This document discusses several key themes in neuroethics: 1) Neuroethics examines the social and ethical issues that arise from the intersection of neuroscience and society, such as how neuroscience may impact ideas of free will, personal responsibility, and human identity. 2) Rapid advances in neuroscience technologies like brain imaging raise issues regarding privacy, coercion, and the appropriate uses of such technologies. 3) A deeper scientific understanding of the biological basis of human cognition and behavior challenges traditional concepts of human nature, personality, and the relationship between mind, brain, and personal identity.

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Neuroethics and educational
issues
THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN (NEURO)SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
Neuroethics and its perimeter
The ethics of neuroscience communication in an era of
neurophilia
THE ETHICS OF NEUROSCIENCE AND HOW IT CAN AFFECT THE
ENCOUNTER BETWEEN THE SCIENCES OF THE MIND BRAIN BEHAVIOR AND
EDUCATION
Cognitive neuro-enhancers
Thinking in terms of effectiveness and thinking in terms of
usefulness

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Neuroethics
 The 2000s
60
50
40
30 UPENN
SELECTED
20 PUBMED
10
0

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 (Farah 2010)
 Spurred by the advent of functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI) in the 1990s, cognitive and affective
neuroscience have finally come of age. We have learned
enough about the neural bases of human thought and
feeling to explain, predict, and even control some aspects
of human behavior. This knowledge brings risks as well as
benefits, and much of neuroethics is concerned with
understanding the impact of neuroscience on society and
assessing the inevitable trade-offs between risks and
benefits.

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Perimeter

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Themes

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 EN a1
 (Roskies 2002, p. 21)
 For instance, in a liberal democratic society such as ours self-
determination is highly prized, and hence the importance of
informed consent is central to medical practice and
medical ethics. But neurodegenerative diseases and
psychiatric disorders may impair cognition so that in- formed
consent, as generally conceived, may be impossible. What
guidelines should be in place for treatment or experimental
participation in these cases? We also take it for granted that
when making medical decisions, patients will choose what is
in their best interests. Some disorders of brain chemistry, such
as depression, defy such an assumption. Who should wield
executive power when the subject cannot be counted on
to choose what is best for his or herself?

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Themes

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 EN a 2
 Martinson et al 2005
 Serious misbehavior in
research is important for
many reasons, not last
because it damages the
reputation of, and
undermines public support
for, science. Historically,
professionals and the public
have focused on headline-
grabbing cases of scientific
misconduct, but we believe
that researchers can no
longer afford to ignore a
wider range of questionable
behaviour that threatens the
integrity of science. We
surveyed several thousand
early- and mid-career
scientists, who are based in
the United States and
funded by the National
institute of Health (NIH), and
asked them to report their
own behaviours. Our findings
reveal a range of
questionable practices that
are striking in their breadth
and prevalence.

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Themes

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 EN a-b 3
 Farah 2005
 The ethical issues surrounding brain enhancement can be grouped into
three general categories. In the first category are health issues: safety,
side effects and unintended consequences. Of course, these are a
concern with all medications and procedures, but our tolerance for risk is
lower for enhancement than for therapy. Furthermore, in comparison
with other comparably elective treatments such as cosmetic surgery,
brain-based enhancement involves intervening in a complex and poorly
understood system, and the likelihood of unanticipated problems is
consequently higher. The second category of ethical issue concerns the
social effects of brain enhancement: How will it affect the lives of all of
us, including those who may prefer not to enhance our brains? For
example, the freedom to remain unenhanced may be difficult to
maintain in a society where one’s competition is using enhancement.
American courts have already heard cases brought by parents who
were coerced by schools to medicate their children for attentional
dysfunction [47]. Indirect coercion is already likely to be at work in
schools where 30% or more of the boys take Ritalin [48]. The military has
long used drugs such asIf we fall in love with someone who is on Prozac
and then find she is difficult and temperamental off the drug, do we
conclude we don’t love her after all? Then who was it we loved? Are we
treating people (including ourselves) as objects if we chemically
upgrade their cognition, temperament or sexual performance? People
vary in how troubling they find these scenarios, but at least some see a
fundamental metaphysical distinction eroding, the distinction between
things (even complex biophysical things), and persons.

