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NSCI 301 > Final > Flashcards

Final Flashcards

1
Q

What are additional concepts of the principles of ethics (other than Autonomy, Beneficence, Nonmaleficence, Justice) (6)

A
  • Privacy
  • Values and Priorities NEW
  • Informed Choice
  • Dignity
  • Confidentiality
  • Respect for Persons
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2
Q

What are the examples of concepts important for the values and priorities aspect of ethics related to spinal cord injury (SCI)? (7)

A
  • Relationality: Importance of support from peers, family and health care workers for well being
  • Access: Importance of accessible support and services
  • Identity: Impact of SCI on roles in society
  • Intersectionality: Variety of factors intersect to affect the experience of SCI
  • Knowledge: Importance of accessible information and education about SCI affects a person’s experience
  • Divergent values: Diverse and potentially conflicting priorities between patient and care-providers in care and rehab
  • Independence: Ability to fulfill aspects of daily living and self-management without external aid
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3
Q

What are 8 aspects to consider in the ethics of clinical research?

A
  • Voluntariness (no coercion)
  • Informed Consent
  • Right to withdraw
  • Confidentiality
  • Accessibility
  • Values and priorities
  • Follow-up (ensuring no adverse events + continued benefits)
  • Safety
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4
Q

What are 4 facts about spinal cord injury?

A
  • 250,000-500,00 cases each year
  • $1.5 - 5 million lifetime cost in NA
  • Increasing incidence in resource- restricted nations
  • Aging demographics due to slips and falls
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5
Q

What are 3 types of spinal cord injury?

A
  1. Cervical (quadriplegia: all 4 limbs affected) (60% of SCI are at the neck)
  2. Thoracic (paraplegia)
  3. Lumbar (paraplegia) (most function)
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6
Q

What are 10 consequences of spinal cord injury?

A
  1. Paralysis - Loss of motor and sensory function
  2. Loss of control over bowel and bladder function
  3. Pain
  4. Susceptibility to infection
  5. Affects other physiological functions
  6. Loss of independence
  7. Limited employment opportunities
  8. Altered purpose/meaning of life
  9. Personal and financial burden on individual and caregiver
  10. Societal cost ~$2.7 billion (2013) in Canada
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7
Q

What are the 3 stages of the pathophysiology of SCI?

A
  1. Acute (injury ~2 days)
  2. Intermediate (injury <6 months)
  3. Chronic (injury >6 months)
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8
Q

What are the 4 stages of clinical trials?

A
  1. Safety (Safest tolerable dose, side effects, small population)
  2. Efficacy (Most effective dose, outcome measures. larger population)
  3. Confirmation (Compare to other treatments, adverse events, control group) - most trials don’t make it to this stage
  4. Follow-up (Market)
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9
Q

What are 3 reasons for failing a clinical trial?

A
  • Financial: 100s of millions to billions of $
  • Enrollment: Small population, strict criteria
  • Low power (Insignificant results): Poor design, single site
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10
Q

What are 4 reasons to stop a clinical trial?

A
  • Safety: adverse events
  • Poor study design: low enrollment
  • Efficacy: insignificant results
  • Commercial reasons
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11
Q

What are 4 reasons to stop a clinical trial DUE TO COMMERICAL REASONS?

A
  • Research budgets shrink
  • Competitive products emerge
    (that are more promising)
  • Supply failures (raw materials difficult to source)
  • Pressures to end unproductive programs
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12
Q

What are 5 interventions for SCI, and what do they focus on?

A
  • Drugs (Minocycline): Inflammation, Pain, Axon health
  • Stem cells (ES, MSC, iPSC): Inflammation, Regeneration, Cell replacement
  • Devices (Exoskeletons): Movement, Pain, Physical support
  • Biomaterial (Bridges): Regeneration
  • Surgical (Decompression): Limit damage, Relieve pressure, Nerve grafts
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13
Q

What are 4 safety concerns regarding the use of stem cells for SCI treatment?

A
  • Source of cells
  • Invasiveness
  • Tumours (BIGGEST CHALLENGE)
  • Lack of follow-up protocols
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14
Q

How do values and priorities change in regards to risk tolerance depending to the type of SCI?

