Neuroethics & Law Blog

The Journal of Law and the Biosciences Online Now

I'm pleased to be a member of the editorial board of The Journal of Law and the Biosciences. Best of all: it's open access and shaping up to be a top-notch journal. Here's the TOC for the first issue:

Edward S. Dove, Bartha M. Knoppers, and Ma’n H. Zawati, Towards an ethics safe harbor for global biomedical research, J Law Biosci (March 2014) 1 (1): 3-51 doi:10.1093/jlb/lst002

Rebecca Dresser, Public preferences and the challenge to genetic research policy, J Law Biosci (March 2014) 1 (1): 52-67 doi:10.1093/jlb/lst001

Hannah Maslen, Thomas Douglas, Roi Cohen Kadosh, Neil Levy, and Julian Savulescu,The regulation of cognitive enhancement devices: extending the medical model, J Law Biosci (March 2014) 1 (1): 68-93 doi:10.1093/jlb/lst003

Timothy Caulfield, Sarah Burningham, Yann Joly, Zubin Master, Mahsa Shabani, Pascal Borry, Allan Becker, Michael Burgess, Kathryn Calder, Christine Critchley, Kelly Edwards, Stephanie M. Fullerton, Herbert Gottweis, Robyn Hyde-Lay, Judy Illes, Rosario Isasi, Kazuto Kato, Jane Kaye, Bartha Knoppers, John Lynch, Amy McGuire, Eric Meslin, Dianne Nicol, Kieran O’Doherty, Ubaka Ogbogu, Margaret Otlowski, Daryl Pullman, Nola Ries, Chris Scott, Malcolm Sears, Helen Wallace, and Ma’n H. Zawati, A review of the key issues associated with the commercialization of biobanks, J Law Biosci (March 2014) 1 (1): 94-110 doi:10.1093/jlb/lst004

Our 9th Blogiversary!

I'm pleased to report that the Neuroethics & Law Blog turns nine years old today. It's a fitting occasion to note that NELB will soon host its first ever online book symposium. Check back here on Monday for all the details!

PEBS Neuroethics Roundup (JHU)

Last Edition's Most Popular Article(s): Science in court: Smart enough to die?, Nature News In The Popular Press Losing the scent: Digital information is depriving our brains, Medium What Four Months on Mars Taught Me About Boredom, Gizmodo Monkey brains wired to share, Nature News Schizophrenic and Wanting to Connect, New York Times Well Blog Today’s Apps Are Turning Us Into Sociopaths, Wired Jane’s Brain: Neuroethics and the Intelligence Community, The Neuroethics Blog Are the robots about to rise? Google's new director of engineering thinks so…, The Guardian Deep Learning: Teaching Computers To Tell Things Apart, National Public Radio All Tech Considered   The Brain's Inner Language, New York Times The Scientifically Best Time to Drink Coffee, in One Simple Graphic, Gizmodo How do we really make decisions?, BBC News Disconnecting Consciousness from the External Environment, Discover Magazine Blogs Sick cities: why urban living can be bad for your mental health, The Guardian Stupider With Monogamy, New York Times  Our blender brain: How mixing ideas made us human, New Scientist  The way a room is lit can affect the way you make decisions, Science Daily New cache of fresh neurons found in human brains, New Scientist  Do invertebrates feel pain?, New Scientists  Dogs' brain scans reveal vocal responses, BBC News Science  N.Y. Becomes Largest Prison System To Curb Solitary Confinement, National Public Radio Brain zap rouses people from years of vegetative state, NewScientist From the Academic Literature: When “I” becomes “We”: ethical implications of emerging brain-to-brain interfacing technologies, Frontiers in Neuroengineering   Brain correlates of music-evoked emotions, Nature Reviews Neuroscience  Fear: Balancing Memories, Nature Reviews Neuroscience  Learning and Memory: Unlearning fear, Nature Reviews Neuroscience  Placebo analgesia and reward processing: Integrating genetics, personality, and intrinsic brain activity, Human Brain Mapping Nucleus Accumbens Specific Interventions in RGS9-2 Activity Modulate Responses to Morphine, Neuropsychopharmacology  Human–Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) reciprocity: a follow-up study, Animal Cognition  Infants temporally coordinate gesture-speech combinations before they produce their first words, Speech Communication  A temporal basis for predicting the sensory consequences of motor commands in an electric fish, Nature Neuroscience   Palmitoylation of δ-catenin by DHHC5 mediates activity-induced synapse plasticity, Nature Neuroscience  Neurogenesis in the Striatum of the Adult Human Brain, Cell The hippocampal CA2 region is essential for social memory, Nature Letter

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.

