Neuroethics & Law Blog

Speed Shrinking

Yup, it's like speed dating (NYT story here). 

The story does not discuss any confidentiality issues one would think this would raise (e.g., conducting therapy in a public place, being able to overhear others' sessions, etc.).

PEBS News Roundup from Johns Hopkins

Last Edition's Most Popular Article Enhancing neurological functions through bioengineering  Lancet Neurology 2009:8(9):788 In the Academic Literature: A question of control: scientists must address the ethics of using neuroactive compounds to quash domestic crises Nature 2009:460:933 Biologists napping while work militarized Nature 2009:460:950-951 Adolescent engagement in dangerous behaviors Is associated with increased white matter maturity of frontal cortex PLoSONE August 26 2009 Robotics: The bot that plays ball Nature August 26 2009 Genetic address book for retinal cell types Nature Neuroscience 2009:12:1197-1204 Dopamine controls persistence of long-term memory storage Science 2009:325(5943):1017-1020 Hippocampal Replay of Extended Experience Neuron August 26 2009 Brain activation to favorite music in healthy controls and depressed patients NeuroReport 2009:20(13):1204-1208 Playing charades in the fMRI: Are mirror and/or mentalizing areas involved in gestural communication? PLoSONE August 26 2009 In the Popular Press: Mining the Web for Feelings, Not Facts The New York Times August 23 2009 Non-lethal, yet dangerous: neuroactive agents Practical Ethics August 20 2009 Expanding waistlines may cause shrinking brains New Scientist August 23 2009 Neural Networks Mapped In Dementia Patients Science Daily August 21 2009 Many degrees of separation in dementia brains New Scientist August 26 2009 How We Support Our False Beliefs Science Daily August 23 2009   Multitasking Muddles Brains, Even When the Computer Is Off Wired Science August 24 2009 Moral Machines? New Approach To Decision Making Based On Computational Logic Science Daily August 26 2009 Problems with 'cognitive enhancing' drugs on the rise The Great Beyond August 25 2009 The Program in Ethics and Brain Sciences (PEBS) is a collaborative effort of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and the  Johns Hopkins Brain Sciences Institute . The goal of PEBS is to ensure that research in brain science proceeds with an informed understanding of ethical issues, and that philosophical and empirical analyses of the advances in brain research proceed with an informed understanding of the science. With the PEBS Neuroethics News Roundup, we will present a weekly survey of the most pertinent and thought-provoking new articles from both peer-reviewed academic journals and the popular press.

"Minds, Brains, and Norms"

Michael Pardo and Dennis Patterson have posted the following paper to SSRN (which I'll probably repost when it comes out in our partner journal Neuroethics):

"Minds, Brains, and Norms" 

Neuroethics, Forthcoming
University of Alabama Public Law Research Paper No. 1432476

MICHAEL S. PARDO, University of Alabama School of Law
DENNIS PATTERSON, European University Institute, Rutgers University School of Law, Camden, Swansea University School of Law

Arguments for the importance of neuroscience reach across many disciplines. Advocates of neuroscience have made wide-ranging claims for neuroscience in the realms of ethics, value, and law. In law, for example, many scholars have argued for an increased role for neuroscientific evidence in the assessment of criminal responsibility. In this article, we take up claims for the explanatory role of neuroscience in matters of morals and law. Drawing on our previous work together, we assess the cogency of neuroscientific explanations of three issues that arise in these domains: rule following, interpretation, and knowledge. We critique these explanations and in general challenge claims as to the efficacy of the neuroscientific accounts.

Justice for Hedgehogs

Boston University School of Law will host a conference on Sept. 25-26, 2009, on Ronald Dwokin's forthcoming book, "Justice for Hedgehogs."  They've lined up quite an array of speakers.  Details below the fold.

Congratulations to Neil Levy

Congratulations to long-time guest blogger Neil Levy on winning an Australian Eureka Prize for Research in Ethics.  From an announcement of the award:

Dr Levy, who holds positions at the University of Melbourne and Oxford University, has taken bold positions in his writing, arguing that as long as informed consent is given, there is no reason to see psychopharmaceutical drugs as detracting from an individual's authenticity.

In a controversial thesis, Dr Levy also argues we need to stop seeing the brain as sacrosanct; set aside our gut reactions against altering its function and judge intervention by its affect rather than its location.

"Dr Levy is a pioneer of the newly established field of Neuroethics. He has fostered the field's development through active writing, teaching and speaking and has made enormous contributions with his research," says Frank Howarth, Director of the Australian Museum.

