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41Sternberg, Eliezer J. 2010. My Brain Made Me Do It: The Rise of Neuroscience and the Threat to Moral Responsibility: Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, ISBN: 978-1-6161-4165-4, pp. 244 (review)Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 8 (3): 299-300. 2011.
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113Updating our Selves: Synthesizing Philosophical and Neurobiological Perspectives on Incorporating New Information into our WorldviewNeuroethics 11 (3): 273-282. 2015.Given the ubiquity and centrality of social and relational influences to the human experience, our conception of self-governance must adequately account for these external influences. The inclusion of socio-historical, externalist considerations into more traditional internalist accounts of autonomy has been an important feature of the debate over personal autonomy in recent years. But the relevant socio-temporal dynamics of autonomy are not only historical in nature. There are also important, a…Read more
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83Pre-Authorization: A Novel Decision-Making Heuristic That May Promote AutonomyAmerican Journal of Bioethics 16 (5): 27-29. 2016.In this commentary on an article by Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby (AJOB 16:5-15, 2016), we discuss how external influences on decisions affect personal autonomy. Specifically, we introduce the idea of “pre-authorization” as an evaluative stance by which an individual gives a certain agent preferential access to influencing her decision-making processes. Influences arising from pre-authorized agents may then be seen as promoting, rather than infringing upon, autonomy. While the idea that an external …Read more
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31Perceptions of Undue Influence Shed Light on the Folk Conception of AutonomyFrontiers in Psychology 9 392196. 2018.Advances in psychology and neuroscience have elucidated the social aspects of human agency, leading to a broad shift in our thinking about fundamental concepts such as autonomy and responsibility. Here, we address a critical aspect of this inquiry by investigating how people consider the socio-relational nature of their own agency, particularly the influence of others on their perceived control over their decisions and actions. Specifically, in a series of studies using contrastive vignettes, we…Read more
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11Experimental NeuroethicsIn Saskia K. Nagel (ed.), Shaping Children: Ethical and Social Questions That Arise When Enhancing the Young, Springer Verlag. pp. 75-83. 2019.Ethical discourse draws upon information from various disciplines to promote normative conclusions. In this chapter, we review one particular method—the contrastive vignette technique —that has been fruitfully used as a quantitative means of exploring public attitudes towards ethically challenging issues. The chapter serves as a practical guide to the design and use of CVT in neuroethical inquiry, a technique we term experimental neuroethics.
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22Norman Doidge, The Brain that Changes Itself.1 (review)American Journal of Bioethics 8 (1): 62-63. 2008.
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1006Digital Wellness and Persuasive TechnologiesPhilosophy and Technology 34 (3): 413-424. 2019.The development of personal technologies has recently shifted from devices that seek to capture user attention to those that aim to improve user well-being. Digital wellness technologies use the same attractive qualities of other persuasive apps to motivate users towards behaviors that are personally and socially valuable, such as exercise, wealth-management, and meaningful communication. While these aims are certainly an improvement over the market-driven motivations of earlier technologies, th…Read more
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34Skillful Use of Technologies of the Extended Mind Illuminate Practical Paths Toward an Ethics of ConsciousnessFrontiers in Psychology 9. 2018.
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6Quantitative Anticipatory Ethical Analysis Should Inform Neurotechnology DevelopmentAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 8 (2): 75-77. 2017.Effective neuromodulation of the human brain is a central objective of neuroscience, with clear applications for restoring, and even enhancing, neural function. Whether it is a pill that modifies p...
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7Shifting One's Worldview to Neurocentrism May Be Troubling, But the Evidence That This Is the Cause of Maladaptation in DBS Patients Is LackingAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 5 (4): 42-44. 2014.
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20The Emotional Impact of ‘Study Drugs’: Unsurprising and UnconvincingAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 4 (1): 20-21. 2013.
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4Having the Capacity for Autonomy Is Insufficient to Provide Meaningful AutonomyAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 4 (4): 52-53. 2013.Dubljević (2013) does an admirable job of revisiting the role of autonomy as a cherished value in modern human affairs. He suggests that it is premature to propose, as we have (Felsen and Reiner 20...
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13Neuroscience Evidence Should be Incorporated Into Our Ethical PracticesAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 1 (4): 36-38. 2010.
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16Prototypes or Pragmatics? The Open Question of Public Attitudes Toward EnhancementAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 2 (2): 49-50. 2011.Banja (2011) nimbly analyzes how a particular strain of conceptual myopia corrodes the rigor of “moral conservative” arguments in bioethics, particularly on the topic of human enhancement. We find...
