Neuroethics & Law Blog

"Tiger Club Strikes Back: Memoirs of an Ex-Child Prodigy About Parenting and Legal Education"

Recently Posted to SSRN:

"Tiger Club Strikes Back: Memoirs of an Ex-Child Prodigy About Parenting and Legal Education"

PETER H. HUANG 

This Essay critically reflects upon Professor Amy Chua’s memoir about being a tiger parent by offering a complementary personal memoir about growing up as a tiger cub. In so doing, this Essay examines some of the pros and cons of tiger parenting. This Essay advances three central proposals. First, this Essay suggests that a central goal of legal pedagogy and parenting should be to develop and improve Judgment and Decision Making (JDM) skills because they are crucial to achieving career and life satisfaction. In particular, tiger parenting and traditional doctrinal law school classes spend much time on developing what are known as system two JDM skills and spend little time on improving what are known as system one JDM skills. System two reasoning is analytical, cognitive, conscious, controlled, deliberative, effortful, logical, rule-based, and slow; while system one is affective, associative, automatic, fast, habitual, heuristic-based, holistic, intuitive, and unconscious. Second, this Essay advocates that law professors can reform legal education and parents can improve how they raise their kids by teaching more about emotions and emotional intelligence. Third, this Essay proposes that education about character, ethics, professionalism, values, and virtues is crucial to achieving lasting career satisfaction and sustainable personal happiness.

"Lies, Damn Lies and Placebos: A Comment on Foreid et al"

Lies, Damn Lies and Placebos: A Comment on Foreid et al by Christopher James Ryan has been published in the most recent issue of Neuroethics.

PEBS Neuroethics Roundup (JHU)

Last Edition's Most Popular Article: On the consequences of personhood, Neuroethics at the Core In The Popular Press: Study Finds Signs of Awareness in 3 'Vegetative' Patients, New York Times Discovering Consciousness in the 'Permanently Unconscious': What Should We Do? Practical Ethics Blog We All Experience Fantasy Differently, Which Determines How Much We Enjoy It, Science Daily Video: Could a pill boost my memory, BBC Newsnight Video: TED Talk lokos at the purpose of the brain, SCOPE  Video: TED Talk Paul Zak on Trust, Morality, and Oxytocin, TED It Takes Two: Brains Come Wired for Cooperation, Neuroscientists Discover, Science Daily  A Brief Guide to Embodied Cognition: Why You Are Not Your Brain, Scientific American Brain washing in post-war London, Mind Hacks Bodies in Motion: An Exchange, New York Times The Opinionator  Brains Built to Cooperate, Scientific American Nicotine Causes Epigenetic Changes in Mice that Spur Cocaine Addiction, Discover 80beats The strange and curious history of lobotomy, BBC News Neural Networking: Your Brain's Internal Connections Operate Like a Country Club, Scientific American   Scientists make step towards using brain scans to predict outcome of psychotic episodes, EurekaAlert! Video: Bionic legs developed by Scots engineers go on sale, BBC News Myths about our minds, BBC News Are You a Moral Relativist? Take This Test to Find Out, Scientific American Why do some people seek out fear when others can't escape theirs?, The Guardian The Neuroscience of Barbie, Scientific American From the Academic Literature: Learning To The Left Makes The Eiffel Tower Seem Smaller: Posture-Modulated Thought, Psychological Science  Reducing the Burden of Stereotype Threat Eliminates Age Differences in Memory Distortion, Psychological Science  The Brain's Social Network, Science  Cognitive appraisal and life stress moderate the effects of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism on amygdala reactivity, Human Brain Mapping Dorsolateral Prefrontal γ-Aminobutyric Acid in Men Predicts Individual Differences in Rash Impulsivity, Biological Psychiatry Does Memory Modification Threaten Our Authenticity?, Neuroethics

Subscribe to our mailing list 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.

EEG To Detect PVS Diagnosis Errors

You may well know about the work of Adrian Owen and others to use fMRI to determine that some people who were believed to be in a persistent vegetative state were actually minimally conscious.  They've extended their work using much cheaper and easier EEG techniques.  I expect this will be big news.  Story here. 

"Is There a Need for Clinical Neuroskepticism?"

Is There a Need for Clinical Neuroskepticism? by Eran Klein has been published in the most recent issue of Neuroethics:

Abstract

Clinical neuroethics and neuroskepticism are recent entrants to the vocabulary of neuroethics. Clinical neuroethics has been used to distinguish problems of clinical relevance arising from developments in brain science from problems arising in neuroscience research proper. Neuroskepticism has been proposed as a counterweight to claims about the value and likely implications of developments in neuroscience. These two emergent streams of thought intersect within the practice of neurology. Neurologists face many traditional problems in bioethics, like end of life care in the persistent vegetative state, determination of capacity in progressive dementia, and requests for assisted suicide in cognition-preserving neurodegenerative disease (like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). Neurologists also look to be at the forefront of downstream clinical applications of neuroscience, like pharmacological enhancement of mental life. At the same time, the practice of neurology, concerned primarily with the structure, function, and treatment of the nervous system, has historically fostered a kind of skeptical attitude toward its own subject matter. Not all problems that appear primarily neurological are primarily neurological. This disciplinary skepticism is generally clinical in orientation and limited in scope. The rise of interest in clinical neuroethics and in neuroskepticsim generally suggests a possible broader application. The clinical skepticism of neurology provides impetus for thinking about the appropriate role for skepticism in clinical areas of neuroethics. After a brief review of neuroskepticism and clinical neuroethics, a taxonomy of clinical neuroskepticism is offered and reasons why a stronger rather than weaker form of clinical neuroskepticism is currently warranted.

