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Researchers’ Ethical Concerns About Using Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation for Enhancement

The capacity of next-generation closed-loop or adaptive deep brain stimulation devices (aDBS) to read (measure neural activity) and write (stimulate brain regions or circuits) shows great potential to effectively manage movement, seizure, and psychiatric disorders, and also raises the possibility of...

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Autores principales: Kostick-Quenet, Kristin, Kalwani, Lavina, Koenig, Barbara, Torgerson, Laura, Sanchez, Clarissa, Munoz, Katrina, Hsu, Rebecca L., Sierra-Mercado, Demetrio, Robinson, Jill Oliver, Outram, Simon, Pereira, Stacey, McGuire, Amy, Zuk, Peter, Lazaro-Munoz, Gabriel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9050172/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35496073
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.813922
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author Kostick-Quenet, Kristin
Kalwani, Lavina
Koenig, Barbara
Torgerson, Laura
Sanchez, Clarissa
Munoz, Katrina
Hsu, Rebecca L.
Sierra-Mercado, Demetrio
Robinson, Jill Oliver
Outram, Simon
Pereira, Stacey
McGuire, Amy
Zuk, Peter
Lazaro-Munoz, Gabriel
author_facet Kostick-Quenet, Kristin
Kalwani, Lavina
Koenig, Barbara
Torgerson, Laura
Sanchez, Clarissa
Munoz, Katrina
Hsu, Rebecca L.
Sierra-Mercado, Demetrio
Robinson, Jill Oliver
Outram, Simon
Pereira, Stacey
McGuire, Amy
Zuk, Peter
Lazaro-Munoz, Gabriel
author_sort Kostick-Quenet, Kristin
collection PubMed
description The capacity of next-generation closed-loop or adaptive deep brain stimulation devices (aDBS) to read (measure neural activity) and write (stimulate brain regions or circuits) shows great potential to effectively manage movement, seizure, and psychiatric disorders, and also raises the possibility of using aDBS to electively (non-therapeutically) modulate mood, cognition, and prosociality. What separates aDBS from most neurotechnologies (e.g. transcranial stimulation) currently used for enhancement is that aDBS remains an invasive, surgically-implanted technology with a risk-benefit ratio significantly different when applied to diseased versus non-diseased individuals. Despite a large discourse about the ethics of enhancement, no empirical studies yet examine perspectives on enhancement from within the aDBS research community. We interviewed 23 aDBS researchers about their attitudes toward expanding aDBS use for enhancement. A thematic content analysis revealed that researchers share ethical concerns related to (1) safety and security; (2) enhancement as unnecessary, unnatural or aberrant; and (3) fairness, equality, and distributive justice. Most (70%) researchers felt that enhancement applications for DBS will eventually be technically feasible and that attempts to develop such applications for DBS are already happening (particularly for military purposes). However, researchers unanimously (100%) felt that DBS ideally should not be considered for enhancement until researchers better understand brain target localization and functioning. While many researchers acknowledged controversies highlighted by scholars and ethicists, such as potential impacts on personhood, authenticity, autonomy and privacy, their ethical concerns reflect considerations of both gravity and perceived near-term likelihood.
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spelling pubmed-90501722022-04-29 Researchers’ Ethical Concerns About Using Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation for Enhancement Kostick-Quenet, Kristin Kalwani, Lavina Koenig, Barbara Torgerson, Laura Sanchez, Clarissa Munoz, Katrina Hsu, Rebecca L. Sierra-Mercado, Demetrio Robinson, Jill Oliver Outram, Simon Pereira, Stacey McGuire, Amy Zuk, Peter Lazaro-Munoz, Gabriel Front Hum Neurosci Neuroscience The capacity of next-generation closed-loop or adaptive deep brain stimulation devices (aDBS) to read (measure neural activity) and write (stimulate brain regions or circuits) shows great potential to effectively manage movement, seizure, and psychiatric disorders, and also raises the possibility of using aDBS to electively (non-therapeutically) modulate mood, cognition, and prosociality. What separates aDBS from most neurotechnologies (e.g. transcranial stimulation) currently used for enhancement is that aDBS remains an invasive, surgically-implanted technology with a risk-benefit ratio significantly different when applied to diseased versus non-diseased individuals. Despite a large discourse about the ethics of enhancement, no empirical studies yet examine perspectives on enhancement from within the aDBS research community. We interviewed 23 aDBS researchers about their attitudes toward expanding aDBS use for enhancement. A thematic content analysis revealed that researchers share ethical concerns related to (1) safety and security; (2) enhancement as unnecessary, unnatural or aberrant; and (3) fairness, equality, and distributive justice. Most (70%) researchers felt that enhancement applications for DBS will eventually be technically feasible and that attempts to develop such applications for DBS are already happening (particularly for military purposes). However, researchers unanimously (100%) felt that DBS ideally should not be considered for enhancement until researchers better understand brain target localization and functioning. While many researchers acknowledged controversies highlighted by scholars and ethicists, such as potential impacts on personhood, authenticity, autonomy and privacy, their ethical concerns reflect considerations of both gravity and perceived near-term likelihood. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-04-14 /pmc/articles/PMC9050172/ /pubmed/35496073 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.813922 Text en Copyright © 2022 Kostick-Quenet, Kalwani, Koenig, Torgerson, Sanchez, Munoz, Hsu, Sierra-Mercado, Robinson, Outram, Pereira, McGuire, Zuk and Lazaro-Munoz. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Kostick-Quenet, Kristin
Kalwani, Lavina
Koenig, Barbara
Torgerson, Laura
Sanchez, Clarissa
Munoz, Katrina
Hsu, Rebecca L.
Sierra-Mercado, Demetrio
Robinson, Jill Oliver
Outram, Simon
Pereira, Stacey
McGuire, Amy
Zuk, Peter
Lazaro-Munoz, Gabriel
Researchers’ Ethical Concerns About Using Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation for Enhancement
title Researchers’ Ethical Concerns About Using Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation for Enhancement
title_full Researchers’ Ethical Concerns About Using Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation for Enhancement
title_fullStr Researchers’ Ethical Concerns About Using Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation for Enhancement
title_full_unstemmed Researchers’ Ethical Concerns About Using Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation for Enhancement
title_short Researchers’ Ethical Concerns About Using Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation for Enhancement
title_sort researchers’ ethical concerns about using adaptive deep brain stimulation for enhancement
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9050172/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35496073
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.813922
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