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Themes

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 EN b 4
 Racine et al. 2006
 Research results are already permeating the public sphere.
Neuroimaging data have been admitted in courts,1 and in one case,
a homicide conviction was reversed because the state failed to
provide brain scans (People v. Weinstein 1992). Studies of consumer
preferences using fMRI to inform marketing strategies
—“neuromarketing”—have been discussed by the neuroscience
community and the wider public (“Brain Scam?” 2004; “
Open Your Mind” 2002). As the power of imaging technologies
increases, novel studies may yield novel applications such as mind
reading (Ross 2003). Some new imaging technologies, such as
functional near-infrared imaging of the brain, promise to deliver
inexpensive, reliable, and portable imaging neurotechnologies that
are as accurate as the current costly and equipment-cumbersome
functional imaging based on magnetic resonance technology. For
example, a wearable headband functional near-infrared tool is being
developed to investigate real-world behaviors, with possible uses such
as lie detection (Izzetoglu et al. 2004). Hence, as the power of brain
imaging technologies increases, so will the magnitude of the issues it
raises. (Racine et al 2006).

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 EN b 4
 Farah 2005
 Among the neuroscience technologies that present new ethical challenges of a
practical nature is functional brain imaging ….In principle, and increasingly in
practice, imaging can be used to infer people’s psychological states and traits.
For example, in neuromarketing, brain imaging is used to measure limbic system
response to a product that may indicate consumers’ desire for it. In one recent
demonstration, brain activity related to soft drink preference was sensitive to
both the taste of the drink and to the brain name, with Coke evoking more
activity than Pepsi only when subjects knew which brain they were tasting. To
the extent that neuroimaging can measure unconscious motivation to buy, it
provides a valuable new kind of information for marketers. Another potential use
for functional imaging of bran states is lie detection. Although fMRI-based lie
detection is far from feasible in real-world situations, researchers have found
correlates of deception in the laboratory. …Psychological traits also have
physical correlates that are measurable with current brain imaging technology.
Like genotyping, brainotypig may be able to reveal mental health vulnerabilities
and predilection for violent crime. Unconsciuous racial attitudes care manifest in
brain activation … (Farah 2005)
 Of course, none of these characteristics can be accurately inferred by imaging
(or, for that matter, by genotyping) at present. Brain imaging is at best a rough
measure of personality, … (Farah 2005)
 So, what is the problem? (see point b 6)

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 EN b 4
 Oullier 2012
 France has tried to crack down on such rogue uses of neuroscience.
With the help of myself and other neuroscientists, the French
parliament has revised its 2004 rules on bioethics. The result, passed last
year, is a section of the law that simply states: “Brain-imaging methods
can be used only for medical or scientific research purposes or in the
context of court expertise.” The revised law effectively bans the
commercial use of neuroimaging in France, although neuromarketing
companies have only to cross the border to continue their business. …
French politicians' call for neuroimaging to be used in courts even
though no expert advocates the move speaks volumes about the
excessive trust they have in this emerging technology. Perhaps we are
seeing the consequences of the hype that surrounded the early
studies and the fantasies promoted by companies who profit from the
technology. Maybe this excitement, along with attempts by academic
neuroscientists to interest policy-makers in the field, helped to convince
the politicians that, although the brain sciences alone will not provide
definitive answers to societal issues, it would be a mistake to ignore
their insight and potential. We should support efforts in that direction,
but is there yet enough evidence to give the green light to
neuroimaging in the courts? Certainly not. (Ouillier, 2012)

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Themes

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 EN b 5
 Farah 2005
 Like the field of genetics, neuroscience concerns the biological
foundations of who we are, of our essence. The relation of self to
brain is, if anything, more direct than that of self to genome. …
 The idea that there is somehow more to a person than their
physical instantiation runs deep in the human psyche and is a
central element in virtually all the world’s religions. Neuroscience
has begun to challenge this view, by showing that not only
perception and motor control, but also character, consciousness
and sense of spirituality may all be features of the machine. If they
are, then why think there’s a ghost in there at all? The
incompatibility between the intuitive or religious view of persons
and the neuroscience view is likely to have broad social
consequences. These are foreshadowed by the highly politicized
controversy over evolution and creationism, resulting from the
irreconcilable natures of the scientific and fundamentalist Christian
views of our origins. Consider, still, that a literal interpretation of
Genesis is held by only a minority of religious thinkers, whereas the
existence of an immaterial soul is a near universal belief.