PEBS Neuroethics Roundup from Johns Hopkins

Last Edition's Most Popular Article Symposium Announcement: Human Enhancement: What should be permitted?   Practical Ethics August 12 2009 In the Academic Literature: Capuchin Monkeys Display Affiliation Toward Humans Who Imitate Them  Science 2009:325(5942):880-883 Mindblind Eyes: An Absence of Spontaneous Theory of Mind in Asperger Syndrome  Science 2009:325(5942):883-885 Monkeys Like Mimics  Science 2009:325(5942):824-825 Uncertainty during Anticipation Modulates Neural Responses to Aversion in Human Insula and Amygdala  Cerebral Cortex Advance Access August 13 2009 Enhancing Neurological Functions Through Bioengineering  The Lancet Neurology 2009:8(9):788 Serial, Covert Shifts of Attention during Visual Search Are Reflected by the Frontal Eye Fields and Correlated with Population Oscillations  Neuron 2009:63(3):386-396 Issues Related to Deep Brain Stimulation for Treatment-Refractory Tourette's Syndrome Euro Neurology 2008: 62(5): 264-273 In the Popular Press: Your Baby Is Smarter Than You Think The New York Times August 15 2009 Artificial Tongue Is Sweeter Than Real Thing  Wired Science August 17 2009 Brain Is a Co-Conspirator in a Vicious Stress Loop  The New York Times August 17 2009 Facial Expressions 'Not Global'  BBC News August 14 2009 Monkeys Booze Because of Genes  BBC News August 17 2009 Brain's Wrinkles Protect Against Head Banging  Wired Science August 17 2009 The Mind's Eye Scans Like A Spotlight: New Role Discovered For Brain Waves  Science Daily August 18 2009 Can Consciousness be Created in Software?  Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies August 15 2009 The Program in Ethics and Brain Sciences (PEBS) is a collaborative effort of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and the  Johns Hopkins Brain Sciences Institute . The goal of PEBS is to ensure that research in brain science proceeds with an informed understanding of ethical issues, and that philosophical and empirical analyses of the advances in brain research proceed with an informed understanding of the science. With the PEBS Neuroethics News Roundup, we will present a weekly survey of the most pertinent and thought-provoking new articles from both peer-reviewed academic journals and the popular press.

Penn's Center for Neuroscience & Society

The President of the University of Pennsylvania has approved the development of a new Center for Neuroscience & Society.  According to a press release, "The Center will confront the social, legal and ethical implications of increasingly rapid advances in neuroscience."  You can find the press release with much more information here.

Neuroscience Boot Camp--2009

Congratulations to Martha Farah and colleagues on running an enormously successful neuroscience intensive summer institute (a.k.a. "Neuroscience Boot Camp")!  Francis Shen has written about the daily goings-on in a series of posts here.  I would not at all be surprised if boot camp becomes an annual event.

Neurofeminism

Via the X-Phi Blog, comes this call for papers (issued by our former guest blogger Heidi Maibom, among others):

Call for Papers:

With the recent advances in imaging and genetic technologies, the last decade has witnessed an explosion of work on human cognitive and affective functioning. Among some of the more publicized work is that on sex differences. Basing research on neuroscience lends studies particular credibility in the public mind, with the result that traditional gender characteristics and roles seem to take on a new credibility.  There are, however, serious questions about how to interpret the evidence from neuroscience, an area that, in some respects, appears to be just as sensitive to preconceived notions of sex-differences as other fields. It is, therefore, time to apply a feminist perspective to this burgeoning field of study.

We call for papers for an edited volume on neuroscience and feminism in areas including, but not limited to the following topics: (1) exploration of past stereotypes, (2) scientifically informed understanding of sex differences/similarities, (3) the exposure of androcentric biases that inform scientific research, (4) new scientifically informed perspectives on old feminist issues, (5) neuroscientific understanding of embodied experience, (6) understanding sex differences using animal models, (7) the neuroscience of ethical thinking, (8) pathologies, mental disorder, and sex differences. We encourage researchers from philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science generally to submit.

The deadline for submission of manuscripts (maximum length 12,000 words) is January 1, 2010. We also encourage those interested in submitting a paper to contact us in advance of this deadline.  Please also feel welcome to circulate this call for papers to colleagues who may be interested in contributing a paper.

