The Obama administration asked a federal judge Tuesday to allow the government to continue funding embryonic stem-cell research while a case challenging the program makes its way through the courts. (Wall Street Journal)

On the Origins of Cognitive Science is an excellent review of early twentieth century cognitive science. It stands out amongst other reviews of cognitive science by taking a broad perspective over the ideas that were alive during the cybernetic era and not limiting itself to just that part of history that seems relevant in light of current orthodoxy. Dupuy explicitly states that the book is a testament to the failure of cybernetics, which I feel is not warranted by his exegesis. I found it to be an inspiring story of a research program that had lofty ambitions of exploring the ways in which new technologies could shape the way we understand the mind. Furthermore, it becomes clear through the book how much current orthodoxy and the research programs that are challenging this orthodoxy in the 21st century all owe to the research and new ways of thinking that the cyberneticians spawned. (Metapsychology)

Is it necessary first to enhance in order to decide whether or not enhancing is a good idea? (IEET)

Mimicking the behaviour of ants, bees and birds started as a poor man’s version of artificial intelligence. It may, though, be the key to the real thing. (The Economist)

What if we could read the mind of a terrorist? Researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago say they have taken a step closer to that reality with a test that could uncover nefarious plans by measuring brain waves. (TIME)

19th International Cleveland Clinic Epilepsy Symposia
Ethics of Invasive Brain Testing: Limits and Responsibilities

Cleveland, OH
Sunday, October 3, 2010

Symposium Organizer - Paul Ford, PhD

Clinicians and researchers are faced with ethically intricate challenges with the continued advancement of invasive technologies for monitoring and testing brain functioning. These technologies allow us to localize seizure foci, map functional areas, and explore therapeutic stimulation with applications to epilepsy, tumors, neurodegenerative diseases, and psychiatric disorders. These tests are performed on patients who become unusually vulnerable to power differences and manipulation. We have great potential to manipulate a person’s cognition, mood, or mind through these processes. We need to have clear reasons and justifications for choosing:

•  Which technologies we use
•  Which patients we use them on
•  How we use them on patients
•  What research questions we tackle
•  How we tackle those research projects

Threaded through these challenges are deeply held value convictions about justice, professionalism, and responsibility. Please feel free to visit http://www.ccf.org/neuroethics and click on NeuroEthics Symposia for more information.

Neurosociety… What is it with the brain these days?
Institute for Science, Innovation and Society (InSIS), and the
European Neuroscience and Society Network (ENSN)
Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, UK.
7-8 December, 2010

The last twenty years have seen unprecedented advances in the neurosciences, in fields such as psychopharmacology, neurology and behavioural genetics. A growing number of ethicists, social scientists, legal scholars and philosophers have begun to analyze the social, legal and ethical implications of these advances, from the use of fMRI imaging in legal cases, to the medical benefits and risks of the increasing prescription of psychotropic drugs such as Prozac and Ritalin. Some attention has been paid to the economic questions raised by the commercial development and application of new technologies, and the extent to which subfields such as neuroeconomics and neuromarketing are generating commercially and clinically valuable findings. The conference aims to bring together academics and practitioners from this wide range of disciplines to attempt a critical evaluation of the current state and future prospects for neuro thinking.

For more information

An undercover investigation of some firms that sell genetic test kits to consumers found misleading test results and “egregious examples of deceptive marketing,” according to a report published today by the Government Accountability Office. (New York Times)

19th International Cleveland Clinic Epilepsy Symposium
Ethics of Invasive Brain Testing:  Limits and Responsibilities
Sunday October 3

Symposium Organizer - Paul Ford, PhD
Clinicians and researchers are faced with ethically intricate challenges with the continued advancement of invasive technologies for monitoring and testing brain functioning. These technologies allow us to localize seizure foci, map functional areas, and explore therapeutic stimulation with applications to epilepsy, tumors, neurodegenerative diseases, and psychiatric disorders. These tests are performed on patients who become unusually vulnerable to power differences and manipulation. We have great potential to manipulate a person’s cognition, mood, or mind through these processes. We need to have clear reasons and justifications for choosing:
* Which technologies we use
* Which patients we use them on
* How we use them on patients
* What research questions we tackle
* How we tackle those research projects
Threaded through these challenges are deeply held value convictions about justice, professionalism, and responsibility. Audience: This one-day symposium is intended to engage neurologists, neurosurgeons, psychiatrists, advance care nurses, physician assistants, and ethicists in addressing practical ethical challenges related to invasive brain testing.

For more information

The work of a leading brain-imaging centre has been suspended after an investigation found that researchers had injected impure psychiatric drugs into clinical-trial volunteers. (Nature News)

With more than two billion people online across the globe, including 80% of the US population, most of us are surfing, emailing or Skyping at all hours of the day. But does using the internet fundamentally change the way we think? (BBC News)

In the past, daydreaming was often considered a failure of mental discipline, or worse. Freud labeled it infantile and neurotic. Psychology textbooks warned it could lead to psychosis. Neuroscientists complained that the rogue bursts of activity on brain scans kept interfering with their studies of more important mental functions. (New York Times)

Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics (Volume 38, Issue 2, Summer 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Embryo Stem Cell Research: Ten Years of Controversy” by John A. Robertson
• “Why Scientific Details Are Important When Novel Technologies Encounter Law, Politics, and Ethics” by Lawrence Goldstein
• “Old and New Ethics in the Stem Cell Debate” by Richard M. Doerflinger
• “Creating Embryos for Use in Stem Cell Research” by Dan W. Brock
• “Resolving Ethical Issues in Stem Cell Clinical Trials: The Example of Parkinson Disease” by Bernard Lo and Lindsay Parham
• “Allowing Innovative Stem Cell-Based Therapies Outside of Clinical Trials: Ethical and Policy Challenges” by Insoo Hyun
• Stem Cell Research and Economic Promises” by Timothy Caulfield
• “Diagnosing Consciousness: Neuroimaging, Law, and the Vegetative State” by Carl E. Fisher and Paul S. Appelbaum
• “Damage Control: Unintended Pregnancy in the United States Military” by Kathryn L. Ponder and Melissa Nothnagle
• “Teaching Health Law: Teaching Law and Medicine on the Interdisciplinary Cutting Edge: Assisted Reproductive Technologies” by Susan B. Apel
• “Recent Case Developments in Health Law” by Kate Wevers

Nature Neuroscience (Volume 13, Issue 7, July 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• Editorial: “Culture Clash on Consent”
• “Genome-Wide Association Studies: The Key to Unlocking Neurodegeneration?” by Sonia Gandhi and Nicholas W. Wood
• “What Can Pluripotent Stem Cells Teach Us About Neurodegenerative Diseases?” by Hynek Wichterle and Serge Przedborski

PATIENTS in a vegetative state are, by definition, unable to respond to stimulation with any form of overt behaviour. Recently, however, a group of British and Belgian researchers have shown that some of them respond to simple commands by altering their brain activity while in an MRI scanner. At the annual meeting of the Organisation for Human Brain Mapping in Barcelona on June 7th, the British half of the group described how it has taken an important step towards helping such patients communicate. (The Economist)

JAMA (Volume 303, Number 21, June 2, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Using Science to Improve the Nation’s Health System: NIH’s Commitment to Comparative Effectiveness Research” by Michael S. Lauer and Francis S. Collins, 2182-2183.
• “Building the Patient-Centered Medical Home in Ontario” by Richard H. Glazier adn Donald A. Redelmeier, 2186-2187.
• “Advancing the Care of Cardiac Patients Using Registry Data: Going Where Randomized Clinical Trials Dare Not” by Deepak L. Bhatt, 2188-2189.
• “Hospitalization and Cognitive Function in Older Adults” by Barbara C. van Munster and Sophia E. J. A. de Rooij, 2137-2138.
• “Registering Results From Clinical Trials” by An-Wen Chan, Andreas Laupacis, and David Moher, 2128-2139.
• “Registering Findings From Deep Brain Stimulation” by Dieneke Hubbeling, 2139-2140.
• “Surgeon General’s Prevention Priorities Dovetail With Health Care Reform Law” by Rebecca Voelker, 2123-2124.
• “IOM Report Calls for a More Streamlined, Faster Cancer Cooperative Trials Program” by Bridget M. Kuehn, 2126-2127.
• “Study Further Erodes Evidence or Eating Fruits and Vegetables to Prevent Cancer” by Mike Mitka, 2127-2128.

Book and Media Reviews Include:

• “Practice Under Pressure: Primary Care Physicians and Their Medicine n the Twenty-first Century” by Kevin Fiscella, 2195.
• “Technological Medicine: The Changing World of Doctors and Patients” by Eric G. Campbell, 2195-2196.

For decades, neuroscientists have been cognizant of the social implications of their work, but only since 2002 has the field of “neuroethics” emerged as a formal discipline that attempts to organize and address the ethical issues in neuroscience research and technology.3 The coining of the term “neuroethics” is credited to William Safire,4 a former columnist for The New York Times, who described it as “the field of philosophy that discusses the rights and wrongs of the treatment of, or enhancement of, the human brain.” A new vernacular has since transpired, with the prefix “neuro” (denoting neuroscience-based or -informed) commonly appended to a suffix such as “ethics,” “ law,” “imaging,” or “enhancement.” Michael Gazzaniga,5 sitting with the 2004 President’s Council on Bioethics, provided a broader definition of neuroethics as the “examination of how we want to deal with the social issues of disease, normality, mortality, lifestyle, and the philosophy of living informed by our understanding of underlying brain mechanisms.” (Psychiatric Times)

New England Journal of Medicine (Volume 362, Number 20, May 20, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Gene Patenting - Is the Pendulum Swinging Back?” by A.S. Kesselheim and M.M. Mello
• “Haiti Earthquake Relief, Phase Two - Long-Term Needs and Local Resources” by D. Bayard
• “Willful Modulation of Brain Activity in Disorders of Consciousness”

Nature (Volume 465, Number 7295, May 13, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Scientists’ Turn to Win Votes,” 135.
• “Science Subpoenaed,” 135.
• “Advising the Adviser,” 136.
• “Synthetic Biology: Search and Destroy,” 138.
• “Neuroscience: Ageing on the Brain,” 138.
• “Genomics Goes Beyond DNA Sequence” by Alla Katsnelson, 145.
• “Vaccinate Before the Next Pandemic?” by Klaus Stöhr, 161.
• “A Proximity-Based Programmable DNA Nanoscale Assembly Line” by Hongzhou Gu, Jie Chao, Shou-Jun Xiao and Nadrian C. Seeman, 202.

That enigma will be part of a Food and Drug Administration committee’s deliberations next month when it considers endorsing the first pill designed to do for women what Viagra did for men: boost their sex lives. A German pharmaceutical giant wants to sell a drug with the decidedly unsexy name “flibanserin,” which has shown prowess for sparking a woman’s sexual desire by fiddling with her brain chemicals. (Washington Post)