Can we be epigenetically proactive?

The human brain is an essentially evaluative organ endowed with reward systems engaged in learning and memory as well as in higher evaluative tendencies. Our innate species-specific, neuronally-based identity disposes us to develop universal evaluative tendencies, such as self-interest, control-orientation, dissociation, selective sympathy, empathy, and xenophobia. The combination of these tendencies may place us in a predicament. Our neuronal identity makes us social, but also individualistic and self-projective, with an emotional and intellectual engagement that is far more narrowly focused in space and time than the effects of our actions. However, synaptic epigenesis theories of cultural and social imprinting on our brain architecture suggest that there is a possibility of culturally influencing these predispositions. In an analysis of epigenesis by selective stabilisation of synapses, I discuss the relationships between genotype and brain phenotype: the paradox of non-linear evolution between genome and brain complexity; the selection of cultural circuits in the brain during development; and the genesis and epigenetic transmission of cultural imprints. I proceed to discuss the combinatorial explosion of brain representations, and the channelling of behaviour through “epigenetic rules” and top-down control of decision-making. In neurobiological terms, these “rules” are viewed as acquired patterns of connections (scaffoldings), hypothetically stored in frontal cortex long-term memory, which frame the genesis of novel representations and regulate decision-making in a top-down manner. Against that background I propose the possibility of being epigenetically proactive, and adapting our social structures, in both the short and the long term, to benefit, influence, and constructively interact with the ever-developing neuronal architecture of our brains

Mind Reading: a neurophilosophical perspective

Hasta ahora, el acceso a otras mentes presuponía las expresiones y narraciones de los individuos. En la actualidad, se han desarrollado varios métodos que pueden medir los estados cerebrales relevantes para valorar las facultades mentales sin que se manifieste en 1ª persona habla o comportamiento externo alguno. La resonancia magnética funcional y el condicionamiento de huella se emplean fuera del ámbito clínico para acceder a la conciencia subjetiva; se utilizan clínicamente para identificar patrones de actividad en el cerebro que sugieran la presencia de conciencia en personas que sufren trastornos graves de conciencia y métodos para comunicarse cerebralmente con pacientes con incapacidad motora para comunicarse. En este capítulo, examinamos las posibilidades y los límites del acceso a otras mentes mediante interfaces cerebro-máquina. Exponemos que estas técnicas auguran importantes avances médicos y abren nuevas perspectivas de comunicación y para entender la conciencia, sin embargo, también plantean preocupaciones éticas, en especial el uso incorrecto como consecuencia de las expectativas creadas y las malas interpretacionesHasta ahora, el acceso a otras mentes presuponía las expresiones y narraciones de los individuos. En la actualidad, se han desarrollado varios métodos que pueden medir los estados cerebrales relevantes para valorar las facultades mentales sin que se manifieste en 1ª persona habla o comportamiento externo alguno. La resonancia magnética funcional y el condicionamiento de huella se emplean fuera del ámbito clínico para acceder a la conciencia subjetiva; se utilizan clínicamente para identificar patrones de actividad en el cerebro que sugieran la presencia de conciencia en personas que sufren trastornos graves de conciencia y métodos para comunicarse cerebralmente con pacientes con incapacidad motora para comunicarse. En este capítulo, examinamos las posibilidades y los límites del acceso a otras mentes mediante interfaces cerebro-máquina. Exponemos que estas técnicas auguran importantes avances médicos y abren nuevas perspectivas de comunicación y para entender la conciencia, sin embargo, también plantean preocupaciones éticas, en especial el uso incorrecto como consecuencia de las expectativas creadas y las malas interpretaciones.Access to other minds once presupposed other individuals’ expressions and narrations. Today, several methods have been developed which can measure brain states relevant for assessments of mental states without 1st person overt external behavior or speech. Functional magnetic resonance imaging and trace conditioning are used non-clinically to access subjective awareness; they are used clinically to identify patterns of activity in the brain that suggest the presence of consciousness in people suffering from severe consciousness disorders and methods to communicate cerebrally with patients who are motorically unable to communicate. In this chapter, we inspect possibilities and limits of brain-machine interface access to other minds. We argue that these techniques hold promises of important medical breakthroughs, open up new vistas of communication, and of understanding consciousness, yet they also give rise to ethical concerns, notably misuse as a consequence of hypes and misinterpretations

