Neuroethics & Law Blog

Vol.1, Issue #2 of Neuroethics

Neil Levy has delivered another fine issue of the new peer-reviewed journal Neuroethics.  In conjunction with the journal, the Neuroethics & Law Blog provides a forum for discussion of the articles that appear in Neuroethics.  To that end, over the next couple of weeks, I will post each article in the new issue and provide readers and authors with an opportunity to write comments and raise questions and challenges.  But if you want to get a sneak peek at what's to come, check it out here.

Cognition, Emotion, and Provocation Mitigation

On SSRN:

"Reactive Cognition, Reactive Emotion: Toward a More Psychologically Informed Understanding of Reactive Homicide"

Psychology, Public Policy & Law, Forthcoming
Arizona Legal Studies Discussion Paper No. 08-19

REID GRIFFITH FONTAINE, University of Arizona - Department of Psychology, University of Arizona - James E. Rogers College of Law
Recent scholarship has drawn attention to the alternative contributions of dysfunctional reactive cognition (e.g., provocation interpretational bias) and emotion (e.g., provoked fury) in heat of passion killings. Two main theses have been advanced. First, there exists a meaningful parallel between the instrumental/reactive aggression dichotomy in psychology and murder/manslaughter distinction in law. Second, analysis of this parallel suggests that the heat of passion (or provocation) defense disproportionately favors emotional over cognitive dysfunction in mitigating murder to manslaughter. These theses, though, have yet to be fully developed, and raise additional, critical questions that have not yet been addressed. For example, Other than interpretational style, how may social cognitive science inform our understanding of the role of cognitive bias in reactive homicide?, and How is serious interpretational bias related to alternative forms of psychiatric disorder as recognized in law? This Article addresses these and related questions regarding the differential and interactive contributions of dysfunctional cognition and emotion in the execution of reactive homicide.

Diminishing the arm's race in enhancement (Reiner)

Carl Elliot has a piece over at Atlantic.com arguing that beta blockers should not be viewed as enhancement, but rather as leveling the playing field between individuals who suffer anxiety while performing a particular task (for example public speaking or pistol shooting) and those who do not. His basic tenet is sound - that we should evaluate people based on the content of their actions rather than a distraction such as anxiety, which really has nothing to do with performance per se. Carl concludes with the convincing argument that we would all likely prefer a neurosurgeon whose hands did not shake while they were slipping sharp metal objects into our brains, and if beta blockers were required to insure that was the case, so be it.

The clever part of Carl's line of reasoning is that it eliminates the arm's race aspect of the enhancement debate: if enhancers become widely available, and everyone takes them, the bar for average performance rises for all. The inherent features of beta-blockers - that they work only for those that need them - makes this argument moot. It is too early to tell whether a similar situation will arise with cognitive enhancers, but there have been rumours to the effect that these agents may be more effective for those with less cognitive endowment than those whose cognitive capacities are already at or near peak. Not only would this reduce (but not eliminate) the problem of off-label use by younger individuals, but it would also diminish the likelihood of these drugs triggering an arms race of cognitive enhancer use for many of the same reasons that Carl invokes for beta blockers. It may be wishful thinking to hope that pharmacological effects align with societal values, but the case of beta-blockers demonstrates that sometimes wishes do come true.

[The photo is an image of propanalol crystals courtesy of Richard Howey's Crystal Gallery]

Two Book Reviews at Metapsychology

Review - Neuroethics
Challenges for the 21st Century
by Neil Levy
Cambridge University Press, 2007
Review by Christian Perring, Ph.D.
http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=book&id=4439&cn=135

Review - Defining Right and Wrong in Brain Science
Essential Readings in Neuroethics
by Walter Glannon (Editor)
Dana Press, 2007
Review by Will Buckingham
http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=book&id=4425