•  84
    A Young Scientists’ Perspective on DBS: A Plea for an International DBS Organization
    with Rowan P. Sommers, Roy Dings, Koen I. Neijenhuijs, Hannah Andringa, Sebastian Arts, Daphne van de Bult, Laura Klockenbusch, Emiel Wanningen, and Leon C. de Bruin
    Neuroethics 8 (2): 187-190. 2015.
    Our think tank tasked by the Dutch Health Council, consisting of Radboud University Nijmegen Honours Academy students with various backgrounds, investigated the implications of Deep Brain Stimulation for psychiatric patients. During this investigation, a number of methodological, ethical and societal difficulties were identified. We consider these difficulties to be a reflection of a still fragmented field of research that can be overcome with improved organization and communication. To this eff…Read more
  •  49
    A Young Scientists’ Perspective on DBS: A Plea for an International DBS Organization
    with Leon Bruin, Emiel Wanningen, Laura Klockenbusch, Daphne Bult, Sebastian Arts, Hannah Andringa, Koen Neijenhuijs, Roy Dings, and Rowan Sommers
    Neuroethics 8 (2): 187-190. 2015.
    Our think tank tasked by the Dutch Health Council, consisting of Radboud University Nijmegen Honours Academy students with various backgrounds, investigated the implications of Deep Brain Stimulation for psychiatric patients. During this investigation, a number of methodological, ethical and societal difficulties were identified. We consider these difficulties to be a reflection of a still fragmented field of research that can be overcome with improved organization and communication. To this eff…Read more
  •  92
    What do mirror neurons mirror?
    with Sebo Uithol, Iris van Rooij, and Harold Bekkering
    Philosophical Psychology 24 (5). 2011.
    Single cell recordings in monkeys provide strong evidence for an important role of the motor system in action understanding. This evidence is backed up by data from studies of the (human) mirror neuron system using neuroimaging or TMS techniques, and behavioral experiments. Although the data acquired from single cell recordings are generally considered to be robust, several debates have shown that the interpretation of these data is far from straightforward. We will show that research based on s…Read more
  •  187
    Brain–computer interfacing technologies are used as assistive technologies for patients as well as healthy subjects to control devices solely by brain activity. Yet the risks associated with the misuse of these technologies remain largely unexplored. Recent findings have shown that BCIs are potentially vulnerable to cybercriminality. This opens the prospect of “neurocrime”: extending the range of computer-crime to neural devices. This paper explores a type of neurocrime that we call brain-hackin…Read more
  •  45
    Minding Rights: Mapping Ethical and Legal Foundations of ‘Neurorights’
    Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 32 (4): 461-481. 2023.
    The rise of neurotechnologies, especially in combination with artificial intelligence (AI)-based methods for brain data analytics, has given rise to concerns around the protection of mental privacy, mental integrity and cognitive liberty – often framed as “neurorights” in ethical, legal, and policy discussions. Several states are now looking at including neurorights into their constitutional legal frameworks, and international institutions and organizations, such as UNESCO and the Council of Eur…Read more
  •  100
    “The Neuroscience of Responsibility”—Workshop Report
    with Nicole A. Vincent and Gert-Jan Lokhorst
    Neuroethics 4 (2): 175-178. 2010.
    This is a report on the 3-day workshop “The Neuroscience of Responsibility” that was held in the Philosophy Department at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands during February 11th–13th, 2010. The workshop had 25 participants from The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, UK, USA, Canada and Australia, with expertise in philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry and law. Its aim was to identify current trends in neurolaw research related specifically to the topic of responsibility, and …Read more
  •  8
    Reflection Machines: Supporting Effective Human Oversight Over Medical Decision Support Systems
    with Hanna Schraffenberger, Serge Thill, Simon Fischer, Pablo Lanillos, Sebastiaan van de Groes, and Miranda van Hooff
    Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 1-10. forthcoming.