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Themes

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 EN b 6
 Illes et al 2010
 While translating and disseminating new knowledge is a
fundamental responsibility for all scientists, neuroscience is among
several scientific disciplines that are particularly prone to
misinformation and inaccurate reporting. Sensational media
headlines that evoke mind reading, a neurogenetic basis for
fidelity or voting patterns, memory boosters for the healthy, and
miracle cures for sensory and movement disorders are but a few
examples. Without accurate and sufficient context, the public –
who are naturally interested in diseases and cures, especially with
regard to common and devastating brain disorders – may accept
these simplistic messages uncritically4. The power of brain imaging
techniques such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
further feeds into this problem, with the potential for brain scan
images to create beliefs and biases in the laboratory, the clinic,
and courtroom

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Themes

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 NE
 Roskies 2002
 How are decisions made in the brain? How are values
represented? How are ethical decisions similar to or different from
other types of decisions? Many thinkers have assumed ethical
reasoning to be a variety of rational thought. But recent evidence
suggests that emotions play a central role in moral cognition
(Damasio, 1995; Greene et al., 2001). Does this undermine the view
of ethics as rational or instead undermine the long-cherished
division between reason and emotion? How will a better
understanding of the biological basis of moral cognition and
behavior modify our philosophical ethical framework? How will it
affect ingrained notions of rationality and its importance to human
existence? (Roskies 2002, p. 22)

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 NE
 Edge Seminar: The new science of morality
 Something radically new is in the air: new ways of understanding physical systems, new ways
of thinking about thinking that call into question many of our basic assumptions. A realistic
biology of the mind, advances in evolutionary biology, physics, information technology,
genetics, neurobiology, psychology, engineering, the chemistry of materials: all are questions
of critical importance with respect to what it means to be human. For the first time, we have
the tools and the will to undertake the scientific study of human nature.
 This began in the early seventies, when, as a graduate student at Harvard, evolutionary
biologist Robert Trivers wrote five papers that set forth an agenda for a new field: the
scientific study of human nature. In the past thirty-five years this work has spawned thousands
of scientific experiments, new and important evidence, and exciting new ideas about who
and what we are presented in books by scientists such as Richard Dawkins, Daniel C.
Dennett, Steven Pinker, and Edward O. Wilson among many others.
 In 1975, Wilson, a colleague of Trivers at Harvard, predicted that ethics would someday be
taken out of the hands of philosophers and incorporated into the "new synthesis" of
evolutionary and biological thinking. He was right.
 Scientists engaged in the scientific study of human nature are gaining sway over the
scientists and others in disciplines that rely on studying social actions and human cultures
independent from their biological foundation.
 No where is this more apparent than in the field of moral psychology. Using babies,
psychopaths, chimpanzees, fMRI scanners, web surveys, agent-based modeling, and
ultimatum games, moral psychology has become a major convergence zone for research in
the behavioral sciences.
 So what do we have to say? Are we moving toward consensus on some points? What are
the most pressing questions for the next five years? And what do we have to offer a world in
which so many global and national crises are caused or exacerbated by moral failures and
moral conflicts? It seems like everyone is studying morality these days, reaching findings that
complement each other more often than they clash.

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Themes

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 B-B L
 Gazzaniga 2004
 The term “neuroethics” was coined by William Safire, to refer to “the
field of philosophy that discusses the rights and wrongs of the
treatment of, or enhancement of, the human brain.” I would argue
that it goes further. Neuroethics should not simply be bioethics for the
brain. I define neuroethics as the examination of “how we want to
deal with the social issues of disease, normality, mortality, lifestyle, and
the philosophy of living, informed by our understanding of underlying
brain mechanisms. It is not a discipline that seeks resources for medical
cure, but one that rests personal responsibility in the broadest social
context. It is—or should be—an effort to come up with a brain- based
philosophy of life.”
 Farah 2010
 It is here, at the juncture between psychology and the natural
sciences, that neuroethics comes in. In principle, and increasingly in
practice, we can understand the human mind as a part of the material
world. This has profound implications for how we regard and treat
ourselves and each other. It gives us powerful new ways to predict and
control human behavior and a jarringly material view of ourselves.
Neuroethics is the field that grapples with theses developments. (Farah
2010)