Robyn Bluhm, Old Dominion University, [email protected]

Anne Jacobson, University of Houston, [email protected]

Heidi Maibom, Carleton University, [email protected]

PEBS News Roundup from Johns Hopkins

Last Edition's Most Popular Article Doctors missing consciousness in vegetative patients New Scientist July 21 2009 In the Academic Literature: Cognitive Enhancement: Methods, Ethics, Regulatory Challenges Science and Engineering Ethics September 2009: 15(3):311-41 Keeping in Touch with One's Self: Multisensory Mechanisms of Self-Consciousness  PLoSONE August 5 2009 Neural Correlates of Appetite and Hunger-Related Evaluative Judgments  PLoSONE August 12 2009 Cellular Basis of Itch Sensation   Science August 6 2009 Functional neuroimaging and withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment from vegetative patients  Journal of Medical Ethics 2009:35:508-511 Brain structure and obesity  Human Brain Mapping August 6 2009 Traditional Chinese acupuncture and placebo (sham) acupuncture are differentiated by their effects on μ-opioid receptors (MORs)  NeuroImage 2009:47(3):1077-1085 Functional neurosurgery for movement disorders: a historical perspective  Progress in Brain Research 2009:175:379-391  Transgenic reporter mice as tools for studies of transplantability and connectivity of dopamine neuron precursors in fetal tissue grafts  Progress in Brain Research 2009:175:53-79  ECT for Parkinson's disease  Medical Hypothesis August 5 2009 Behavioral Effects of Subthalamic Deep Brain Stimulation in Parkinson's Disease  Neuropsychologia August 5 2009 Subthalamic nucleus stimulation affects subjective emotional experience in Parkinson's disease patients  Neuropsychologia 2009:47:1928-1937  Brain penetration effects of microelectrodes and deep brain stimulation leads in ventral intermediate nucleus stimulation for essential tremor  Journal of Neurosurgery Ahead of Print  In the Popular Press: After Injury, Fighting to Regain a Sense of Self  The New York Times August 8 2009 Why humans can talk and chimps can't  New Scientist August 12 2009 Five-Second Touch Can Convey Specific Emotion, Study Finds  The New York Times August 10 2009 Symposium Announcement: Human Enhancement: What should be permitted?  Practical Ethics August 12 2009 A Pungent Life: The Smells in My Head  The New York Times August 10 2009 Artificial Brains and Personal Identity  Practical Ethics August 7 2009 Optimistic women 'live longer'  BBC News August 10 2009 Killer whales visit 'social clubs'  BBC News August 12 2009  Traffic Jam In Brain Causes Schizophrenia Symptoms; First Mouse To Develop Disease As Teenager, Just Like Humans  Science Daily August 11 2009 Researchers Unravel Mystery Behind Long-lasting Memories  Science Daily August 12 2009  The Program in Ethics and Brain Sciences (PEBS) is a collaborative effort of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and the  Johns Hopkins Brain Sciences Institute . The goal of PEBS is to ensure that research in brain science proceeds with an informed understanding of ethical issues, and that philosophical and empirical analyses of the advances in brain research proceed with an informed understanding of the science. With the PEBS Neuroethics News Roundup, we will present a weekly survey of the most pertinent and thought-provoking new articles from both peer-reviewed academic journals and the popular press.  Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics | 201 North Charles, Suite 1701  Baltimore, MD 21201 | Office: 410-625-7871

"Willpower and Legal Policy"

The following paper was recently added to SSRN:

"Willpower and Legal Policy" 

Annual Review of Law & Social Science, Vol. 5, December 2009
U of Chicago Law & Economics, Olin Working Paper No. 473
U of Chicago, Public Law Working Paper No. 269

LEE ANNE FENNELL, University of Chicago Law School
People often act in ways that are inconsistent with their own stated desires. What, if anything, can or should legal policy do about this disjunction? In recent years, legal and social science scholarship has increasingly recognized the potential policy relevance of self-control and related concepts in areas such as personal and public finance, consumer contract design, health and personal well-being, and criminal law. In this noncomprehensive review piece, I begin by defining willpower, disaggregating it from other, related problems, and considering the terms of the intraself conflict it implies. Drawing on ideas that are well recognized in the literature, I divide the costs of willpower lapses and their prevention into the failure costs of bad decisions, the exercise costs associated with exerting willpower effort, and the erosion costs that individuals and society as a whole might incur over time if willpower is not regularly exercised. After surveying a variety of possible responses to self-control problems, I offer some suggestions for future research.

Science & Tech. Bibliography

Patrick S. O'Donnell has prepared an extensive bibliography of science and technology sources that may interest law professors, philosophers, and others.  See here for a discussion of the bibliography and a link to the bibliography itself.

