Neurotech, neuroethics and brain data in context: Are “neurorights” the way to mental privacy?

By The Conversation | August 10, 2023

Neu­rotech­nolo­gies – devices that inter­act direct­ly with the brain or ner­vous sys­tem – were once dis­missed as the stuff of sci­ence fic­tion. Not any­more. Sev­er­al com­pa­nies are try­ing to devel­op brain-com­put­er inter­faces, or BCIs, in hopes of help­ing patients with severe paral­y­sis or oth­er neu­ro­log­i­cal dis­or­ders. Entre­pre­neur Elon Musk’s com­pa­ny Neu­ralink, for exam­ple, recent­ly received…

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Dos and Don’ts of Therapy on the Go: Navigating the use of apps for mental health care

By The Conversation | June 13, 2022

It might be sur­pris­ing to think about brows­ing for ther­a­pists and order­ing up men­tal health care the way you can peruse a menu on Grub­hub or sum­mon a car on Lyft. But over the last decade, dig­i­tal access to ther­a­py has become increas­ing­ly com­mon, in some cas­es replac­ing the tra­di­tion­al mod­el of in-per­­son week­ly ses­sions between…

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On Awe, Wonder, Biofeedback, CBSM, Virtual Reality, Privacy, Being Wrong, and more

By SharpBrains | March 31, 2021

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, this time fea­tur­ing eleven time­ly resources and research find­ings for life­long brain health and men­tal well-being. #1. “Awe is the feel­ing we expe­ri­ence when encoun­ter­ing vast things that we don’t under­stand. Around the world and in cul­tur­al­ly vary­ing ways, stud­ies show, we expe­ri­ence awe in response to…

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Consumer Reports finds unclear, questionable privacy practices and policies among popular mental health apps

By SharpBrains | March 4, 2021

Men­tal Health Apps Aren’t All As Pri­vate As You May Think (Con­sumer Reports): Type “men­tal health” or a con­di­tion such as anx­i­ety or depres­sion into an app store search bar, and you can end up scrolling through end­less screens of options. As a recent Con­sumer Reports inves­ti­ga­tion has found, these apps take wide­ly var­ied approaches…

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

By Alvaro Fernandez | March 12, 2020

How to address pri­va­cy, eth­i­cal and reg­u­la­to­ry issues: Exam­ples in cog­ni­tive enhance­ment, depres­sion and ADHD from Sharp­Brains 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…

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

By SharpBrains | November 22, 2019

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…

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