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Ethics of neuroscience
communication
 neurophilia
 neuro-optimism
 The Foundation’s founder and namesake, Johnson
O’Connor, had an abiding interest in the biological
substrate of individual differences in aptitudes. In late
2006 at a professional research conference, David
Ransom, exploring how our founder’s vision could be
pursued by funding an outside researcher through
the Johnson O’Connor Research Support
Corporation, discussed with Dr. Richard Haier, a
leading researcher on brain imaging and
intelligence, the possibility of relating the volumes of
defined brain areas measured with structural
magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) to performance
on Johnson O’Connor aptitude tests. In the spring of
2007 Dr. Haier agreed to work on such a study, and in
conjunction with Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New
York, to conduct sMRI scans of 40 Foundation
examinees, under the supervision of Dr. Cheuk Tang.
 brainhood

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 Racine 2006
 Neurorealism
 Our concept of ‘neuro-realism’ describes how coverage of fMRI
investigations can make a phenomenon uncritically real, objective or
effective in the eyes of the public. This occurs most notably when
qualifications about results are not brought to the reader’s attention. For
example, commenting on an fMRI study of fear, one article states, “Now
scientists say the feeling is not only real, but they can show what happens in
the brain to cause it.”
 Neuroessentialism
 The concept of ‘neuro-essentialism’ reflects how fMRI research can be
depicted as equating subjectivity and personal identity to the brain. In this
sense, the brain is used implicitly as a shortcut for more global concepts such
as the person, the individual or the self. This is the case in many expressions
where the brain is used as a grammatical subject. Headline examples of this
phenomenon are: “Brain can banish unwanted memories”, “How brain
stores languages” and “‘Brain stores perceptions into small meaningful
chunks”.
 Neuro-policy
 ‘Neuro-policy’ describes attempts to use fMRI results to promote political
and personal agendas, as in the case of interest groups that uphold the
investigation of social problems using fMRI. For example, the Lighted Candle
Society, a Utah-based non-profit organization that is dedicated to the
enhancement of moral values, advocates the use of fMRI to prove that
pornography is addictive.


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a. gulliblity
 Dihydrogen monoxide
 Habit
 Context: knowledge is not enough
 Authority
 Confirmation, Availability

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b. seductive allure of neuroscience
 http://mindhacks.com/
2010/02/25/area-
responsible-for-
neuroscience-errors-  Role ofvisual perception in reasoning
located/ and understanding
 Illusion of reality
 Difficult but lloks easy
 Illusion of understanding
http://mindhacks.com/2010/02/25/area-
responsible-for-neuroscience-errors-located/

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 Farah 2005
 Another practical problem raised by progress in neuroimaging is
that the public tends to view brain scans as more accurate and
objective than in fact they are. Statements like ‘the brain does not
lie’ crop up in popular writing on neuromarking and brain-based lie
detection, reflecting a failure to appreciate the many layers of
signal processing and statistical analysis that intervene between
actual brain function and resulting image of reform, as well as the
complex set of assumptions required to interpret the psychological
significance of such images or waveforms. Brain-based measures
do, in principle, have an advantage as indices of psychological
states and traits over more familiar behavioral or autonomic
measures, being one causal step closer to these states and traits
than responses on personality questionnaires or polygraph tracings.
For this reason imaging may eventually provide more sensitive and
specific measures of psychological processes than are now
available. At present, however, such uses must be approached
carefully and with a healthy dose of skepticism.

