Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Neuroethics

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

Debate: What are the ethics of discouraging much-needed innovation given potential privacy concerns?

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CNN’s Ana Maria Mon­tero inter­views Ned Sahin. The dis­cus­sion about the impact of EU pri­va­cy laws starts in minute 10.

Sto­ry descrip­tion (CNN Mon­ey): Ned Sahin is founder and CEO of neu­rotech­nol­o­gy start-up Brain Pow­er, whose tool “Empow­er Me” uses smart glass­es like Google Glass to coach those with autism. It helps school­child­ren learn social and cog­ni­tive skills and can even guide adults through an inter­view process. Brain Power’s prod­uct is sold to many schools in the U.S. but may nev­er make it to mar­ket in Switzer­land [Read more…] about Debate: What are the ethics of dis­cour­ag­ing much-need­ed inno­va­tion giv­en poten­tial pri­va­cy con­cerns?

Neuroengineering meets neuroethics to address treatment-resistant depression

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Dr. Maryam Shanechi. Cred­it: USC Viter­bi

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Is This the Future of Men­tal Health? (USC Viter­bi School of Engi­neer­ing):

“Brain–machine inter­faces (BMIs) pro­vide a direct path­way to the brain to trans­late brain sig­nals into actions … Below, Shanechi (Note: Maryam Shanechi, PhD, assis­tant pro­fes­sor of elec­tri­cal and com­put­er engi­neer­ing) answers some ques­tions about her work and what the future might hold for our under­stand­ing and treat­ment of men­tal dis­or­ders.

What poten­tial does this hold for the future not just of men­tal health, but of under­stand­ing our brains as a whole?

Neu­ropsy­chi­atric dis­or­ders are a major cause of dis­abil­i­ty world­wide with depres­sive dis­or­ders being the most dis­abling among them. About 30% of major depres­sion patients are treat­ment-resis­tant – that’s about 5 mil­lion peo­ple in the US alone. [Read more…] about Neu­ro­engi­neer­ing meets neu­roethics to address treat­ment-resis­tant depres­sion