PEBS Neuroethics Roundup (JHU)

Last Edition's Most Popular Article(s): Cure for love: Should we take anti-love drugs?, New Scientist  In The Popular Press Robots with human-like brains to take on Mars unaided, New Scientist  Master monkey's brain controls sedated 'avatar', BBC News Health Scientists call solitary confinement 'damaging and unnecessary', BBC News Science in court: Smart enough to die?, Nature News Intelligent testing, Nature Editorial  The medicine in our minds, BBC News Health Is the Universe a Simulation?, New York Times Feeling is Believing, The Scientist Children Exposed to More Brain-Harming Chemicals Than Ever Before, Time Healthland On Neurolaw Revolutions, Neuroethics & Law Blog Thinking it through: Scientists seek to unlock mysteries of the brain, Science Daily What Causes Aftertaste?, Gizmodo How do brains come to matter?, Neuroethics at the Core Loneliness twice as unhealthy as obesity for older people, study finds, The Guardian How Creativity Works: Neil Gaiman on Where Ideas Comes From, Brain Pickings Taking your brain for a walk: the secret to delaying dementia, The Guardian Spit test could allow depression screening at school, New Scientist  Itching: More Than Skin-Deep, New York Times A brain circuit for recognizing change, Science Daily Your Brain Now Processes a Smiley Face as a Real Smile, Smithsonian Magazine The Art of Texting While Walking, New York Times Well Blog The Genetics of Being a Daredevil, New York Times Well Blog How parasites manipulate us, BBC News From the Academic Literature: A cortical–spinal prosthesis for targeted limb movement in paralysed primate avatars, Nature Communications  Multisystem Component Phenotypes of Bipolar Disorder for Genetic Investigations of Extended Pedigrees, JAMA Psychiatry  The neural correlates of worry in association with individual differences in neuroticism, Human Brain Mapping Frontostriatal activity and connectivity increase during proactive inhibition across adolescence and early adulthood, Human Brain Mapping Converging Genetic and Functional Brain Imaging Evidence Links Neuronal Excitability to Working Memory, Psychiatric Disease, and Brain Activity, Neuron On the other hand: including left-handers in cognitive neuroscience and neurogenetics, Nature Reviews Neuroscience  Resting Brain Activity Varies with Dream Recall Frequency Between Subjects, Neuropsychopharmacology  Neuroethics and Animals: Method and Philosophy, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics

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.

On Neurolaw Revolutions

I just had a new article published entitled, Will There Be a Neurolaw Revolution?. You can download the full-text for free here. The abstract is below.

Abstract:

The central debate in the field of neurolaw has focused on two claims. Joshua Greene and Jonathan Cohen argue that we do not have free will and that advances in neuroscience will eventually lead us to stop blaming people for their actions. Stephen Morse, by contrast, argues that we have free will and that the kind of advances Greene and Cohen envision will not and should not affect the law. I argue that neither side has persuasively made the case for or against a revolution in the way the law treats responsibility. 

There will, however, be a neurolaw revolution of a different sort. It will not necessarily arise from radical changes in our beliefs about criminal responsibility but from a wave of new brain technologies that will change society and the law in many ways, three of which I describe here: First, as new methods of brain imaging improve our ability to measure distress, the law will ease limitations on recoveries for emotional injuries. Second, as neuroimaging gives us better methods of inferring people’s thoughts, we will have more laws to protect thought privacy but less actual thought privacy. Finally, improvements in artificial intelligence will systematically change how law is written and interpreted.

