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Neuroethics (Brain Imaging (Owen (A patient in a vegetative state could…
Neuroethics
Brain Imaging
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Lewis: Measured morals & identified brain areas that correlate --> e.g. area shows increased volume if you have high fairness
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Group correlations are unjustified to make reverse inferences to personality & mindset of individuals
Nishimoto
Mapped responses of the early visual cortex during movie watching - showed new movies to the participants
Used the neural responses only to reconstruct images from the movies. However, computational reconstruction model is trained a-priori on a variety of movies
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Owen
A patient in a vegetative state could follow instructions - to imagine playing tennis vs. walking around house
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Used this task to ask 'yes/no' questions of patients, with some promising results
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Cases
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Schoolteacher Case
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A year later, the tendencies re-appear, and a brain scan demonstrates the tumour grew back
Fundamental Questions
- Does biology determine behaviour?
- If biology does, to what extent are we still accountable for our actions "Crime wasn't my fault, it was my brain"
Diagnostics
MRI as a Diagnostic Tool
Lockwood: Teen boys (10-16 y/os) with conduct problems: aggression, theft, cruelty to others - tested responses to seeing others in pain & given questionnaire
Lower response in the anterior insula & anterior cingulate cortex when seeing others in pain --> normally activated when seeing others in pain
Anti-social behaviour, lack of empathy, diminished guilt and risk at developing adult psychology
Investigation
- Brain responses to seeing other's in pain
- Questionnaire on callous traits
Diagnostic Consequences
- For the Individual:
- Condemning to pathology
- False positive results
- Personal responsibility
For Society:
- Protecting others
- Every intervention --> reduce criminality
- Statistic outliers could indicate problem
MRI for Lie Detection
The main problem with fMRI based lie detection:
- In most lab studies, subjects are instructed to explicitly lie or tell the truth
- Brain activity for truth telling or lying is easily confounded with effects of attention, memory, cognitive load & emotional arousal
- Psychopathy changes brain responses related to deception
- Low sensitivity & low specificity of the test
Drug Enhancements
Ritalin
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Treatment for ADHD but many children without ADHD are given retaken to improve attention & performance
Problems for individual:
- Long term risks? Do they outweigh the benefits
- Evolutionary considerations:
- Some cognitive 'limitations' might be there for a good reason
Problems for society:
- Enhancements will not be fairly distributed
- Exacerbation of inequalities due to socio-economic status
- Coercion in the workplace/school/university?
- Widespread enhancements will raise our standards of normality --> people who opt out are disadvantaged, in effect a form of indirect coercion
Prozac
An SSRI to treat depression, OCD, anxiety etc.
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2005, 10% of US population received a prescription for antidepressants (lots of profit for drug companies)
Drug companies want to make money in the long run so they have an interest in:
- More people being diagnosed with a pathology
- People taking medication for a long period of time
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Outline
Neuroethics is concerned with ethical, legal & social implications of neuroscience research findings, and with the nature of the research itself