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17How the Neuroscience of Decision Making Informs Our Conception of AutonomyAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 2 (3): 3-14. 2011.Autonomy, the ability to make decisions for ourselves about ourselves, is among the most prized of human liberties. In this review we reconsider the key conditions necessary for autonomous decision making, long debated by moral philosophers and ethicists, in light of current neuroscientific evidence. The most widely accepted criteria for autonomy are that decisions are made by a rationally deliberative and reflective agent and that these decisions are free of undue external influences. The corpu…Read more
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57Public Attitudes Towards Moral Enhancement. Evidence that Means Matter MorallyNeuroethics 10 (3): 405-417. 2017.To gain insight into the reasons that the public may have for endorsing or eschewing pharmacological moral enhancement for themselves or for others, we used empirical tools to explore public attitudes towards these issues. Participants from the United States were recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and were randomly assigned to read one of several contrastive vignettes in which a 13-year-old child is described as bullying another student in school and then is offered an empathy-enhancing prog…Read more
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1474Public Attitudes Toward Cognitive EnhancementNeuroethics 7 (2): 173-188. 2013.Vigorous debate over the moral propriety of cognitive enhancement exists, but the views of the public have been largely absent from the discussion. To address this gap in our knowledge, four experiments were carried out with contrastive vignettes in order to obtain quantitative data on public attitudes towards cognitive enhancement. The data collected suggest that the public is sensitive to and capable of understanding the four cardinal concerns identified by neuroethicists, and tend to cautious…Read more
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26Unintended Benefits Arising from Cell-Based Interventions for Neurological ConditionsAmerican Journal of Bioethics 9 (5): 51-52. 2009.
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54Reasons for Comfort and Discomfort with Pharmacological Enhancement of Cognitive, Affective, and Social DomainsNeuroethics 8 (2): 93-106. 2014.The debate over the propriety of cognitive enhancement evokes both enthusiasm and worry. To gain further insight into the reasons that people may have for endorsing or eschewing pharmacological enhancement, we used empirical tools to explore public attitudes towards PE of twelve cognitive, affective, and social domains. Participants from Canada and the United States were recruited using Mechanical Turk and were randomly assigned to read one vignette that described an individual who uses a pill t…Read more
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37The challenge of crafting policy for do-it-yourself brain stimulationJournal of Medical Ethics 41 (5): 410-412. 2015.Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a simple means of brain stimulation, possesses a trifecta of appealing features: it is relatively safe, relatively inexpensive and relatively effective. It is also relatively easy to obtain a device and the do-it-yourself (DIY) community has become galvanised by reports that tDCS can be used as an all-purpose cognitive enhancer. We provide practical recommendations designed to guide balanced discourse, propagate norms of safe use and stimulate dial…Read more
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45Balancing Autonomy and Decisional Enhancement: An Evidence-Based ApproachAmerican Journal of Bioethics 12 (2): 30-31. 2012.The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 12, Issue 2, Page 30-31, February 2012
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46The Multiplicity of Memory Enhancement: Practical and Ethical Implications of the Diverse Neural Substrates Underlying Human Memory SystemsNeuroethics 10 (3): 375-388. 2016.The neural basis of human memory is incredibly complex. We argue that the diversity of neural systems underlying various forms of memory suggests that any discussion of enhancing ‘memory’ per se is too broad, thus obfuscating the biopolitical debate about human enhancement. Memory can be differentiated into at least four major systems with largely dissociable neural substrates. We outline each system, and discuss both the practical and the ethical implications of these diverse neural substrates.…Read more
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112Stigma and Addiction: Being and BecomingAmerican Journal of Bioethics 9 (9): 18-19. 2009.No abstract
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80What can Neuroscience Contribute to the Debate Over Nudging?Review of Philosophy and Psychology 6 (3): 469-479. 2015.Strategies for improving individual decision making have attracted attention from a range of disciplines. Surprisingly, neuroscience has been largely absent from this conversation, despite the fact that it has recently begun illuminating the neural bases of how and why we make decisions, and is poised for further such advances. Here we address empirical and normative questions about “nudging” through the lens of neuroscience. We suggest that the neuroscience of decision making can provide a fram…Read more
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42Autonomy Support to Foster Individuals’ FlourishingAmerican Journal of Bioethics 13 (6): 36-37. 2013.
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68The ambiguity regarding whether a given intervention is perceived as enhancement or as therapy might contribute to the angst that the public expresses with respect to endorsement of enhancement. We set out to develop empirical data that explored this. We used Amazon Mechanical Turk to recruit participants from Canada and the United States. Each individual was randomly assigned to read one vignette describing the use of a pill to enhance one of 12 cognitive, affective or social domains. The vigne…Read more
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University of British ColumbiaRegular Faculty
Areas of Specialization
Normative Ethics |
Philosophy of Cognitive Science |