    Human decisions are increasingly supported by decision support systems (DSS). Humans are required to remain “on the loop,” by monitoring and approving/rejecting machine recommendations. However, use of DSS can lead to overreliance on machines, reducing human oversight. This paper proposes “reflection machines” (RM) to increase meaningful human control. An RM provides a medical expert not with suggestions for a decision, but with questions that stimulate reflection about decisions. It can refer t…Read more
  •  24
    Intentional machines: A defence of trust in medical artificial intelligence
    with Georg Starke, Rik Brule, and Bernice Simone Elger
    Bioethics 36 (2): 154-161. 2021.
    Bioethics, Volume 36, Issue 2, Page 154-161, February 2022.
  •  39
    Intentional machines: A defence of trust in medical artificial intelligence
    with Georg Starke, Rik van den Brule, and Bernice Simone Elger
    Bioethics 36 (2): 154-161. 2021.
    Trust constitutes a fundamental strategy to deal with risks and uncertainty in complex societies. In line with the vast literature stressing the importance of trust in doctor–patient relationships, trust is therefore regularly suggested as a way of dealing with the risks of medical artificial intelligence (AI). Yet, this approach has come under charge from different angles. At least two lines of thought can be distinguished: (1) that trusting AI is conceptually confused, that is, that we cannot …Read more
  •  24
    Superethics Instead of Superintelligence: Know Thyself, and Apply Science Accordingly
    with Giulio Mecacci
    American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 11 (2): 113-119. 2020.
  •  11
    Five Criteria for Assessing the Implications of NTA Technology
    with Giulio Mecacci
    American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 10 (1): 21-23. 2019.
  •  17
    Probing for Intentions: Why Clocks Do Not Provide the Only Measurement of Time
    with Ceci Verbaarschot and Jason Farquhar
    Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 13. 2019.
  •  1032
    Designing Virtuous Sex Robots
    International Journal of Social Robotics 1-12. 2019.
    We propose that virtue ethics can be used to address ethical issues central to discussions about sex robots. In particular, we argue virtue ethics is well equipped to focus on the implications of sex robots for human moral character. Our evaluation develops in four steps. First, we present virtue ethics as a suitable framework for the evaluation of human–robot relationships. Second, we show the advantages of our virtue ethical account of sex robots by comparing it to current instrumentalist appr…Read more
  •  10
    Useful Review Marked by Conceptual Vagueness
    with Ceci Verbaarschot
    American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 9 (1): 47-48. 2018.
  •  12
    Positive Outcomes and Causal Insufficiency Do Not Rule Out the Risk of DBS-Related Identity Changes
    with Giulio Mecacci
    American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 8 (2): 128-129. 2017.
  •  55
    Identifying Criteria for the Evaluation of the Implications of Brain Reading for Mental Privacy
    with Giulio Mecacci
    Science and Engineering Ethics 25 (2): 443-461. 2019.
    Contemporary brain reading technologies promise to provide the possibility to decode and interpret mental states and processes. Brain reading could have numerous societally relevant implications. In particular, the private character of mind might be affected, generating ethical and legal concerns. This paper aims at equipping ethicists and policy makers with conceptual tools to support an evaluation of the potential applicability and the implications of current and near future brain reading tech…Read more
  •  2
    The computational costs of recipient design and intention recognition in communication
    with Mark Blokpoel, Kwisthout Johan, Todd Wareham, Toni Ivan, and Iris Van Rooij
  •  264
    Representationalism vs. anti-representationalism: A debate for the sake of appearance
    with Andre´ de Groot and Hans van Rappard
    Philosophical Psychology 16 (1): 5-23. 2003.
    In recent years the cognitive science community has witnessed the rise of a new, dynamical approach to cognition. This approach entails a framework in which cognition and behavior are taken to result from complex dynamical interactions between brain, body, and environment. The advent of the dynamical approach is grounded in a dissatisfaction with the classical computational view of cognition. A particularly strong claim has been that cognitive systems do not rely on internal representations and …Read more
  •  880
    Why we may not find intentions in the brain
    with Sebo Uithol and Daniel C. Burnston
    Neuropsychologia 56 (5): 129-139. 2014.