PEBS News Roundup from Johns Hopkins

Blogging From Neuroscience Boot Camp The Law and Neuroscience Blog In the Academic Literature: Expectations regarding cognitive enhancement create substantial challenges Journal of Medical Ethics 2009:35:469-470 Emergence of a Stable Cortical Map for Neuroprosthetic Control PLoS Biology July 21 2009 Flexible Learning of Multiple Speech Structures in Bilingual Infants Science 2009:325(5940):611-612 Chronic Stress Causes Frontostriatal Reorganization and Affects Decision-Making Science 2009:325(5940):621-625 Observations on Unaided Smoking Cessation after Deep Brain Stimulation of the Nucleus Accumbens European Addiction Research 2009:15(4) Neurosecurity: security and privacy for neural devices Journal of Neurosurgery 2009:27(1) Preparing the ethical future of deep brain stimulation Surgical Neurology Online New insights into the relationship of neurogenesis and affect: Tickling induces hippocampal cell proliferation in rats emitting appetitive 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations Neuroscience July 26 2009 National Patterns in Antidepressant Medication Treatment Archives of General Psychiatry Dyslexia: A New Synergy Between Education and Cognitive Neuroscience   Science 2009:325(5938):280-283 Foundations for a New Science of Learning   Science 2009:325(5938):284-288 Human-Android Interaction in the Near and Distant Future  Perspectives on Psychological Science 2009:4(4):429-434 Independence in ROI analysis: where is the voodoo?  Social and Affective Neuroscience 2009:4(2):208-213 Inside the brain of an elite athlete: the neural processes that support high achievement in sports  Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2009:10(8) Prefrontal cortex and cognitive control: motivating functional hierarchies  Nature Neuroscience 2009:12(7) Are there theory of mind regions in the brain? A review of the neuroimaging literature  Human Brain Mapping 2009:30(8):2313-2335 In the Popular Press: Asperger's Syndrome, on Screen and in Life The New York Times August 3 2009  Brain (minus machine) interface The Scientist July 21 2009 Chimps born to appreciate music BBC News July 30 2009 Did an ice age boost human brain size? New Scientist July 29 2009 Temptation More Power Than Individuals Realize Science Daily August 4 2009   Researchers Train Minds to Move Matter The New York Times July 20 2009 How Money Messes With Your Mind The New York Times July 20 2009 The fMRI Brain Scan: A Better Lie Detector? Time July 20 2009 Blind Can Take Wheel With Newly Designed Vehicle Science Daily July 16 2009 Brain's Center For Perceiving 3-D Motion Is Identified Science Daily July 21 2009 A piercing image of Phineas Gage Los Angeles Times July 16 2009 Youtube as neuroscience resource hub Brainethics July 17 2009 Doctors missing consciousness in vegetative patients New Scientist July 21 2009 Artificial brain '10 years away' BBC News July 22 2009 The Program in Ethics and Brain Sciences (PEBS) is a collaborative effort of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and the  Johns Hopkins Brain Sciences Institute . The goal of PEBS is to ensure that research in brain science proceeds with an informed understanding of ethical issues, and that philosophical and empirical analyses of the advances in brain research proceed with an informed understanding of the science. With the PEBS Neuroethics News Roundup, we will present a weekly survey of the most pertinent and thought-provoking new articles from both peer-reviewed academic journals and the popular press.

Oxytocin and Envy

MindHacks covers recent research suggesting that oxytocin may not only enhance positively-valenced emotions associated with trust, it may also enhance emotions like envy.  Some non-human animal research suggests it also enhances aggression.  So, the authors of a recent Scientific American article "conclude that, rather than being a something that promotes trust and bonding, oxytocin enhances all social emotions, including the good, the bad and the ugly."

See here for the MindHacks post, here for the SciAm article, and here for the abstract of the study on oxytocin and envy.

Kahan on Cultural Cognition & "Acquaintance Rape"

"Culture, Cognition, and Consent: Who Perceives What, and Why, in 'Acquaintance Rape' Cases" 

Cultural Cognition Project Working Paper No. 29

DAN M. KAHAN, Yale University - Law School
This paper uses the theory of cultural cognition to examine the debate over rape-law reform. Cultural cognition refers to the tendency of individuals to conform their perceptions of legally consequential facts to their defining group commitments. Results of an original experimental study (N = 1,500) confirmed the impact of cultural cognition on perceptions of fact in a controversial acquaintance-rape case. The major finding was that a hierarchical worldview, as opposed to an egalitarian one, inclined individuals to perceive that the defendant reasonably understood the complainant as consenting to sex despite her repeated verbal objections. The effect of hierarchy in inclining subjects to favor acquittal was greatest among women; this finding was consistent with the hypothesis that hierarchical women have a distinctive interest in stigmatizing rape complainants whose behavior deviates from hierarchical gender norms. The study also found that cultural predispositions have a much larger impact on outcome judgments than do legal definitions, variations in which had either no or a small impact on the likelihood subjects would support or oppose conviction. The paper links date-rape reform to a class of controversies in law that reflect symbolic status competition between opposing cultural groups, and addresses the normative implications of this conclusion.