairments. The most ambitious application will be in patients with locked-in syndrome who have completely lost the ability to speak. Locked-in syndrome is a condition in which the patient is awake and retains mental capacity but cannot express himself or herself due to the paralysis of afferent motor pathways, preventing speech and limb movements (ex...

By Tabitha Moses Tabitha Moses is a second year MD/PhD (Translational Neuro-science) Candidate at Wayne State University School of Medicine. She earned a BA in Cognitive Science and Philosophy and an MS in Biotechnology from The Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on substance use, mental illness, and emerging neurotechnologies. Her current interests in neuroethics include the concepts of treatment and enhancement and how these relate to our use of new technologies as well as how we define disability. What does it mean to be conscious? In Arthur Caplan ’s plenary session at the 2017 International Neuroethics Society annual meeting ( Neuromodulation of the Dead, Persistent Vegetative State, and Minimally Conscious ), he explored this question and how the answers may impact research and medicine.  Concerns about the capacity for consent and what defines a true consent demand conversation. Recently, for instance, the widespread story of a man with a do not resuscitat...

By Shweta Sahu The Statue of Liberty, an iconic symbol of American opportunity; courtesy of Wikipedia Most every parent wants their child to grow up to be a neurosurgeon, a lawyer, or the next gen Mark Zuckerberg . That was especially true in my case, as a first generation child. When I was two, my parents came to the United States, "the land of opportunity," seeking the success that they had only heard about in India. I grew up hearing their stories of hardship when they first moved here with an infant, without a car, without any extended family, and knowing very little working English. I witnessed them struggle tirelessly to make a life for themselves and they always said that without education you are nothing and will be no one. As a child, while my friends would go to sleepovers and camping trips with friends, my dad would spend time checking my math problems on the white board at home and my mom would make me spell 50 words correctly every night. But even with all that p...

This month the American Medical Association's journal Virtual Mentor published a series of articles about the ethical issues pertaining to neurosurgery. Some of the articles include discussions about deep brain stimulation  in early-stage Parkinson Disease, simulation and neuro-surgery teaching tools, and integrating ethics into science education . The special issue also featured two members of the American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience: editor-in-chief Dr. Paul Root Wolpe , and editor Dr. John Banja . The issue was guest edited by a neurosurgical resident at Emory University, Jordan Amadio . Click here to view the special issue. Emerging Ethical Issues in Neurosurgery: An Interview with Dr. Wolpe by Dr. Jordan Amadio "The single most important thing to remember is that when we intervene in the brain it is a completely different kind of intervention than when we intervene in any other part of the body. It has the potential of altering those aspects of ourselves that we t...

By Daniela Ovadia Daniela Ovadia is the co-director of the Neuroscience and Society Lab in the Brain and Behavioral Sciences Department of the University of Pavia and is the scientific director of Agenzia Zoe .   Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is one of the oldest neuromodulation techniques; it was approved by the FDA in 1997 for the treatment of essential tremor , and a few years later, in 2002, the indication was extended to the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and dystonia (in 2003). In 2009 a new era for DBS started when the FDA also approved it as a therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Some patients experienced a very good outcome, while others were less lucky and experienced side effects such as cognitive, behavioral or psychosocial impairments. DBS is now a common procedure for the treatment of many motor and behavioral impairments. As certain patients associations and civil liberties groups claimed that psychosurgery was back, and with it the social control on the...

By Elaine F. Walker, Ph.D. & Arthur T. Ryan, M.A. Elaine Walker is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at Emory University and is the Director of the Development and Mental Health Research Program, which is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health . Her research is focused on child and adolescent development and the brain changes that are associated with adolescence. She is also a member of the AJOB Neuroscience editorial board. The pace of advances in biomedical research has accelerated in conjunction with new technologies for studying cellular processes. While this progress holds promise for relieving human suffering from a range of illnesses, it also poses significant and thorny questions about the ownership of new knowledge. In June of 2013, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling on the Association for Molecular Pathology v Myriad Genetics, Inc. ; all justices agreed that naturally occurring DNA sequences cannot be ...

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...