A Critical Analysis of Neural Buddhism\u27s Explanation of Moral Transformation

As non-theistic arguments for morality become increasingly sophisticated and complex, they are harder to criticize without first admiring their skillful design and near-artistry. One such argument involves a relatively new innovation that is the child of naturalism and eastern philosophy—Neural Buddhism. Like two world-renowned designers collaborating on a new garment, Naturalism and Buddhism have come together in this distinct program to offer something inventive, especially in its explanation of moral transformation. However, this critical analysis will ultimately reveal that Neural Buddhism’s explanation of moral transformation is incapable of providing good answers to several compelling criticisms

A principled and cosmopolitan neuroethics: considerations for international relevance

Neuroethics applies cognitive neuroscience for prescribing alterations to conceptions of self and society, and for prescriptively judging the ethical applications of neurotechnologies. Plentiful normative premises are available to ground such prescriptivity, however prescriptive neuroethics may remain fragmented by social conventions, cultural ideologies, and ethical theories. Herein we offer that an objectively principled neuroethics for international relevance requires a new meta-ethics: understanding how morality works, and how humans manage and improve morality, as objectively based on the brain and social sciences. This new meta-ethics will simultaneously equip neuroethics for evaluating and revising older cultural ideologies and ethical theories, and direct neuroethics towards scientifically valid views of encultured humans intelligently managing moralities. Bypassing absolutism, cultural essentialisms, and unrealistic ethical philosophies, neuroethics arrives at a small set of principles about proper human flourishing that are more culturally inclusive and cosmopolitan in spirit. This cosmopolitanism in turn suggests augmentations to traditional medical ethics in the form of four principled guidelines for international consideration: empowerment, non-obsolescence, self-creativity, and citizenship

Racial Expectancy Violations in Mixed-Race Minimal Groups

Previous research has found differential neural processing to racial ingroup and outgroup faces and greater neural processing for individuals who violate social expectations in the early attentional components of the ERP. Other lines of research using behavioral paradigms and fMRI methodology have demonstrated the ability of minimal group assignment to override race effects. This research sought to combine these lines of research to investigate the effects of an arbitrary group membership on attention in a racial expectancy violation paradigm, as measured by P2 amplitude. Hypotheses were generally unsupported but two effects were found that merit discussion. That is, we replicated previous person perception research by showing that participants show larger P2 amplitudes to racial outgroup members and extended the minimal groups literature by showing that racially stereotypical minimal outgroup targets elicit more P2 processing than other combinations. Limitations, implications and future directions are discussed

Using an Ethics of Care to Re-interpret Consent in the Management of Care for Addiction Disorders

Patients who suffer from the biological, genetic, epigenetic neurocognitive dysfunction and social sequela of substance use disorders and addiction require the empowering support from healthcare professionals; necessitating the need to utilize an ethics of care to re-interpret consent for the management of care for those who suffer from substance use disorders and addiction. The care of the ‘other’ should embrace a care paradigm that is relational and collaborative in order to eliminate constructs of stigma, moral weakness and individual blame, which isolates those who manifest the trajectory of harms associated with addiction pathology. Relational consent and an ethics of care seeks to enhance the relational decision-making processes for those who experience the complications from this stress surfeit and executive cognitive functioning disorder. The re-interpretation of consent seeks to improve patient outcomes, improve quality of healthcare delivery and enhance human dignity for vulnerable populations

A Pragmatic Analysis of the Regulation of Consumer Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (TDCS) Devices in the United States

Several recent articles have called for the regulation of consumer transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) devices, which provide low levels of electrical current to the brain. However, most of the discussion to-date has focused on ethical or normative considerations; there has been a notable absence of scholarship regarding the actual legal framework in the United States. This article aims to fill that gap by providing a pragmatic analysis of the consumer tDCS market and relevant laws and regulations. In the five main sections of this manuscript, I take into account (a) the history of the do-it-yourself tDCS movement and the subsequent emergence of direct-to-consumer devices; (b) the statutory language of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and how the definition of a medical device—which focuses on the intended use of the device rather than its mechanism of action—is of paramount importance for discussions of consumer tDCS device regulation; (c) how both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and courts have understood the FDA\u27s jurisdiction over medical devices in cases where the meaning of ‘intended use’ has been challenged; (d) an analysis of consumer tDCS regulatory enforcement action to-date; and (e) the multiple US authorities, other than the FDA, that can regulate consumer brain stimulation devices. Taken together, this paper demonstrates that rather than a ‘regulatory gap,’ there are multiple, distinct pathways by which consumer tDCS can be regulated in the United States