Ethics in Neuroscience and Clinical Psychology

Question 1

What are the three Rs of animal research?

Answer 1

Replace- try and use in-vitro methods as much as possible, so you don’t have to use animals at all
reduce- reduce the number of animals you use in experiments
refine- refine the research you do so the animal suffers as little as possible

Question 2

what are the three licenses (and procedures to obtain these) that animal researchers need?

Answer 2

Home Office Project License- must go on a four/five day training course and pass an exam to obtain
Project Licenses- lasts five years, requires an extensive summary of all the animal research you are going to do over the next 5 years
Establishment License- license for the place you are going to carry out the research- making sure everyone there is performing best practice

Question 3

What is the ASPA?

Who is this implemented by?

Answer 3

The Animal (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. It is used to be the law for the UK and Eu, but since leaving the EU, the rest of Europe has had to change their legislation to keep up with our (better) policies. 
All implemented by the home office (the home secretary aswell)

Question 4

What are the committees involved with animal research in universities?

Answer 4

The AWERB- Animal Welfare and ethical review body
PAAC1 and 2- Procedures on Animal assessments committee- reviews project license applications before they go to the home office
3 Rs committee- overseas mid term reviews of grants
BSMB- Biological Services Management Board- ensures compliance with the law now and for the research in future

Question 5

What is disruptive technology?

Answer 5

Technology that takes on previously most popular or traditional technology (e.g. the car replacing the horse)

Question 6

What is CRISPR-CAS( technology?

Answer 6

it allows for very quick and accurate genetic modification- very dangerous in the wrong hands

Question 7

How was CRISPR-CAS technology regulated in 2015?

Answer 7

It was agreed that you can not use this technology on germline (sperm and egg cells)- only somatic cells, so can not be passed down to offspring.

Question 8

What are optogenetics (optogenetic manipulation)?

Answer 8

It allows researchers to place opsins in cells in specific areas of the brain. shine blue light on them to break them down and then cause this cell to become depolarised by the products of the opsin break down- then allowing for this specific brain area to be “activated” as the neurons are now firing

Question 9

What is one issue with optogentics?

Answer 9

They use adenoviiruses to transportt the opsins to cells in the brain- these viruses can be harmful

Question 10

How is optogenetic research being used to benefit humans?

Answer 10

To raise blood flow to the brain in people with Alzheimers

Question 11

Why is it hard to use optogenetics on human trials?

Answer 11

We do not know the long term effects of adenoviruses on humans

Question 12

What is the Brain Initiative Mission?

Answer 12

An initiative set up by president Obama to understand exactly how every part of the brain works

Question 13

What is the EU version of the Brain Initiative Mission?

Answer 13

The Human Brain Project-

ethics is one of it’s 7 main pillars

Question 14

What has Yuval Noah Harari predicted relating to ethics and neuroscience?

Answer 14

That homo sapiens will not be able to resist defying ethics to advance technology and will eventually create superhumans

Question 15

How have people been developing self-driving cars?

Answer 15

MIT have been getting them to learn to make moral decisions (i.e. if a group of people step in front of your car, do you plough through them and kill them all or drive into a barrier and kill the people in the car)
This is based on a questionnaire results from populations in each country

Question 16

What is one ethical error in giving moral algorythms to driverless cars?

Answer 16

Different regions have different views on morality- do we have the algorithm vary with each region or should they be based on averrages?

Question 17

What are the different levels of those responsible for adhering to ethics in research?

Answer 17

International responsibility
National- Government Organisations
Specific Body- Medical Research Council
Leading Universities (i.e. Russel groups)
Institutions- i.e. University of Sheffield
Individual- Principle Investigator, Research Scientist, Research Assistant, Post and Undergraduate Students

Question 18

What are the four main ethical principles set by the medical research council?

Answer 18

Research Excellence and Integrity
Respect, ethics and professional standards
Honesty and Transparency
Openness and Accountability

Question 19

What are some of the more harmful pressures that occur in research?

(Can lead to malpractice)

Answer 19

Conflict of Interest- if one is not objective when making decisions about research/reviewing others’ research/influencing grants and sponsorships for research
The pressure to get work published ASAP, for instance if it is needed for a qualification
Professional Competition- if you get a paper published, it greatly benefits your career and status. This puts pressure on getting papers published, especially as the journals they are published in are very competitive
Commercial Pressure put on universities

Question 20

What is one way that professional competition contributes to biases in high-brow academic journals?

Answer 20

The more prestigious the journal, the more published research gets retracted (they realise they report the research wrong). This suggests the pressure to get the paper out ASAP affects the quality of the data published.

Question 21

What are some of the commercial pressures put on universities?

Answer 21

They take on lots of graduate students to produce more research. Pressure is then put on staff to get lots of external funding for research to then be able to publish the data in places that will get the university traction.

