Big data, small law: how gaps in regulation are affecting political campaigning methods and the need for fundamental reform

Technological developments, involving big data and data analytics, have enabled political parties and campaign groups to believe that they know or can accurately predict the political leanings of individual voters. Based on these developments, and coupled with psychological research deepening our understanding of decision making, campaign techniques involving individualised and targeted social media political advertisements have emerged. While research is not able to measure what impact, if any, these advertisements have there is a concern regarding the capacity of these techniques to influence in a non-transparent way by deceptively using personal data. In addition to protecting personal data, the law assumes that the electorate must maintain a ‘free mind’ and there must be a level playing field between political opponents. The current statutory framework is marked by an overlapping application of the Data Protection Act 2018, replacing the 1998 Act; the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000; the Representation of the People Act 1983; and, the Communications Act 2005. As the evidence published in relation to several inquiries into these issues indicates, the gaps in the way this area is regulated means the law cannot adequately deal with the issues posed by the collection and use of personal data for the design and deployment of targeted social media political campaign advertisements. Further, the dependence upon these techniques by political parties and campaign groups mean that the necessary comprehensive reforms may never be made

Introduction to a comparative study of the right to freedom of thought

This is the introduction for the special issue on a comparative study of the right to freedom of thought across several jurisdictions including the UK, Ireland, Canada and the USA as well as the regional jurisdictions of the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Ministry of Defence impunity: the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Act 2021

This article critically interrogates the policy objectives of the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Act 2021 and its means to achieve them. While the Ministry of Defence claimed the legislation aimed to protect service personnel and veterans from the “problem of ‘lawfare’” following “repeated investigations … in connection with historical operations”, the Act, despite amendments, continues to strengthen impunity of the British Government for human rights violations, and international and domestic crimes committed in overseas military operations. It does so through three flawed modus operandi: introducing an unwarranted presumption against prosecutions, the superfluous curtailing of judicial discretion over time limitations to bring tort and human rights claims, and the securing of finality of claims despite less-than-adequate investigations. As such, the Act remains deeply problematic as it intentionally curtails the bringing of the types of claims that led to the International Criminal Court’s probe into British war crimes in Iraq. It is argued that the consequences of the Act’s policy aims are symptomatic of the British state’s refusal to confront the crimes, liability, and human rights violations of proximate military conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan and limit claims arising from abuse committed during future overseas operations. More generally, the Act is part of a wider attempt by this government to put the executive beyond legal or parliamentary reproach

A distinct right to freedom of thought in South America: the Jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Neurotechnology and the application of Bioethics principles

The right to freedom of thought is guaranteed by Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights, yet current jurisprudence interprets the right as a mere dimension of freedom of expression, also protected by Article 13. Contemporary neurotechnology research presents the possibility for human thoughts to be tracked, recorded, analysed and predicted. This applies pressure upon the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ current understanding of the right to freedom of thought. Firstly, this paper will examine how Article 13 has been interpreted by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights at different stages of its jurisprudence. Secondly, by considering both technological advances and the other rights guaranteed by the Convention, this paper argues for an evolution in the interpretation of Article 13 whereby the right to freedom of thought is understood as a distinct right, separate from freedom of expression. Finally, this paper proposes that the positive duty to secure Convention rights requires States to enact preventative legislation and regulations. Existing bioethics principles should be drawn upon to inform human rights compliant laws and regulations that require the architectural design of technologies to limit the potential to infringe upon freedom of thought

Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus modulates sensitivity to decision outcome value in Parkinson's disease.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus in Parkinson's disease is known to cause a subtle but important adverse impact on behaviour, with impulsivity its most widely reported manifestation. However, precisely which computational components of the decision process are modulated is not fully understood. Here we probe a number of distinct subprocesses, including temporal discount, outcome utility, instrumental learning rate, instrumental outcome sensitivity, reward-loss trade-offs, and perseveration. We tested 22 Parkinson's Disease patients both on and off subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS), while they performed an instrumental learning task involving financial rewards and losses, and an inter-temporal choice task for financial rewards. We found that instrumental learning performance was significantly worse following stimulation, due to modulation of instrumental outcome sensitivity. Specifically, patients became less sensitive to decision values for both rewards and losses, but without any change to the learning rate or reward-loss trade-offs. However, we found no evidence that DBS modulated different components of temporal impulsivity. In conclusion, our results implicate the subthalamic nucleus in a modulation of outcome value in experience-based learning and decision-making in Parkinson's disease, suggesting a more pervasive role of the subthalamic nucleus in the control of human decision-making than previously thought.GRF gratefully acknowledges support by the German Research Council (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, KFO-219). Ray Dolan is supported by the Wellcome Trust (R.J.D., Senior Investigator Award 098362/Z/12/Z) and the the Senate of Berlin (R.J.D., Einstein Fellowship). Ben Seymour is funded by the Wellcome Trust and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan; Peter Dayan is funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation

The effect of motivation on movement: a study of bradykinesia in Parkinson's disease.