A
  • Chronic, cervical SCI: More risk averse
  • Chronic, thoracic SCI: High tolerance to risk
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15
Q

What is the case study of the Geron Trial?

A

Geron was a company researching stem cell treatment. They ended up halting their first clinical trial because they decided to put financial gain before the patients. By making this decision, they destroyed trust.

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16
Q

What is medical tourism (in the context of stem cells)?

A

Travelling for stem cell treatment

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17
Q

What are 3 features, 3 examples, and 1 ethical issue regarding biomaterials?

A

Features:
- Biologically compatible
- Scaffold (for axon regen)
- Support stem cells (viability)
Examples:
- Collagen
- Fibrin
- Matrigel
Ethical Issues:
- Safety

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18
Q

What are 2 pros and 3 cons (regarding safety) of the INSPIRE TRIAL for SCI treatment?

A

Pros:
- Scaffold support for stem cell therapy
- Deliver combination treatments (slow releasing drugs, nanoparticles)
Cons:
- Safety: Invasive (cutting open spinal cord), Potentially requires a second surgery (due to decompress surgery), Worsens SCI

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19
Q

What are 3 features, 3 examples and 2 ethical issues regarding devices for SCI treatment?

A

Features:
- Support mobility
- Reduce pain
- Aids rehab
Examples:
- BCI (Neuralink)
- Exoskeletons
- Electrical stimulation (axon regen)
Ethical Issues:
- Safety
- Access

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20
Q

What are 3 costs to general society when clinical trials fail?

A
  • Trial participants are abandoned: Violates the risk-benefit contract between patients and sponsors
  • Loss of knowledge: Loss of public trust, scientific community
  • Healthcare does not progress efficiently: Tax funded research doesn’t translate to societal benefits
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21
Q

What is a robot, and what is a social robot?

A

Robot: Cyber-physical system with sensors, actuators and mobility
Social robot: Robot that interacts with people

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22
Q

What are potential benefits of social robots on improving mental health outcomes in older adults? (5, with 1 caveat)

A
  • Decrease in loneliness
  • Decrease in anxiety
  • Increased medication adherence
  • Possibly lower need for neuropsychiatric medication in people living with advanced dementia (lower sedative drug use)
  • Improved quality of life
    CAVEAT:
  • Quality of evidence is low-medium due to low sample size and time span
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23
Q

What are potential benefits of social robots on improving mental health outcomes in children? (4, with 1 caveat)

A
  • Improved social and communication skills of children on the autism spectrum
  • Relief of acute stress and anxiety
  • Decrease in depressive symptoms
  • Decrease in acute distress
    CAVEAT:
  • Quality of evidence is low, lower than adult studies
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24
Q

What are Asimov’s 3 Laws of Robotics (1950)?

A
  1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first law.
  3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law.
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25
Q

What are the 5 Principles of Robotics by Margaret Boden (2017)?

A
  1. Robots should not be designed as weapons except for national security reasons.
  2. Robots should be designed and operated to comply with existing law, including privacy.
  3. Robots are products, as with other products they should be designed to be safe and secure.
  4. Robots are manufactured artefacts: the illusion of emotions and intent should not be used to exploit vulnerable users.
  5. It should be possible to find out who is responsible for any robot.
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26
Q

What is the computers are social actors paradigm?

A

Human-Computer interaction is inherently social and many human-human interaction phenomena extend to interactions with computers. (Computers don’t need to behave like humans to elicit emotional responses, social robots compound these effects)

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27
Q

What is the definition of privacy?

A

Claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to determine for themselves, when, how, and to what extent information about them is communicated to others.

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28
Q

What is the privacy paradox?

A

While many technology users report privacy concerns, not many take actions to protect their privacy.

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29
Q

What are 3 reasons for the privacy paradox?

A
  • Willing to exchange personal data for services
  • Lack of understanding (fallacy of privacy self-management: users are not equipped to manage)
  • Surveillance capitalism: large companies will have access anyway, becoming apathetic to taking action
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30
Q

What are 4 dimensions of privacy?

A
  • Physical
  • Psychological
  • Social
  • Informational (most researched)
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31
Q

What are 5 informational privacy considerations in regards to social robots?