Desafíos epistémicos de los gemelos digitales y los cerebros virtuales: perspectivas desde la neuroética fundamental

In this article, we present and analyse the concept of Digital Twin (DT) linked to distinct types of objects (artefacts, natural, inanimate or living) and examine the challenges involved in creating them from a fundamental neuroethics approach that emphasises conceptual analyses. We begin by providing a brief description of DTs and their initial devel-opment as models of artefacts and physical inanimate objects, identifying core challenges in building these tools and noting their intended benefits. Next, we describe attempts to build DTs of model living entities, such as hearts, highlighting the novel challenges raised by this shift from DTs of inanimate objects to DTs of living objects. Against that background, we give an account of contemporary research aiming to develop DTs of the human brain by building “virtual brains”, e.g. the simulation engine The Virtual Brain (TVB) as it is carried out in the European Human Brain Project. Since the brain is structurally and functionally the most complex organ in the human body, and our integrated knowledge of its functional architecture remains limited in spite of recent neuroscientific advances, the attempts to create virtual copies of the human brain are correspondingly challenging. We suggest that a clear scientific theoretical structure, conceptual clarity and transparency regarding the methods and goals of this technological development are necessary prerequisites in order to make the project of constructing virtual brains a theoretically promising and socially beneficial scientific, technological and philosophical enterprise.En este artículo, presentamos y analizamos el concepto de gemelo digital vinculado a distintos tipos de objetos (artefactos, objetos naturales, animados e inanimados) y examinamos los desafíos que presenta su creación utilizando la perspectiva de la neuroética fundamental que enfatiza el análisis conceptual. Comenzamos con una breve descrip-ción de los gemelos digitales y de su desarrollo inicial como modelos de artefactos y objetos físicos no animados, identificando los desafíos centrales que presenta su construcción y destacando sus beneficios. Luego describimos intentos de construir gemelos digitales de entes vivos, como el corazón, identificando los desafíos novedosos que se plantean en este caso. A continuación describimos estudios contemporáneos que tienen como objeto desarrollar gemelos digitales del cerebro humano por medio de la construcción de “cerebros virtuales”, tal como se lleva a cabo en el Human Brain Project europeo por medio del motor de simulación The Virtual Brain (TVB). Si consideramos que el cerebro es el órgano mas complejo del cuerpo humano, tanto estructural como funcionalmente, y teniendo en cuenta que nuestro conocimiento integral de su arquitectura funcional sigue siendo limitado, los intentos de crear copias virtuales del cerebro humanos constituyen un reto significativo. Sugerimos que una estructura científicamente clara y una transparencia conceptual sobre los métodos y fines de este desarrollo tecnológico son requisitos necesarios para lograr que el proyecto de construir cerebros virtuales se convierta en una iniciativa teóricamente prometedora, así como científica, social y filosóficamente beneficiosa.Filosofí

Biomedical research involving patients with disorders of consciousness: ethical and legal dimensions