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c. misuse of neuroimaging studies
 Iacoboni et al. This is your
brain on politics – The NY
Times 11/11/2007


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 Aron et al 2007
 This Is Your Brain on Politics” (Op-Ed, Nov. 11) used the results of a brain imaging
study to draw conclusions about the current state of the American electorate.
The article claimed that it is possible to directly read the minds of potential
voters by looking at their brain activity while they viewed presidential
candidates. For example, activity in the amygdala in response to viewing one
candidate was argued to reflect “anxiety” about the candidate, whereas
activity in other areas was argued to indicate “feeling connected.” While such
reasoning appears compelling on its face, it is scientifically unfounded. As
cognitive neuroscientists who use the same brain imaging technology, we know
that it is not possible to definitively determine whether a person is anxious or
feeling connected simply by looking at activity in a particular brain region. This is
so because brain regions are typically engaged by many mental states, and
thus a one-to-one mapping between a brain region and a mental state is not
possible. For example, rather than simply providing a brain marker of anxiety
levels, as the article assumed, we know that the amygdala is activated by
arousal and positive emotions as well. Such problems of interpretation with brain
imaging studies can be avoided only by careful experimental design, and, as
with any scientific data, the peer review process is critical to understanding
whether the data are sound or based on faulty methodology. Unfortunately, the
results reported in the article were apparently not peer-reviewed, nor was
sufficient detail provided to evaluate the conclusions. As cognitive
neuroscientists, we are very excited about the potential use of brain imaging
techniques to better understand the psychology of political decisions. But we
are distressed by the publication of research in the press that has not undergone
peer review, and that uses flawed reasoning to draw unfounded conclusions
about topics as important as the presidential election.

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d. production of evidence
 Cargo cult science, or
 Producing good evidence
is also a matter of ethics,
not only of skills


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 Feynman 1974
 In the South Seas there is a cargo cult of people. During the war
they saw airplanes land with lots of good materials, and they want
the same thing to happen now. So they've arranged to imitate
things like runways, to put fires along the sides of the runways, to
make a wooden hut for a man to sit in, with two wooden pieces
on his head like headphones and bars of bamboo sticking out like
antennas--he's the controller--and they wait for the airplanes to
land. They're doing everything right. The form is perfect. It looks
exactly the way it looked before. But it doesn't work. No airplanes
land.
 So I call these things cargo cult science, because they follow all
the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but
they're missing something essential, because the planes don't land.

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 Feynman 1974
 … there is one feature I notice that is generally missing in cargo
cult science. That is the idea that we all hope you have learned in
studying science in school--we never explicitly say what this is, but
just hope that you catch on by all the examples of scientific
investigation. It is interesting, therefore, to bring it out now and
speak of it explicitly. It's a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of
scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty--a
kind of leaning over backwards. For example, if you're doing an
experiment, you should report everything that you think might
make it invalid--not only what you think is right about it: other
causes that could possibly explain your results; and things you
thought of that you've eliminated by some other experiment, and
how they worked--to make sure the other fellow can tell they have
been eliminated. … In summary, the idea is to try to give all of the
information to help others to judge the value of your contribution;
not just the information that leads to judgment in one particular
direction or another.

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 Feynman 1974
 We've learned from experience that the truth will come out. Other
experimenters will repeat your experiment and find out whether
you were wrong or right. Nature's phenomena will agree or they'll
disagree with your theory. And, although you may gain some
temporary fame and excitement, you will not gain a good
reputation as a scientist if you haven't tried to be very careful in this
kind of work. And it's this type of integrity, this kind of care not to
fool yourself, that is missing to a large extent in much of the
research in cargo cult science.

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e. communicaiton of evidence
 Self-deception among scientists
 Blondlot (N rays)
 Benveniste (memory of water)
 Nature sends Wood and Maddox-
Stewart-Randi
 Role of replication
 Role of publication in peer reviewed journals


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 Clarke 2009
 Peer review is a means of giving journalists confidence in new work
published in scientific journals. Premature release of research results
by scientists to the media denies journalists that confidence. It also
removes journalists’ ability to obtain informed reactions about the
work from independent researchers in the field.
 Although not all journalists and not all science bloggers (who write
about scientific research on the internet) are supportive of this type
of policy, this system of scientific communication has evolved for
several reasons and serves multiple purposes for scientists
themselves…

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f. Adam Krumwiede’s syndrome
 Is there an alternative to
peer-review publication?
 When should scientific
results reach blogs, general
public press, …?
 How should scientific results
be managed by the
general public’s press?
 How should they be
communicated to
laypeople?