"Does Memory Modification Threaten Our Authenticity?"

Does Memory Modification Threaten Our Authenticity? by Alexandre Erler has been published in the most recent issue of Neuroethics:

Abstract

One objection to enhancement technologies is that they might lead us to live inauthentic lives. Memory modification technologies (MMTs) raise this worry in a particularly acute manner. In this paper I describe four scenarios where the use of MMTs might be said to lead to an inauthentic life. I then undertake to justify that judgment. I review the main existing accounts of authenticity, and present my own version of what I call a “true self” account (intended as a complement, rather than a substitute, to existing accounts). I briefly describe current and prospective MMTs, distinguishing between memory enhancement and memory editing. Moving then to an assessment of the initial scenarios in the light of the accounts previously described, I argue that memory enhancement does not, by its very nature, raise serious concerns about authenticity. The main threat to authenticity posed by MMTs comes, I suggest, from memory editing. Rejecting as inadequate the worries about identity raised by the President’s Council on Bioethics in Beyond Therapy, I argue instead that memory editing can cause us to live an inauthentic life in two main ways: first, by threatening its truthfulness, and secondly, by interfering with our disposition to respond in certain ways to some past events, when we have reasons to respond in such ways. This consideration allows us to justify the charge of inauthenticity in cases where existing accounts fail. It also gives us a significant moral reason not to use MMTs in ways that would lead to such an outcome.

Review Committee Says Dutch Professor Falsified Data

Story here.  The piece ends with this curious line:

In his statement, Stapel didn't directly say what his motivations were. He said he had succumbed to competitive pressures and the need to publish. But he said "it's important to me to underline that the mistakes I made weren't for selfish reasons."

PEBS Neuroethics Roundup (JHU)

Last Edition's Most Popular Article: Drugs to Treat A.D.H.D. Reach the Preschool Set, New York Times In The Popular Press: On the consequences of personhood, Neuroethics at the Core The Case of the Haunted Golf Club, Science Now Curiosity Is Critical to Academic Performance, Science Daily Subjects Move Virtual Chopper with Thoughts, Scientific American   Decoding the Brain's Cacophony, New York Times Influencing Craving for Cigarettes by Stimulating the Brain, Science Daily Screen Time Higher Than Ever for Children, New York Times Glass Half Full or Faulty Frontal Lobe?, Brain Blogger More clues in the genetics of schizophrenia, Nature News Schizophrenia: 100 years of bad treatment, The Guardian   The Science of Happiness, Scientific American DNA gene find 'transforms' theories on how brain works, BBC News Cognitive enhancers questionnaire, New Scientist  Why Fingernails on Blackboards Sounds So Horrible, Wired Science  Why feeling disgust can be good for us, BBC News Man with schizophrenia has out-of-body experience in lab, gains knowledge, controls his psychosis, Discover Blogs Not Exactly Rocket Science  From the Academic Literature: Special Issue on Neuroscience: The Autism Enigma, Nature Toward an experimental exploration of the complexity of human social interactions, PNAS FGF2 gene transfer restores hippocampal functions in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease and has therapeutic implications for neurocognitive disorders, PNAS Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of the Superior Frontal Gyrus Modulates Craving for Cigarettes, Biological Psychiatry  High Dimensional Endophenotype Ranking in the Search for Major Depression Risk Genes, Biological Psychiatry Voltage-Dependent Mania After Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation in Parkinson's Disease: A Case Report, Biological Psychiatry Impact of acute stress on human brain microstructure: An MR diffusion study of earthquake survivors, Human Brain Mapping

Subscribe to our mailing list 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.

"Cognitive Enhancement, Virtue Ethics and the Good Life"

Cognitive Enhancement, Virtue Ethics and the Good Life by Barbro Elisabeth Esmeralda Fröding has been published in the most recent issue of Neuroethics:

Abstract

This article explores the respective roles that medical and technological cognitive enhancements, on the one hand, and the moral and epistemic virtues traditionally understood, on the other, can play in enabling us to lead the good life. It will be shown that neither the virtues nor cognitive enhancements (of the kind we have access to today or in the foreseeable future) on their own are likely to enable most people to lead the good life. While the moral and epistemic virtues quite plausibly are both necessary and sufficient for the good life in theory, virtue ethics is often criticised for being elitist and unachievable in practice for the vast majority. Some cognitive enhancements, on the other hand, might be necessary for the good life but are far from sufficient for such an existence. Here it will be proposed that a combination of virtue and some cognitive enhancements is preferable.

"More on the Conceptual and the Empirical: Misunderstandings, Clarifications, and Replies"

More on the Conceptual and the Empirical: Misunderstandings, Clarifications, and Replies by Michael S. Pardo and Dennis Patterson has been published in the most recent issue of Neuroethics:

Abstract

At the invitation of the Editors, we wrote an article (entitled, “Minds, Brains, and Norms”) detailing our views on a variety of claims by those arguing for the explanatory power of neuroscience in matters of law and ethics. The Editors invited comments on our article from four distinguished academics (Walter Glannon, Carl Craver, Sarah Robins, and Thomas Nadelhoffer) and invited our reply to their critique of our views. In this reply to our commentators, we correct some potential misunderstandings of our views and further clarify our positions with discussions of the conceptual-empirical distinction, rule-following, explanations at the personal and subpersonal levels, memory, and lie detection. Although we acknowledge many of the criticisms advanced by our distinguished colleagues, we conclude that, in several important respects, their criticisms confirm the points made in our original article.