Question 22

What are five examples of misconduct?

Answer 22

Fabrication, Falsification, Plagiarism, confidentiality and failure to acknowledge significant contribution

Question 23

What is fabrication?

Answer 23

When record keeping/recording of data is misreported (this can then affect replicability) - e.g. saying the gender skew of the sample is different to what it actually is.

Question 24

What is falsification?

Answer 24

literally just faking data

Question 25

What is failure to acknowledge significant contribution in research?

Answer 25

If you use elements of someone else’s work, but don’t credit their contribution (as is the case in Watson and Crick building their theory for the double helix off of Rosalind Franklin’s theories and not crediting her).

Question 26

What is the replicability crisis?

Answer 26

research has recently been discovered to not be reproducible, despite this being pivotal to scientific advancement. This could be because the research is not being reported very well or the methodology is not good due to pressures to publish.

Question 27

What is one way that the pressure from publishing your research providing academic praise can be harmful?

Answer 27

You can deny to acknowledge new theories and falsification of your research in order to be “right” and get published.

Question 28

What is the difference between intrinsically and extrinsically motivated scientist?

Answer 28

IMS- end goal to figure out how the world works

EMS- Figuring out how the world works is the means, career advancement is the end goal

Question 29

What is whistleblowing?

Answer 29

when flouting institutional and governmental regulations is detected,

Question 30

what are the central principles of ethics in clinical psychology?

Answer 30

Informed consent
Minimisation of harm
Privacy and Confidentiality

Question 31

How is ethics a methodological issue?

Answer 31

procedural decisions have ethical implications

Poorly designed studies can be considered unethical

Question 32

How are ethics restrictive?

Answer 32

Ethical considerations require methodological trade off-s

Question 33

What are the features of the issue of giving full information in informed consent?

Answer 33

Participants must have competence to provide consent and understand what they are being asked to do
Though, in some situations, one must withhold or fake information
Sometimes, an entire situation must be feigned to achieve this

Question 34

What are the features of the issue of freedom of choice in informed consent?

Answer 34

consent should be voluntary, without indirect pressure, coercion, and focus on the autonomy and self determination of the participant

Question 35

What did RD Laing oppose?

Answer 35

psychiatry

Question 36

Who were the participants in David Rosenbaum?

Answer 36

Everyone, including the hospital patients and staff

Question 37

What are five ethical issues of Rosenhan’s study?

Answer 37

The lead researcher very powerful/persuasive so would be likely to be coercive
The pseudo patient and staff participants should have had the right to withdraw- but the deception meant they didn’t
Pseudo patients are not likely to be aware of the implications of participation-not full informed consent
Doesn’t consider safeguarding of pseudo patient s welfare
The staff involved faced professional harm- ridicule and loss of status

Question 38

What are four factors that can influence freedom of choice in clinical settings?

Answer 38

Fear that refusal may result in withdrawal of treatment/care
limited resource might make experimental therapy appealing (free therapy could coerce people on ling waiting lists for treatment)
offering financial incentives to unwaged participants seeking treatment can be coercive

Question 39

What are the standardised procedures for obtaining consent?

Answer 39

Participant Information Sheet- (involves description of the study, possible risks and benefits, statement about right to withdraw, written clearly with no jargon)
Consent Form- conformation of the key features
Participant and researcher’s signature

Question 40

How can clinical research be more likely to cause harm?

Answer 40

• can cause a distressing life event to be recalled
  Can cause embarrassment (i.e. admitting drug or alcohol use)
  New problems (can worsen current issues)

Question 41

How can we prevent harm in clinical research?

Answer 41

suspend or terminate collection of data- whether this is necessary is judged based off the clinicians clinical skills
Distress or concerns evoked by the study should be addressed in the debrief.
Space to success the study and sources for relevant service should be provided.

Question 42

When are clinical trials possible?

Answer 42

When there’s equipoise- there is a perceived equivalence between the treatments being compared and when it is unclear whether the treatment is effective at all.
It entails a specified treatment, so the conditions/treatment are not controlled by clinical judgement/variation

Question 43

What is one issue with inclusion/exclusion criteria in clinical trials?

Answer 43

It excludes patients after assessment even though they may really feel helpless- creating the idea of invalidation and helplessness

Question 44

How can participants control their own privacy in research?

Answer 44

Participants do not have the to provide information for the researcherr.

Question 45

How can participants control their own confidentiality in research?

Answer 45

You have the right to withhold the information you give to the researcher from third parties.

Question 46

How can confidentiality be breached in clinical research?

Answer 46

case reports can identify participants if the clinical researcher is known to work in a specific place.

Question 47

How can we assure confidentiality in clinical research?

Answer 47

We retain anonymity or remove identifying/contextual details.

Question 48

What three principles should be adhered to in all clinical research?

Answer 48

Autonomy, beneficence and justice.