A
  • Capacity of social robots for data collection (including emotions, mental states, personality)
  • Third-party access to data
  • Hacking
  • Collecting information about third parties
  • Lack of user understanding
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32
Q

What are 3 psychological privacy considerations?

A
  • Psychological dependence (may affect relationships with real people)
  • Reduced self-reflection and autonomy (prevent feeling of being alone, can prevent self-development)
  • Vulnerable user groups
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33
Q

What is a social privacy consideration?

A

Social bonding between the robot and user; affection and trust can lead to the revelation of secrets (unidirectional)

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34
Q

What are 2 physical privacy considerations?

A
  • Access to private rooms
  • Uncomfortable closeness
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35
Q

What are 7 aspects to the potential solution of implementing privacy by design?

A
  1. Proactive not reactive; preventive not remedial
  2. Privacy as the default setting
  3. Privacy embedded into design
  4. Full functionality - positive-sum, not zero-sum
  5. End-to-end security - full lifecycle protection
  6. Visibility and transparency - keep it open
  7. Respect for user privacy - keep it user-centric
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36
Q

What are the 5 features of big data?

A
  1. Volume: number of data points
  2. Variety: data may cross different types (structured/unstructured)
  3. Velocity: pace of data generation
  4. Veracity: data quality and accuracy
  5. Value: potential to create benefits and insights
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37
Q

What are 4 qualities that make personal digital data ‘sticky’ (and hard to regulate)?

A
  1. Mundane - describe everyday activities
  2. Linked - can bridge contexts
  3. Forever - difficult to verify deletion
  4. Co-created - data collector + data source
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38
Q

Describe the analytic landscape of health data in BC (4)

A
  • Redundancy
  • Lack of coordination (some structures communicate, others don’t)
  • Inconsistency in practices, transparency, security (ethical and logistical issue)
  • Inefficient processes for access and approvals (really slow!)
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39
Q

Using the 5 characteristics of Big Data, describe Big Data in (brain) health

A

Volume: data from Electronic Health Records, imaging, health apps, sequencing all large
Variety: many kinds of data with different structures
Velocity: data vary in speed of collection/generation
Veracity: data quality vary based across devices, missing values, bias
Value: depends on question being asked

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40
Q

What is the definition of Artificial Intelligence?

A

Artificial systems that appear to think like humans (decide, categorize, recognize…)

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41
Q

What is machine learning?

A

Systems that can learn from experience or data without direct human programming

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42
Q

What are 2 types of machine learning (and describe them)?

A
  1. Supervised learning: models are trained on known, labelled data. Requires huge volume of data and human labor.
  2. Unsupervised learning: models learn from unlabeled data. Requires huge processing power.
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43
Q

What are 5 applications of AI in neuroscience?

A
  • Risk prediction
  • Clinical decision-making
  • Neurotech
  • Brain modelling
  • Diagnosis & prognostication
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44
Q

What is culpability and how is AI in neuroscience related?

A

Responsibility based on intention, knowledge, or control
- AI introduces potential harms no one person could predict or prevent
- if a neurosurgery robot makes an error, who is culpable?

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45
Q

What is moral accountability and how is AI in neuroscience related?

A

Duty to explain one’s reasons and actions to others
- AI processes may be unexplainable to their users
- the doctor can not explain AI-assisted diagnosis

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46
Q

What is an ethical issue regarding bias and discrimination in AI involvement in neuroscience?

A

Groups that are under-represented in AI models may receive lower quality care

47
Q

How can AI in neuroscience affect privacy? (2)

A
  • AI outputs can be sensitive, such as future disease risk, personal preferences, emotional states
  • By linking data, AI may re-identify previously anonymous individuals
48
Q

What are 2 ethical issues regarding the usage of LLM?

A
  • Emerging harms and benefits
  • Lack of transparency
49
Q

What are the 4 initial concerns of structural neuroimaging (MRI)?

A
  • Cost: economic intensity
  • Cancer: excess radiation
  • Competency: only physicists and mathematicians should use it.
  • Possible explosion… (nuclear magnetic resonance)
50
Q

What are incidental findings and what are 4 specific concerns regarding imaging?

A

Unexpected discovery unrelated to original purpose of examination
4 concerns:
- unexpected masses
- aneurysms bleed/stroke
- anatomic evidence of dementia
- evidence of current or past trauma to brain

51
Q

What are the 4 neuroimaging IF classifications and their prevalence?