(Photo by Tim Mantoani)

PEBS Neuroethics Roundup (JHU)

Last Edition's Most Popular Article(s): Psychiatrists Embrace Deep-Brain Stimulation, Scientific American In The Popular Press Cure for love: Should we take anti-love drugs?, New Scientist  Phantom Melodies Yield Real Clues to Brain’s Workings, New York Times Are we born with a moral core? The Baby Lab says 'yes', CNN Medication: The smart-pill oversell, Nature News Heroin, addiction and free will, Mind Hacks What Is Addiction?, New York Times What makes memories last? Prion-like proteins help create long-term memories, Science Daily Video: The Science of Kissing, YouTube Your epigenetics can be a pain, Science Daily Should We Care About the Moral Propriety of Cognitive Enhancement, Law and Biosciences Blog New pathway for fear discovered deep within brain, Science Daily Why Do We Get Nervous, Gizmodo Nutritional supplement improves cognitive performance in older adults, study finds, Science Daily A reality of dreams, Mind Hacks Examining Models for Integrating Ethics and Neuroscience Research, Bioethics.gov How Caffeinated Are Our Kids? Coffee Consumption Jumps, National Public Radio Perils and pleasures of mood-sensing technology, New Scientist  Is Ultrasonic Brain Stimulation The Future?, Discover Magazine “Faith, Values and Autism” A Symposium Held by the Marcus Autism Center and the Atlanta Autism Consortium, The Neuroethics Blog Video: Are We Our Brains?: Three Suggested Consequences From a Legal Perspective, Neuroethics at the Core From the Academic Literature: Now You Like Me, Now You Don’t: Impact of Labels on Odor Perception, Chemical Sciences Could Autism Be Treated Prenatally?, Science  Situationism and Moral Responsibility: Free Will in Fragments, SSRN A meta-analysis of sex differences in human brain structure, Neuroscience & Behavioral Reviews  Systematic network lesioning reveals the core white matter scaffold of the human brain, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience  Single nucleotide polymorphism in the neuroplastin locus associates with cortical thickness and intellectual ability in adolescents, Molecular Psychiatry Stress and glucocorticoids promote oligodendrogenesis in the adult hippocampus, Molecular Psychiatry

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.

PEBS Neuroethics Roundup (JHU)

Last Edition's Most Popular Article(s): Video: Patricia Churchland on the Colbert Report, Colbert Nation In The Popular Press Darkness sharpens hearing in adult mice, Nature News Psychiatrists Embrace Deep-Brain Stimulation, Scientific American Shooting Pills at Bipolar Disorder, The Atlantic  New Bionic Hand Gives Amputee a Grip — And a Sense of Touch, Wired Our Brains Rewrite Our Memories, Putting Present In The Past, National Public Radio Shots Does a looser mind lead to faster learning?, LA Times A brain surgery decades ago is getting a new look and raising questions about memory, Washington Post  Study Finds Changes in Brains of Hockey Players Who Had Concussions, New York Times Human Emotions Are Not as Complex as We Thought, Time Health & Family l What Musicians Can Tell Us About Dyslexia and the Brain, Wired Blazing Trails in Brain Science, New York Times Brain scans show we take risks because we can't stop ourselves, Science Daily Mind meld: The genius of swarm thinking, New Scientist  After 120 Years, Doctors Develop New Brain Surgery Technique, Gizmodo False memories: The hidden side of our good memory, Science Daily Neuroscience, Neuroethics, and Advertising, Stanford Center for Law and the Biosciences  All human behaviour can be reduced to 'four basic emotions', BBC News Worry on the brain: Researchers find new area linked to anxiety, Science Daily Neuroethics Journal Club: How early can signs of autism be detected in infants?, The Neuroethics Blog Lack of Consciousness, Lack of Responsibility?, Neuroethics at the Core Video: We Are Our Brain-Body Systems, Neuroethics at the Core The Best Concussion-Proof Helmets, Time Health & Family Revealing how the brain recognizes speech sounds, Science Daily To Study Aggression, a Fight Club for Flies, New York Times Sleep's Best-Kept Secret: A Treatment for Insomnia That's Not a Pill, Time Health & Family From the Academic Literature: Age-Related Differences in White Matter Tract Microstructure Are Associated with Cognitive Performance from Childhood to Adulthood, Biological Psychiatry  Cortical activity in the null space: permitting preparation without movement, Nature Neuroscience  Deficient neuron-microglia signaling results in impaired functional brain connectivity and social behavior, Nature Neuroscience  All that glitters is not BOLD: inconsistencies in functional MRI, Scientific Reports Predicting risky choices from brain activity patterns, PNAS Modafinil combined with cognitive training is associated with improved learning in healthy volunteers – A randomised controlled trial, European Neuropsychopharmacology  Deep brain stimulation for obsessive–compulsive disorder is associated with cortisol changes, Psychoneuroendocrinology  If Free Will Doesn't Exist, Neither Does Water, SSRN Comparison of fMRI BOLD Response Patterns by Electrical Stimulation of the Ventroposterior Complex and Medial Thalamus of the Rat, PLoS One