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 Suhr 2009
 Science journalism is facing tough challenges today. The general
public has a desire, and a right, to learn what new discoveries are
being made and how these may affect everyday life, and they rely on
science journals to bring them this information. However, the topics are
often very complex and difficult to relay in terms that are
understandable for the non-expert, and they can be politicized or
pushed by different lobbies. Topics such as climate change or stem
cell research affect humanity on an existential level, and the ethics
involve in portraying these topics — how, orindeed
whether to portray them — are complex.
 The responsibility for accurate science reporting lies, according to
Halliday (2009, this TS), with journalists and researchers alike. She
suggests that, ‘science graduate students should be required to take a
course on writing for the public — not with the
intentionof turning scientists into journalists, but to help them take a
step back from the language they are immersed in.’ Halliday (2009, p.
27). The specialized language used in communications between
scientists and a fear of being misrepresented may be the main reasons
why scientists are reluctant to communicate what they do to the
public. To change this, Halliday (2009) suggests courses in science
communication to be taught during graduate school.

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g. selling research
 Optimism about
applications
 Illusion of straightforward
application
 Pressures from laboratories
for funding research

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 Feynman 1974
 I would like to add something that's not essential to the science,
but something I kind of believe, which is that you should not fool
the layman when you're talking as a scientist. I'm talking about a
specific, extra type of integrity that is not lying, but bending over
backwards to show how you are maybe wrong, that you ought to
have when acting as a scientist. And this is our responsibility as
scientists, certainly to other scientists, and I think to laymen. For
example, I was a little surprised when I was talking to a friend who
was going to go on the radio. He does work on cosmology and
astronomy, and he wondered how he would explain what the
applications of this work were. "Well," I said, "there aren't any." He
said, "Yes, but then we won't get support for more research of this
kind." I think that's kind of dishonest. If you're representing yourself
as a scientist, then you should explain to the layman what you're
doing--and if they don't want to support you under those
circumstances, then that's their decision.

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 Feynman 1974
 So I have just one wish for you--the
good luck to be somewhere where
you are free to maintain the kind of
integrity I have described, and
where you do not feel forced by a
need to maintain your position in the
organization, or financial support, or
so on, to lose your integrity. May you
have that freedom.

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h. tell the truth about science
 Early publication
 Media coverage of fresh
results
 Risk of confounding
results and facts
 Risk for the perception
of science

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 Simons 2010
 My concern is about media reporting and even blogging about new and
provocative scientific findings, the very findings that tend to decline. Following a
murder, the arrest of a suspect is broadcast on the front pages, but when that
suspect is exonerated, the correction ends up on the back of the local section
months later (if it appears at all). The same problem holds for flawed scientific
claims. The thoroughly debunked Mozart Effect still receives media coverage,
just as other unsupported findings remain part of the popular consciousness
despite a lack of replicability.
 Part of the problem is the rush to publicize unusual or unexpected positive
findings, particularly when they run counter to decades of established science.
That excitement about a new result is palpable and understandable. Who wants
to write about the boring old stuff? The media loves controversy, and new results
that counter the establishment are inherently interesting. Scientists strive for such
controversy as well—what scientist doesn’t relish the idea of overhauling an
accepted theory?
 Scientists understand that initially provocative claims don’t always hold up to
scrutiny, but media coverage rarely withholds judgment. If well-established ideas
can be shot down by a single study, and that single study gets extensive media
coverage, the public understandably won’t know what to trust. The result, from
the perspective of a consumer of science, is that science itself appears
unstable. It gives people license to doubt non-controversial claims and theories
(e.g., evolution). To the public eye, a single contradictory study has the same
standing as established theory.