A
  • Need for immediate referral for clinical evaluation: less than or equal to 1.2%
  • Need for urgent referral: 0.4 - 14%
  • Need for routine referral: 1.8 - 43%
  • No need for referral: 13 - 40.4%
52
Q

Regarding the ethical considerations of incidental findings, what are 3 reasons supporting the obligation to the participant?

A
  • Researchers must/should look for and disclose information regarding the wellbeing of their participants
  • Participant’s have a right to control information concerning themselves (patient autonomy)
  • Beneficence
53
Q

Regarding the ethical considerations of incidental findings, what are 3 reasons supporting the obligation to the research?

A
  • The responsibility of IF imposes a burden on researchers and the healthcare system
  • Consistency between participants
  • Potential for unwarranted harm due to disclosure to research participants
54
Q

Describe the Netherlands epidemiology of Obesity Study
(NEO) study (4)

A
  • Investigating the pathways leading to obesity-related diseases/pathophysiology
  • Total N: ~6700 participants, 45-65 y/o
  • Participants who had MRI: ~2600
  • Total IF: 56 (2%)
55
Q

What are the 4 reported participant pain points regarding incidental findings? Describe each one.

A
  • Informed consent: Assumed IF were disclosed, unsure how the information was shared with medical team
  • Disclosure: Took too long (over a month), No preference given for disclosure (phone/email/letter…), Information of health info was confusing/unclear/misleading
  • Medical follow-up: Period between disclosure and follow-up was worrying/unnerving, Participants considered the role of the GP to give support (not the researcher)
  • Transition from participant to patient: Quid pro quo… (rapid access to care), Assumed all research info regarding the IF will be consigned to the GP or medical specialist
56
Q

What are the 6 initial concerns of fMRI?

A
  • Informed consent
  • Incidental findings
  • Self-evaluation
  • Legal
  • Education
  • Economics
57
Q

What is are 2 limitations of fMRI?

A
  • fMRI scans are only a snapshot of function/connectivity. One scan represents that one moment with that one question asked.
  • fMRI presents large statistical challenges, Large rate of false positives
58
Q

How can we get false positives using fMRI?

A

Use a scan and run multiple hypotheses. Doing so may end up with a “hit”, without one actually being there.

59
Q

What are 5 questions regarding portable MRIs in field-based research?

A
  • Meaningful informed consent for field-based neuroimaging?
  • Capacity to communicate imaging results to remote participants in culturally appropriate ways?
  • What are the ethical frameworks of incorporating cloud-based AI analyzing brain scan data? And will it be biased?
  • How will incidental findings be reported?
  • What level of access will research participants have to their brain data?
60
Q

What is direct-to-consumer (DTC)?

A

Selling products or services directly to end consumers without intermediaries.

61
Q

What does consumer-grade (CR) mean?

A

Designed for general consumers, typically affordable and accessible for personal use.

62
Q

Describe the timeline of DTC and CR neurotechnology

A
  • 20th century: Early dev of EEG tech
  • 2000s: Emergence of consumer EEG devices
  • 2010s: Growth of wearable neurotech (sensors)
  • 2010s: Expansion into brain stimulation
  • Present: Integration with digital health platforms
  • Present: regulatory and ethical concerns
63
Q

What 6 points of conflict needed to balanced regarding DTC and CR neurotechnology?

A
  • Safety
  • Efficacy
  • Responsible use
  • Innovation
  • Accessibility
  • Forward progress
64
Q

What are 6 claims brain training games and applications promote?

A
  • Memory improvement
  • Attention improvement
  • Problem-solving improvement
  • Improving focus
  • Marketable x-factor (based on certain target demographic)
  • Enhanced neuroplasticity
65
Q

What is near-transfer?

A

Applying skills learned in one task to similar tasks or contexts.

66
Q

What is far-transfer?

A

Applying skills learned in one domain to unrelated tasks or contexts

67
Q

What has research found regarding the usefulness of brain training games and apps specifically for healthy older adults?

A
  • Near-transfer: slight positive effect
  • Far-transfer: slight positive effect
68
Q

What has research found regarding the usefulness of brain training games and apps specifically for cognitively impaired older adults?