Bradykinesia is a cardinal feature of Parkinson's disease (PD). Despite its disabling impact, the precise cause of this symptom remains elusive. Recent thinking suggests that bradykinesia may be more than simply a manifestation of motor slowness, and may in part reflect a specific deficit in the operation of motivational vigour in the striatum. In this paper we test the hypothesis that movement time in PD can be modulated by the specific nature of the motivational salience of possible action-outcomes

Generation of broad XUV continuous high harmonic spectra and isolated attosecond pulses with intense mid-infrared lasers

We present experimental results showing the appearance of a near-continuum in the high-order harmonic generation (HHG) spectra of atomic and molecular species as the driving laser intensity of an infrared pulse increases. Detailed macroscopic simulations reveal that these near-continuum spectra are capable of producing IAPs in the far field if a proper spatial filter is applied. Further, our simulations show that the near-continuum spectra and the IAPs are a product of strong temporal and spatial reshaping (blue shift and defocusing) of the driving field. This offers a possibility of producing IAPs with a broad range of photon energy, including plateau harmonics, by mid-IR laser pulses even without carrier-envelope phase stabilization.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to J.Phys. B (Oct 2011

Features of the Extension of a Statistical Measure of Complexity to Continuous Systems

We discuss some aspects of the extension to continuous systems of a statistical measure of complexity introduced by Lopez-Ruiz, Mancini and Calbet (LMC) [Phys. Lett. A 209 (1995) 321]. In general, the extension of a magnitude from the discrete to the continuous case is not a trivial process and requires some choice. In the present study, several possibilities appear available. One of them is examined in detail. Some interesting properties desirable for any magnitude of complexity are discovered on this particular extension.Comment: 22 pages, 0 figure

Can goal-setting for patients with multimorbidity improve outcomes in primary care? Cluster randomised feasibility trial

Introduction: Goal-setting is recommended for patients with multimorbidity, but there is little evidence to support its use in general practice. Objective: To assess the feasibility of goal-setting for patients with multimorbidity, before undertaking a definitive trial. Design and setting: Cluster-randomised controlled feasibility trial of goal-setting compared to control in six general practices. Participants: Adults with 2 or more long term health conditions and at risk of unplanned hospital admission. Interventions: General Practitioners (GPs) underwent training and patients were asked to consider goals before an initial goal-setting consultation and a follow-up consultation six months later. The control group received usual care planning. Outcome measures: Health-related quality of life (EQ5D5L), capability (ICEpop CAPability measure for Older people (ICECAP-O)), patient assessment of chronic illness care (PACIC) and health care use. All consultations were video or audio-recorded, and focus groups were held with participating GPs and patients. Results: Fifty-two participants were recruited with a response rate of 12%. Full follow-up data were available for 41. In the goal-setting group, mean age was 80.4 years 54% were female and the median number of prescribed medications was 13, compared to 77.2 years, 39% female and 11.5 medications in the control group. The mean initial consultation time was 23.0 minutes in the goal-setting group and 19.2 in the control group. Overall 28% of patient participants had no cognitive impairment. Participants set between one and three goals on a wide range of subjects, such as chronic disease management, walking, maintaining social and leisure interests, and weight management. Patient participants found goal-setting acceptable and would have liked more frequent follow-up. GPs unanimously liked goal-setting, felt it delivered more patient-centred care and highlighted the importance of training. Conclusions: This goal-setting intervention was feasible to deliver in general practice. A larger, definitive study is needed to test its effectiveness

The human connectome project for disordered emotional states: Protocol and rationale for a research domain criteria study of brain connectivity in young adult anxiety and depression

Available online 5 March 2020.Through the Human Connectome Project (HCP) our understanding of the functional connectome of the healthy brain has been dramatically accelerated. Given the pressing public health need, we must increase our understanding of how connectome dysfunctions give rise to disordered mental states. Mental disorders arising from high levels of negative emotion or from the loss of positive emotional experience affect over 400 million people globally. Such states of disordered emotion cut across multiple diagnostic categories of mood and anxiety disorders and are compounded by accompanying disruptions in cognitive function. Not surprisingly, these forms of psychopathology are the leading cause of disability worldwide. The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative spearheaded by NIMH offers a framework for characterizing the relations among connectome dysfunctions, anchored in neural circuits and phenotypic profiles of behavior and self-reported symptoms. Here, we report on our Connectomes Related to Human Disease protocol for integrating an RDoC framework with HCP protocols to characterize connectome dysfunctions in disordered emotional states, and present quality control data from a representative sample of participants. We focus on three RDoC domains and constructs most relevant to depression and anxiety: 1) loss and acute threat within the Negative Valence System (NVS) domain; 2) reward valuation and responsiveness within the Positive Valence System (PVS) domain; and 3) working memory and cognitive control within the Cognitive System (CS) domain. For 29 healthy controls, we present preliminary imaging data: functional magnetic resonance imaging collected in the resting state and in tasks matching our constructs of interest (“Emotion”, “Gambling” and “Continuous Performance” tasks), as well as diffusion-weighted imaging. All functional scans demonstrated good signal-to-noise ratio. Established neural networks were robustly identified in the resting state condition by independent component analysis. Processing of negative emotional faces significantly activated the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal and occipital cortices, fusiform gyrus and amygdalae. Reward elicited a response in the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal, parietal and occipital cortices, and in the striatum. Working memory was associated with activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal, parietal, motor, temporal and insular cortices, in the striatum and cerebellum. Diffusion tractography showed consistent profiles of fractional anisotropy along known white matter tracts. We also show that results are comparable to those in a matched sample from the HCP Healthy Young Adult data release. These preliminary data provide the foundation for acquisition of 250 subjects who are experiencing disordered emotional states. When complete, these data will be used to develop a neurobiological model that maps connectome dysfunctions to specific behaviors and symptoms.This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [grant number U01MH109985 under PAR-14-281]