Enhancement/ Neuroethics Flashcards
Enhancement
concerns the use of means to improve one’s own (physical or cognitive) function
Memory modification techniques (MMT)
Enhance: Psychopharmaceuticals
Erase: (optogenetics; the use of light to activate/deactivate neurons)
somatic mutations
in a single cell of the body, not inherited
germline mutations
in germline cells, can be passed to offspring
frameworks for the ethical issues on neuroenhancement
Safety:
is it safe? Health of person and others.
Non-coercion:
Freedom of individuals to decide their own life autonomously without external constraints
Fairness (impartiality):
is it fair to get an advantage towards others during a competition, work, exams, etc?
Arguments for enhancement
-Naturalness
-Cognitive liberty
- Utilitarian
-Practical argument
-Non-discrimination
-Evolutionary
- No distinction between natural/artificial
Arguments against enhancement
-Harms
-Unnaturalness
-Diminishing human agency
-The hubris objection
- Equality and distributive justice
-Coercion
Monoamine oxidase A (MAOA)
MAO catalyzes the oxidative deamination of a number of biogenic amines, including they key neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine and the neuromodulator phenylamine
Women express psychopathy less than men (X-linked)
Mistreatment in childhood highly significant in MAOA-L individuals and mildly significant in MAOA-H
Neuroethics
-moral intuitions are deceptive
-neuroethics may suggest more realistic but counter-intuitive moral judgements
-intersection between bioethics and cognitive neuroscience
1878 - neuroethics
Intuitionism
1913 - neuroethics
Behaviorism
1956 - 1970s - neuroethics
cognitivism
1980s - neuroethics
Neurocognitivism
Structural neuroimaging
CT, MRI
shows lesions in the structures
Functional neuroimaging
fMRI
shows areas of the brain that are active at a particular time; monitors changes in blood flow; contains a magnet that detects oxygenated hemoglobin
Will is unconscious
The unconscious brain activity began half a second before the subject consciously felt she had decided to move (EEG, fMRI)
We confabulate
confabulation –> an increased experience of intention when the thought was primed 1-5 seconds before the forced action
phenomena of moral dumbfounding
MJ (moral judgements) involves emotional processes
the involvement of emotional brain areas in moral judgements, especially in personal moral dilemma (see the trolley problem)
Self-knowledge seems to be through interpretation
ISA-Theory: there is a single mental faculty underlying our attributions of propositional attitudes (mindreading) whether to ourselves or others; this faculty only has sensory access to its domain; ats access to our attitudes in interpretative
unconscious will
2008 fMRI experiment confirmed an experiment conducted in the 1980s by Benjamin Libet
Our (proximal) decisions can be predicted 7-10 seconds before they come to our awareness.
The trolley problem
Cognitive regions of the brain are more active when subjects make moral judgements in the switch - 85 % yes - Utilitarian
Emotional regions of the brain are more active when subjects make moral judgements in the Footbridge version - 98% no - deontological
The secret joke of Kant’s soul
deontology is not an expression of rationality but of emotions (Joshua Greene)
Different Neuroethical Theories on moral judgement
- Moral grammar
-Internalist approach on rules - Dual-process
- EFEC theory
- Constitutive sentimentalism and bi-directional causality
- Social intuitionist model
Molecular-Genetic (and atomic) biology technologies
- embryo selection
-artificially generated gametes from stem cells
-Gene editing
-Modifications of receptors, messengers and growth factors - Nanotechnologies
Psychopharmaceutical
- OTC or over the counter drugs
- Prescription drugs
- Illegal substances
- Substances sold online
Neural Stimulation and surgical devices
- DBS (deep brain stimulation)
- TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation)
-tDCS (transcranial direct current stimulation)
Authenticity Argument
- Usually against enhancement but not always
- The idea of a ‘true’ self
- the idea that emotions, but also decisions, actions etc. … are not genuine if they come from pharmacology
- Also contained in naturality arguments
- what would have been the ‘real’ me?
Vegetative state (VS)
one is awake but not aware (despite recurrent sleep/wake cycles)
Persistent vegetative state (PVS)
someone who remains vegetative for longer than a month
Minimally conscious states (MCS)
involve wakefulness and inconsistent awareness (including minimal communicativeness)
James Blair studies (from 1995)
individuals with psychopathic traits show the same less activation in emotional areas like amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)
Moral dumbfounding
When a strong intuition is left unsupported by articulable reasons
distaste
aversion to a bitter taste, triggered by food
Physical disgust
protection from pathogenic contamination,
elicited by reminders of animal nature
(pathogen avoidance detector)
Moral disgust
extension to moral transgressions by certain people or social groups
disgust brain area
insula
fear brain area
amygdala
Sadness brain area
anterior cingulate cortex
Anger brain area
orbitofrontal cortex
the three models of reasoning
Model 1
perceive event –> reasoning –> judgement–> emotion
a Kantian model
Model 2
Perceive event –> emotion –> judgement–> reasoning
a Humean model (Jonathan Haidt’s social intuitist model is post-hoc)
Model 3
Perceive event –> emotion & reason simultaneously –> judgement
Joshual greene’s dual process theory