A
  • Near-transfer: slight positive effect
  • Far-transfer: NO EFFECTS
69
Q

What has the research found overall about the usefulness of brain training games and apps regarding near-transfer, far-transfer, and in general?

A
  • Near-transfer: Training improvements were limited to tasks that were the same or similar to the trained exercises/games (tasks had to be almost 1-to-1)
  • Far-transfer: Training did not improve performance in objective, untrained measures which were different to the trained task(s) **even though the apps claim to do so
  • General: No compelling evidence was provided regarding improvements to everyday functioning
  • > 25% of adults over the age of 40 believe… that the best way to maintain/improve brain health is to play so-called “brain games”
70
Q

What are 6 ethical concerns regarding brain training games and apps?

A
  • Distributive justice (not everyone can pay for the apps)
  • Targeting vulnerable populations
  • Commercialization of neuroscience
  • Efficacy of claim
  • Privacy & data security (can be purposely vague)
  • Informed consent (can be purposely vague)
71
Q

What is EEG, and what are the 5 analyzing signal stages?

A

EEG records electrical activity from the brain using scalp electrodes
Analyzing signal stages:
1. Preprocessing
2. Segmentation
3. Feature Extraction
4. Data Analysis
5. Interpretation

72
Q

How does EEG compare with DTC EEG, in regards to feel & experience, as well as the electrodes?

A

EEG:
- Feel & Experience: Uncomfortable/clunky/time consuming/requires professional assistance & training
- Electrodes: Ranges from 25 - 150+, Wet (reduces signal impedance + noise), Active (designed to detect + amplify signal)

DTC EEG:
- Feel & Experience: Comfortable/accessible/convenient
- Electrodes: <10 (e.g. Muse 2-4), Dry, Passive (not actively looking for a signal)

73
Q

What are 5 claims DTC EEG markets?

A
  • Brain enhancement
  • Wellbeing
  • Physical performance
  • Neurofeedback and mindfulness
  • Medical tool (conditions/pathologies)
74
Q

What is the main argument of DTC EEG, and what are the 3 criteria needed to be met for this argument to be sound?

A

Argument: Observing your brainwaves can improve well-being in relation to concentration, stress, performance, and other behaviors.
3 Criteria:
- It would need to be valid and reliable at measuring brain signals
- Measured brain signal would need to accurately reflect a given behavior or mental state
- Providing individuals w/ brainwave data would need to help them alter a behavior or mental state (ultimate goal…also a crazy claim)

75
Q

How do companies producing DTC EEGs ensure that their technology is valid and reliable at measuring brain signals?

A

…through internal “studies”
- “It’s proprietary. Just trust us.”

76
Q

How can EEGs ensure that the measured brain signal would accurately reflect a given behavior or mental state?

A

Can accurately estimate mental state using:
- Pre-specified bandwidths
- Applying machine learning algorithms

(Very hard to do well, so how are companies doing this…?)

77
Q

What are 2 concerns regarding DTC EEGs whether they can alter the behavior/mental state of individuals by providing brainwave data.

A
  • Hard, and unsure how to measure such changes
  • Potential placebo: if someone is using DTC EEGs and they feel better… who cares?
78
Q

What are 6 ethical concerns of DTC EEGs?

A
  • Accuracy & reliability
  • Medicalization of normal variability (thinking something is wrong with oneself)
  • Informed consent
  • Commercialization of neuroscience
  • Privacy & data security
  • Regulatory oversight (poorly regulated)
79
Q

How are DTC EEGs classified by the FDA, and how are DTC EEGs marketed in this regard?

A
  • Classified by the FDA as a medical device… DEPENDING on their intended use
  • Marketed for… medical diagnosis/monitoring = stringent/strict regulation
  • Marketed for… general use & “wellbeing” = less regulation

FDA will not enforce if the item is deemed “low-risk” and marked for “general wellness”

80
Q

How is wellness defined?

A

Wellness = physical fitness, stress management, mental acuity, learning capacity, and sleep management

VERY VAGUE UMBRELLA

81
Q

Which regulatory bodies oversee DTC-EEGs?

A

The FDA is pushing DTC-EEG regulation onto the FTC, which is the governing body looking into accountability… thus not much clear regulation.