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2 actions
Enhance (neuro-) science
Enhance communication skills in literacy in educators / the
researchers general public
 AAAS Mass Media Science  Fondation La main à la
& Engineering Fellows pâte
Program

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 Illes et al. 2010
 Some steps towards the cultural shift can be immediately
implemented, such as increasing the professional value of delivering
public lectures, media work and the development of training activities
designed specifically for neuroscientists. Other actions, such as the full
integration of communication training into neuroscience curricula and
graduate training, will require longer- range planning and a more
fundamental culture shift, given already heavily laden schedules. For
neuroscientists, the overall continued development of specialized
training sessions, online course modules and ‘boot camps’ at
professional meetings or local institutions will help to achieve this
culture shift. Indeed, some actions have been taken and investments
made towards this goal. For example, the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS) sponsors a summer internship
programme that places graduate and postgraduate students study-
ing science, engineering and mathematics at media organizations
nationwide; participants “come in knowing the importance of
translating their work for the public, but they leave with the tools and
the know-how to accomplish this important goal” (The AAAS Mass
Media Science & Engineering Fellows program…

47. ECC 2012-13
Neuroethics and educational
issues
THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN (NEURO)SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
Neuroethics and its perimeter
The ethics of neuroscience communication in an era of
neurophilia
THE ETHICS OF NEUROSCIENCE AND HOW IT CAN AFFECT THE
ENCOUNTER BETWEEN THE SCIENCES OF THE MIND BRAIN BEHAVIOR AND
EDUCATION
Cognitive neuro-enhancers
Thinking in terms of effectiveness and thinking in terms of
usefulness

48. ECC 2012-13
Issues also relevant for mind, brain,
behavior and education
 Issues related to the
realization of fair trials with
control groups of learners
that are “deprived” of a
potentially effective
interventions are often
raised by educators and
parents
 more generally: to the
design of experimental
protocols that count as
“fair trials”

49. ECC 2012-13
 Issues related to interventions
based on neuroscience, in
particular in relationship with
 treatments for ADHD and
other forms of “smart pills”
 diagnostic tools for learning
disorders
 privacy
 pre-diagnosis in the
absence of a treatment
or useful interventions
 do we have the right to
ignore what we know works
or cannot work in
education?

50. ECC 2012-13
 the fact of describing a
learning difficulty as a
“dys-” is sometimes
perceived
 as a form of
stigmatization,

51. ECC 2012-13
 as the derogation of
educational tasks to the
physician
(medicalization of
learning issues)

52. ECC 2012-13
 Issues related to “responsibility” are also
present in the domain of education:
 e.g., what if girls were really bad at
mathematics? Should we judge them
differently when they fail a math score?
 fairness: e.g. what should we do with
dyspraxic children that are disadvantaged
by having to write during an exam? Should
they have a computer or not?
 the effects of truth:
 e.g. it seems that learning is influenced
by the image one has of oneself as a
learner

53. ECC 2012-13
 All the considerations
about
communication and
literacy apply to
educators and policy-
makers, as well as to
parents who might
read about some new
treatment or
educational method
or be caught by
commercial vendors

54. ECC 2012-13

55. ECC 2012-14
Happy pills
Medicalization of
Against human nature normal life

56. ECC 2012-13
 Farah 2005
 The past two decades have seen the introduction of new antidepressant
and antianxiety drugs with fewer side effects. The greater tolerability of
these medications, along with increased public awareness of mental illness
and aggressive marketing of psychiatric medications to physicians and
patients has led to the widespread use of psychopharmacology by people
who would not have been considered ill twenty years ago.
 There is a substantial literature (which in fact includes literary genres such as
essays and memoirs) on the ways in which Prozac and other selective
serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have become a part of life for many.
However, there is surprisingly little scientific research on the effects of SSRIs
on people who are not depressed. It seems clear that they are not happy
pills, shifting depressed people to normalcy and normal people to bliss.
Rather, for most people they seem to leave positive affect unchanged but
attenuate negative affect, for example reducing the subjectively
experienced ‘hassle’ factor of life. They also have subtle effects on social
behavior.
 In addition to mood, vegetative functions such as sleep, eating, and sex
can be influenced pharmacologically and there is a large demand for
ways of enhancing these functions. The wakefulness-promoting agent
modafinil, approved in the US for treatment of certain sleep disorders, is
prescribed off label for a panoply of other conditions and is said to be
favored by some ambitious professionals as a way of packing more work
into a day.

57. ECC 2012-13
Smart pills
Doping issue

58. ECC 2012-13
Equity issue

59. ECC 2012-13
Pressure issue/Stigmatization of
normality

60. ECC 2012-13
A world of geniuses
 What’s the advantage?
 Is this a genius?

61. ECC 2012-13
Values
Efficacy Usefulness