    Intentions are commonly conceived of as discrete mental states that are the direct cause of actions. In the last several decades, neuroscientists have taken up the project of finding the neural implementation of intentions, and a number of areas have been posited as implementing these states. We argue, however, that the processes underlying action initiation and control are considerably more dynamic and context sensitive than the concept of intention can allow for. Therefore, adopting the notion…Read more
  •  225
    Did I Do That? Brain–Computer Interfacing and the Sense of Agency
    Minds and Machines 23 (3): 405-418. 2013.
    Brain–computer interfacing (BCI) aims at directly capturing brain activity in order to enable a user to drive an application such as a wheelchair without using peripheral neural or motor systems. Low signal to noise ratio’s, low processing speed, and huge intra- and inter-subject variability currently call for the addition of intelligence to the applications, in order to compensate for errors in the production and/or the decoding of brain signals. However, the combination of minds and machines t…Read more
  •  168
    Deep brain stimulation is a well-accepted treatment for movement disorders and is currently explored as a treatment option for various neurological and psychiatric disorders. Several case studies suggest that DBS may, in some patients, influence mental states critical to personality to such an extent that it affects an individual’s personal identity, i.e. the experience of psychological continuity, of persisting through time as the same person. Without questioning the usefulness of DBS as a trea…Read more
  •  266
    Corrigendum to “Lost in time…: The search for intentions and Readiness Potentials” [Consciousness and Cognition 33 300–315]
    with Ceci Verbaarschot and Jason Farquhar
    Consciousness and Cognition 33 300-315. 2015.
    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810015002378 the original Fig. 4B published in this paper was incorrect.
  •  384
    Experimentele filosofie, kunstmatige intelligentie en cognitieve neurowetenschap
    Algemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte 102 (1): 49-58. 2010.
    English: In this paper I indicate why I consider 'experimental philosophy' to be good news, though not as good as it could be, and not as all that new. I'll argue that there is no need to restrict experimental philosophy to eliciting intuitions through questionnaires. I'll indicate that good examples of experimental philosophy already exist in Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Neuroscience. Dutch: Hieronder wil ik proberen aan te geven waarom ik de experimentele filosofie weliswaar als goed …Read more
  •  26
    A Reason To Be Free: Operationalizing ‘Free Action’
    with Giulio Mecacci
    Neuroethics 8 (3): 327-334. 2015.
    Recent Libet-style experiments are of limited relevance to the debate about free action and free will, and should be understood as investigations of arbitrary actions or guesses. In Libet-style experiments, the concept of 'free action' is commonly taken to refer to a 'self-initiated voluntary act', where the self prompts an action without being prompted. However, this idea is based on the problematic assumption that the conscious self needs to be free from every constraint in order to be actuall…Read more
  •  21
    Lost in time..
    with Ceci Verbaarschot and Jason Farquhar
    Consciousness and Cognition 33 300-315. 2015.
  •  203
    Like the breathability of air: Embodied embedded communication
    Pragmatics and Cognition 20 (2): 263-274. 2012.
    I present experimental and computational research, inspired by the perspective of Embodied Embedded Cognition, concerning various aspects of language as supporting Everett’s interactionist view of language. Based on earlier and ongo- ing work, I briefly illustrate the contribution of the environment to the syste- maticity displayed in linguistic performance, the importance of joint attention for the development of a shared vocabulary, the role of (limited) traveling for language diversification,…Read more
  •  95
    The Asilomar Survey: Stakeholders' Opinions on Ethical Issues Related to Brain-Computer Interfacing (review)
    with Femke Nijboer, Jens Clausen, and Brendan Z. Allison
    Neuroethics 6 (3): 541-578. 2011.
    Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) research and (future) applications raise important ethical issues that need to be addressed to promote societal acceptance and adequate policies. Here we report on a survey we conducted among 145 BCI researchers at the 4th International BCI conference, which took place in May–June 2010 in Asilomar, California. We assessed respondents’ opinions about a number of topics. First, we investigated preferences for terminology and definitions relating to BCIs. Second, we a…Read more