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.

"Situationism and Moral Responsibility: Free Will in Fragments"

Recently posted to SSRN (and published in Decomposing the Will, eds. Andy Clark, Julian Kiverstein, & Tillmann Vierkand)

"Situationism and Moral Responsibility: Free Will in Fragments"

MANUEL VARGAS, University of San Francisco

Many prominent accounts of free will and moral responsibility make use of the idea that agents can be responsive to reasons. Call such theories "Reasons" accounts. This chapter considers the tenability of Reasons accounts in light of situationist social psychology and, to a lesser extent, the automaticity literature. The first half of the chapter argues that Reasons accounts are genuinely threatened by results in contemporary psychology. The second half argues that these threats can largely be met, but that doing so requires abandoning a suite of familiar assumptions and expectations about responsible agency and Reasons accounts in particular. The chapter goes on to advance a new account of responsible agency that accommodates a variety of worries about situationism and automaticity.

"If Free Will Doesn't Exist, Neither Does Water"

Recently Posted on SSRN (and published  in Gregg D. Caruso, ed., Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Resposibility (Lexington Books 2013)):

"If Free Will Doesn't Exist, Neither Does Water"

MANUEL VARGAS, University of San Francisco

In recent years, a number of prominent scientists (e.g., Haggard, Montague, Bargh, Cohen and Greene, Cashmore, etc.) have argued that their particular disciplines, or science in general, shows the non-existence of free will. These claims are frequently demonstrably false or too hasty, given the way any attempt to settle the issue requires substantive commitments about disputed philosophical issues. This essay focuses on three recurring difficulties for scientific free will skeptics. First, despite frequent appeals to determinism in the work of scientists, it is unclear that determinism is more than a theoretical aspiration in many scientific fields. Second, scientific skeptics too quickly dismiss compatibilism as a definitional gambit, rather than a position that has to be addressed before skepticism carries the day. Third, the powers that constitute free will are plausibly high-level, multiply realizable properties that resist straightforward reduction to the properties that figure in many sciences. The upshot is that those who are attracted to scientific skepticism about free will are better served by adopting some form of revisionism about free will.

"Voluntariness and Causation for Criminal Offending Associated with Treatment of Parkinson's Disease"

Recently posted to SSRN (and published as a University of Queensland TC Beirne School of Law Research Paper):

"Voluntariness and Causation for Criminal Offending Associated with Treatment of Parkinson's Disease"

FRANCESCA BARTLETT, The University of Queensland - T.C. Beirne School of Law

In 2011, the former independent member of Tasmania’s Upper House and Mayor of Glenorchy, Terry Martin, was found guilty of a number of criminal acts. His defence claimed that his behaviour was “caused” by the prescribed medication he was taking. While this is by no means an isolated case in its general outline, the decision and a handful of criminal prosecutions in other jurisdictions, raise interesting legal and philosophical questions about how the law ought to respond to offences committed by persons who engage in compulsive behaviour that they claim have been induced by medication prescribed for a serious, degenerative disease – in this case, Parkinson’s disease.