The directive 2001/20/UE and the research involving patients with docs. Research  involving patients with disorders of consciousness (DOCs) deserves special ethical and  legal attention because of its Janus-faced nature. On the one hand, it raises concerns  about the risk to expose the involved subjects to disproportionate risks not respecting  their individual dignity, particularly their right to be cared for; on the other hand, research  is  an  essential  tool  in  order  to  improve  the  clinical  condition  of  patients  with  DOCs. The present paper concerns the ethical and legal dimensions of biomedical research  involving  patients  with  disorders  of  consciousness.  In  particular,  it  focuses  on  informed consent to experimental treatments, which is a challenging issue both from an  ethical and legal point of view. The first part reads the Directive 2001/20/EU in the light  of the experimentation of patients with DOCs, and suggests a revision in order to better  assess the issue of informed consent.The particular case of informed consent for observational studies of non-communicative patients. The second part presents an informed consent form for studies through  video-recording of patients unable to communicate their own consent. This form has  been elaborated by the bioethics unit of the project “Review of the nosography of vegetative states: application of methods of behavioral analysis to individuals in coma or  vegetative state” developed at the Italian National Institute of Health.Relevance of the suggested form. The paper describes the conceptual framework of  the form for informed consent to studies through video-recoding, which is a relevant  example of what issues should be included in an informed consent for any type of studies  through video-recording of patients unable to express their own consent. The article has  been sent on November the 7th 2013, before the adoption of the Regulation (EU) no.  536/2014 (and consequent abrogation of the Directive 2001/20/EU) and the release of  the new edition of the Italian Code of Medical Ethics. 

Drug Addiction: From Neuroscience to Ethics

In the present paper, we suggest a potential new ethical analysis of addiction focusing on the relationship between aware and unaware processing in the brain. We take the case of the opioids epidemics to argue that a consideration of both aware and unaware processing provides a more comprehensive ethical framework to discuss the ethical issues raised by addiction. Finally, our hypothesis is that in addition to identified Central Nervous System's neuronal/neurochemical factors contributing to addictive dynamics, the socio-economic status plays a causal role through epigenetic processes, originating the need for additional reward in the brain. This provides a strong base for a socio-political form of responsibility for preventing and managing addiction crisis

The coming decade of digital brain research: a vision for neuroscience at the intersection of technology and computing

In recent years, brain research has indisputably entered a new epoch, driven by substantial methodological advances and digitally enabled data integration and modelling at multiple scales— from molecules to the whole brain. Major advances are emerging at the intersection of neuroscience with technology and computing. This new science of the brain combines high-quality research, data integration across multiple scales, a new culture of multidisciplinary large-scale collaboration and translation into applications. As pioneered in Europe’s Human Brain Project (HBP), a systematic approach will be essential for meeting the coming decade’s pressing medical and technological challenges. The aims of this paper are to: develop a concept for the coming decade of digital brain research, discuss this new concept with the research community at large, to identify points of convergence, and derive therefrom scientific common goals; provide a scientific framework for the current and future development of EBRAINS, a research infrastructure resulting from the HBP’s work; inform and engage stakeholders, funding organisations and research institutions regarding future digital brain research; identify and address the transformational potential of comprehensive brain models for artificial intelligence, including machine learning and deep learning; outline a collaborative approach that integrates reflection, dialogues and societal engagement on ethical and societal opportunities and challenges as part of future neuroscience research

Eléments de l'éthique scientifique

Evers Kathinka. Eléments de l'éthique scientifique. In: Diplômées, n°198, 2001. Séminaire AFFDU - Currier (29-30 mars 2001) : Former à l'éthique : un défi pour l'enseignement supérieur en France, en Europe, aux Etats-Unis. pp. 228-232

Neurotechnological assessment of consciousness disorders : five ethical imperatives

Disorders of consciousness (DOCs) cause great human suffering and material costs for society. Understanding of these disorders has advanced remarkably in recent years, but uncertainty remains with respect to the diagnostic criteria and standards of care. One of the most serious problems concerns misdiagnoses, their impact on medical decision-making, and on patients' well-being. Recent studies use neurotechnology to assess residual consciousness in DOC patients that traditional behavioral diagnostic criteria are unable to detect. The results show an urgent need to strengthen the development of new diagnostic tools and more refined diagnostic criteria. If residual consciousness may be inferred from robust and reproducible results from neurotechnological communication with DOC patients, this also raises ethical challenges. With reference to the moral notions of beneficence and fundamental rights, five ethical imperatives are here suggested in terms of diagnosis, communication, interpretation of subjective states, adaptation of living conditions, and care