82
Q

What is the definition of BCI?

A

An artificial interface with the brain that bypasses natural mechanisms for output (speech, typing, gesturing…) and/or input (vision, hearing, touch…) and provides feedback

83
Q

What are 3 level of locations for recording with BCIs?

A
  • Non-invasive: Signal is weaker, dispersed by bone, skin, hair
  • Semi-invasive
  • Invasive: Requires craniotomy (surgery), Signals is much stronger, Accuracy can be much higher, Prone to scar tissue build up - signals can weaken or fail over time
84
Q

What are 4 non-invasive BCI recording sensors?

A
  • EEG
  • MEG
  • fMRI
  • fNIRS
85
Q

How do semi-invasive BCI recordings work?

A

Electrocorticography (ECoG) electrodes placed outside the dura mater (epidural) or under the dura mater (subdural)

Usually only performed as part of medically necessary procedures (still need to open up skull)

86
Q

What is the only established invasive recording sensory (most well studied), and what is an example of one?

A

Cortical implants
Example: Utah array - first, and most studied, FDA-approved implantable sensor

87
Q

What are 4 examples of invasive recording sensors in development?

A
  • Neural Dust
  • Neuropixels
  • Stentrodes
  • Neural Lace
88
Q

Describe what Neural Dust is

A

Wireless, battery-free miniature implants fitted with sensors and stimulators (activated by external ultrasound).

Still too large for CNS, but being trialed in PNS

89
Q

Describe what Neuropixels are

A
  • Multi-electrode array with hundreds of sensors along a single thin probe
  • Can record from hundreds of neurons simultaneously
  • In 2022, tested in 9 patients under anaesthesia receiving brain surgery to validate technology
90
Q

Describe what Stentrodes are

A
  • Wire & electrode implant threaded into brain’s blood vessels
  • Located in the superior saggital sinus
  • Doesn’t record from individual neurons; net sitting in blood vessels
91
Q

Describe what Neural Lace is

A

Many flexible probes inserted via surgical robot

92
Q

Describe the PRIME study (4)

A
  • The PRIME Study (for Neuralink’s Neural Lace) is being conducted under the inverstigational device exemption (IDE) awarded by the FDA in May 2023
  • Recruiting people with quadriplegia
  • Trial is not registered at ClinicalTrials.gov
  • No public information on where this is being done or what outcomes are being assessed
93
Q

What are 4 outputs of BCI?

A
  • Myoelectric prosthesis
  • Mental handwriting
  • Assistive device
  • Speech syntehsizer
94
Q

What are 2 examples of BCI that stimulate without recording brain activity?

A
  • Cochlear implant: Receiver sends signals to electrodes to stimulate auditory nerve
  • Visual prosthesis: External video processing unit stimulates brain to give information about edges, light/dark
95
Q

Give 2 examples of stimulating BCI (with brain activity recordings)

A
  • Myoelectric prosthesis
  • Deep brain stimulation
96
Q

Describe how myoelectric prosthesis works as a stimulating BCI (2)

A
  • Electrodes implanted in motor and somatosensory cortices
  • Stimulating somatosensory cortex as though hand is being touched improves task performance
97
Q

Describe how Deep Brain Stimulation works as a stimulating BCI? (4)

A
  • Two intracranial electrodes implanted into basal ganglia, thalamus, or brain stem, with an implantable pulse generator (IPG)
  • Stimulates based on a pre-determined control policy
  • Applications: movement disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease
  • Potential applications: Alzheimer’s disease, OCD, Tourette syndrome, major depression disorders, addiction, anorexia
98
Q

Describe 2 examples of consumer BCIs

A
  • NextMind: EEG headset with dry electrodes, sensor can detect “active, visual focus” to do on-screen actions like button-pressing or moving items
  • OpenBCI’s Galea: Dry EEG + eye-tracking + VR
99
Q

What are the 3 medical and 2 non-medical concerns of user safety regarding BCI ethics?

A

Medical:
- Complications from implantation, potential scarring
- Unknown interactions with plasticity of developing brain
- Unknown effect of removal

Non-medical:
- Burden of training and using the device
- Danger from device failure

99
Q

What are 9 aspects of ethical concerns regarding BCIs?

