Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Neuroethics

On schools, mental health, digital surveillance, student privacy and parental input

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Op-Ed: School sur­veil­lance on stu­dents’ lap­tops will not help solve the youth men­tal health cri­sis (Los Ange­les Times):

In the past year, school dis­tricts in Cal­i­for­nia and else­where have con­tract­ed with dig­i­tal sur­veil­lance com­pa­nies to spy on stu­dents at school and home, cit­ing the need for men­tal health sup­port dur­ing the pandemic.

Despite being a vig­i­lant and involved par­ent, I found out only recent­ly that my own kids, who attend high school in the Coro­na-Nor­co Uni­fied School Dis­trict, have been under con­stant dig­i­tal sur­veil­lance for the past year. [Read more…] about On schools, men­tal health, dig­i­tal sur­veil­lance, stu­dent pri­va­cy and parental input

Studies identify key ethical concerns raised by invasive and non-invasive neurotechnologies

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Stud­ies out­line key eth­i­cal ques­tions sur­round­ing brain-com­put­er inter­face tech (NCSU release):

Brain-com­put­er inter­face (BCI) tech­nolo­gies are no longer hypo­thet­i­cal, yet there are fun­da­men­tal aspects of the tech­nol­o­gy that remain unad­dressed by both ethi­cists and pol­i­cy-mak­ers. Two new papers address these issues by out­lin­ing the out­stand­ing eth­i­cal issues, offer­ing guid­ance for address­ing those issues, and offer­ing par­tic­u­lar insight into the field of BCI tech for cog­ni­tive enhance­ment. [Read more…] about Stud­ies iden­ti­fy key eth­i­cal con­cerns raised by inva­sive and non-inva­sive neurotechnologies

Lessons from Covid-19: Could a New Normal lead to better brains, bodies and societies?

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 Image cour­tesy of Pixabay

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In the age of Covid-19, what is the new nor­mal? How many of us have been expe­ri­enc­ing the heady cock­tail of con­fu­sion, anx­i­ety, and even some sur­pris­ing moments of respite from our recent-past busy rise-and-grind, hus­tle cul­ture routines?

Our social media feeds are filled with urgent and often con­flict­ing imper­a­tives to change our rou­tines and to direct increased vigilance:

  • don’t touch your face, wash our hands-don’t be obses­sive though;
  • cov­er our coughs with your elbow-not a tissue;
  • social dis­tance-with no inter­ac­tion, or maybe with some inter­ac­tion, just watch for your local busi­ness­es as you’re shel­ter­ing-in; and
  • no mat­ter what, don’t panic—you should be scared, but please, stay calm.

–> Keep read­ing my new arti­cle, co-authored with Dr. Karen S. Rom­melfanger, over at Emory Uni­ver­si­ty’s Neu­roethics blog: LESSONS FROM COVID-19: COULD A NEW NORMAL LEAD TO BETTER BRAINS, BODIES, AND SOCIETIES?

Will better neurotech regulations be enough to address privacy, effectiveness and potential harm concerns?

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See above the fas­ci­nat­ing pre­sen­ta­tions by Dr. Anna Wexler, Dr. Karen Rom­melfanger and Jacque­line Stud­er on pri­va­cy and ethics dur­ing the 2019 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit.

We still lack clear stan­dards and tax­onomies for neu­rotech­nol­o­gy but sev­er­al ini­tia­tives are under­way to antic­i­pate and address the chal­lenges. One impor­tant take-away is that it is impor­tant to be aspi­ra­tional and prag­mat­ic rather than “legal­is­tic” — by con­sid­er­ing diverse pol­i­cy and indus­try per­spec­tives, striv­ing for the widest ben­e­fit with the min­i­mum risks, and bet­ter edu­cat­ing users, we can enable ben­e­fi­cial inno­va­tion in ways that reg­u­la­tion alone –as impor­tant as it is– can­not. [Read more…] about Will bet­ter neu­rotech reg­u­la­tions be enough to address pri­va­cy, effec­tive­ness and poten­tial harm concerns?

Let’s anticipate the potential misuse of neurological data to minimize the risks–and maximize the benefits

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The per­ils of open­ing the mind (Boston Globe):

“For­get the joy­stick. Today you can use your mind alone to nav­i­gate vir­tu­al envi­ron­ments or fly real-world drones. You can buy sleek head­bands that read your brain sig­nals and help you med­i­tate or stay focused. Or you can get them for your kids to make sure they’re work­ing, not day­dream­ing [Read more…] about Let’s antic­i­pate the poten­tial mis­use of neu­ro­log­i­cal data to min­i­mize the risks–and max­i­mize the benefits

Update: A brain-friendly lifestyle is the best approach to delay cognitive decline and dementia

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While the hip­pocam­pus tends to shrink with age, which con­tributes to cog­ni­tive decline, a recent study shows that this is not always the case (see all those blue lines), sug­gest­ing it can be pos­si­ble to main­tain hip­pocam­pus vol­ume and cog­ni­tive func­tion into our lat­er years.

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Time to wrap-up anoth­er stim­u­lat­ing month with Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing this time a range of promis­ing news for every­one with a (human) brain 🙂

New tech for brain health:

New brain and mind research:

New thinking to shape education and healthcare:

Finally, a few riddles to tease your brain:

 

Have a great Thanks­giv­ing and December,

The Sharp­Brains Team