A
  • Corporate accountability
  • End of use
  • User safety
  • Autonomy
  • Judging agency
  • Privacy
  • Cyborgization & personhood
  • Defining normalcy
  • Informed consent
100
Q

How do BCIs affect autonomy? (2)

A
  • Devices can assist users in acting in the world, supporting autonomy
  • May also produce incorrect or unwanted actions, undermining autonomy (e.g., wrong movements, revealing inner thoughts)
101
Q

Describe the ethical concerns regarding cyborgization & personhood in BCI ethics (3)

A
  • Users do not feel that they “melt with technology” or “become part of a hybrid,” maybe because these statements imply losing their essence or identity
  • They seem to prefer metaphors like “controlling a tool”
  • “Patients themselves tend to not worry aobut changes in identity, as their medical hisotries have often already involved many radical identity changes”
101
Q

What are the privacy concerns regarding BCI ethics? (2)

A
  • By directly extracting brain activity, future BCI devices may detect private information such as truthfulness, attitudes, and psychological traits of the user
  • Potential for hacking
102
Q

Describe the ethical concerns regarding normalcy in BCI ethics (2)

A
  • BCIs have the potential to bring users closer to “normal” health or behavior, in alignment with a “deficit model” of disability
  • E.g., for the deaf community, is a chochlear implant to be viewed as an enhancement or a treatment
103
Q

What are 4 concerns regarding informed consent in BCI ethics?

A
  • Impaired capacity (e.g., locked-in, non-communicative)
  • Unrealistic expectations of benefit
  • Group vulnerability (e.g., short window to participate following TBI)
  • Unknown potential harms - changes to identity, cognition
104
Q

What are 4 potential future directions for BCIs?

A
  • Brain-brain interfaces
  • Memory recording
  • Lie detection/brain fingerprinting
  • Augmentation
105
Q

Give an example of the application of AI in neuroscience in regards to risk prediction

A

Goal: Predict Alzheimer’s Disease diagnosis using brain scans (supervised learning)

Method: Train ML model, using labelled MRI data (healthy vs. Alzheimer’s Disease), to predict AD using neural activity. Identify most predictive brain regions (amygdala, HPC).

106
Q

Give an example of applications of AI in neuroscience in regards to clinical decision-making

A

Goal: surgically remove epileptogenic brain region to treat seizures using intracranial EEG

Method: Proposed ML model uses unlabelled features of the raw iEEG output to identify seizure origin.

107
Q

Give an example of applications of AI in neuroscience in regards to neurotech

A

Goal: Control limb prosthesis with neural activity
Method: Train ML model on the mapping between neural activity and limb movement

108
Q

Give an example of applications of AI in neuroscience in regards to brain modelling

A

Goal: understand how rat brains represent space
Methods: Trained ML model to “navigate space” with training data that simulate real rodent behaviour + neural activity. Model developed representations resembling real rat entohinal cortex “grid cells”.

109
Q

Give an example of applications of AI in neuroscience in regards to diagnosis and prognositcation

A

Problem: Need to triage acute neurological illnesses quickly (e.g. stroke, hemorrhage, hydrocephalus - “time is brain”)
Model type: Supervised ML model trained on head CTs and radiology annotations
Result: Accelerated time to diagnosis in simulated clinical environment

110
Q

How can do the claims that brain training games and apps make affect the 4 principles of bioethics?

A
  • Justice: Distributive justice, paying for the apps
  • Beneficence: Not suggesting other resources that have scientific evidence to improve brain health (?)
  • Non-maleficence: encouraging people to suscribe and spend time on their apps, even though the evidence is questionable
  • Autonomy: prey on insecurities and worries of populations to coerce into buying/suscribing to app.
111
Q

What are the 7 example theories in bioethics?

A
  • Utilitarianism: Consequences
  • Deontology: Duty/rules
  • Descriptive natural law: Nature’s urges
  • Theory of justice: Social good
  • Virtue ethics: Virtue
  • Ethics of care: Relationships
  • Principlism: Moral pillars
112
Q

What is the veil of ignorance, and how does that relate to the procedural aspect of justice in the theory of justice?

A

Veil of ignorance: choosing policies that are fair to everyone, without any knowledge about how you will be affected by the policies.

NSCI 301 (2 decks)

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