THE JUDGE Rotenberg Center in Canton, which stands alone in its use of painful skin shocks to eradicate self-mutilation and sudden assault, is a storehouse of ethical and medical dilemmas. But it’s no shock - and no shame - that the parents of some autistic and mentally retarded children embrace this controversial school. (The Boston Globe)

In the times of social networking, the Internet, and personal information everywhere being made public, there is no question that we are experiencing a loss of privacy left and right. One might say that last bastion of privacy – our own thoughts – is all we have to hold onto (though some people, driven by the age of Twitter, have taken to publishing all of those, too.) (The Technological Citizen)

I’ll admit that it may seem odd, or perhaps even unnecessary, to begin a post on a neuroethics blog to query the meaning of neuroethics. Although barely into its 8th year as an academicized field of study, the area of inquiry called “neuroethics” has developed a professional society, an academic journal devoted to issues that fall within the bioethics-neuroscience scope, another bearing its namesake, books (e.g., here, here, here, and here), and a few blogs (e.g., here & here) — including this one. Although the Dana Foundation’s “Neuroethics: Mapping the Field” conference is often credited as jump-starting neuroethics, it appears others have being ‘doing neuro-ethics’ well before the conference took shape (see, for instance, Gillett and also Churchland). (Neuroethics at the Core)

New evidence of brain activity in patients judged to be in a persistent vegetative state should make physicians and neurologists more cautious in arriving at such judgments in the future, according to a Catholic ethicist. (The Catholic Spirit)

Mind-reading is powerful stuff, but what about hand-reading? Intricate, three-dimensional hand motions have been “read” from the brain using nothing but scalp electrodes. The achievement brings closer the prospect of thought-controlled prosthetics that do not require brain surgery. (New Scientist)

JAMA (Vol. 303; No. 8; Febraury 24, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Trends in Work Hours of Physicians in the United States” by Douglas O. Staiger, David I. Auerback, and Peter I. Bauerhaus;747-753.
• “Front-of-Package Food Labels: Public Health or Propaganda?” by Marion Nestle and David S. Ludwig, 771-772.
• “Deep Brain Stimulation and and the Neuroethics of Responsible Publishing: When One is Not Enough” by Thomas E. Schlaepfer and Joseph J. Fins, 775-776.
• “Recession Helped Put Brakes on Growth in US Health Care Spending for 2008″ by Mike Mitka, 715.
  

With the high availability of so-called “cognitive enhancing drugs” like Ritalin, Adderall, and Provigil on college campuses, students everywhere are facing the choice of whether or not to take non-prescribed medications to help them “perform better” in school. Studies show that anywhere between 20-35% of college students have used one of these medications without a prescription in their college career, but an informal survey would likely reveal an even higher percentage, as the use of these medications is on the rise. Many claim these drugs help them concentrate, study longer, and juggle more tasks by creating more productive hours in the day. Others rely on them in a crunch, during midterms, finals, or the night before a big test, when the clock is ticking and assignments are due, and there doesn’t seem to be enough time –or brain power–to get everything that needs to get done, done. (THE TECHNOLOGICAL CITIZEN)

Stanford researcher finds that experiences with avatars, including personalized images of ourselves, can change our view of reality and the way we act in the real world. (PhysOrg)

We should think very carefully before we start routinely taking drugs such as Modafinil to boost cognitive function. (Guardian)

In 2004, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors put forward a fundamental truth: “The case against selective reporting is particularly compelling for research that tests interventions that could enter mainstream clinical practice.”1 There is perhaps no arena in medical research where the threat of selective reporting is greater than in the emerging field of deep brain stimulation (DBS) and neuromodulation. This intervention is now being studied2 for the treatment of several psychiatric diseases such as treatment-refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder, major depression, and Tourette syndrome as well as behavioral conditions like obesity, violent behavior, and substance abuse. [Premium (JAMA
)]

A Belgian man who stunned the world last year by apparently communicating after 23 years in a coma cannot in fact do so, researchers say. (BBC News)

In the last 20 years, it’s become more likely that a patient will survive an injury to the brain. But with better lifesaving techniques has come a pressing need to find out just how well the brain is functioning — or if it is at all. (Los Angeles Times)

The first draft of the new psychiatric manual — the DSM-V, to be finalized in 2013 — makes major changes in how a wide range of mental illnesses will be diagnosed. Nothing is set in stone, says the American Psychiatric Association (APA) task force that is writing the new diagnostic “bible” — the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Version V, which will replace the DSM-IV written in 1994. (WebMD)

The top health authority has launched a nationwide mental health program, requesting each province to set up at least one psychological counseling hotline by the end of the year, according to a notice from the Ministry of Health yesterday. (China Daily)

Removing part of the brain can induce inner peace, according to researchers from Italy. Their study provides the strongest evidence to date that spiritual thinking arises in, or is limited by, specific brain areas. (Scientific American)

The assorted mystics, philosophers, theologians and, most recently, neuroscientists who have burned a candle searching for the essence of consciousness all started with a simple presumption: Consciousness must begin where unconsciousness ends. (New York Times)

He emerged from the car accident alive but alone, there and not there: a young man whose eyes opened yet whose brain seemed shut down. For five years he lay mute and immobile beneath a diagnosis — “vegetative state” — that all but ruled out the possibility of thought, much less recovery. (New York Times)

Researchers use a brain-scanning technique to find differences in the neural connections of PTSD patients that could help researchers understand and treat the disorder. (Scientific American)

NanoEthics (Volume 3, Number 3, December 2009) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Moral Imagination, Trading Zones, and the Role of the Ethicist in Nanotechnology” by Michael E. Gorman, Patricia H. Werhane, and Nathan Swami; 185-195.
• “The Mind and the Machine. On the Conceptual and Moral Implications of Brain-Machine Interaction” by Maartje Schermer, 217-230.
• “Ambient Intelligence and Persuasive Technology: The Blurring Boundaries Between Human and Technology” by Peter-Paul Verbeek, 231-242.
• “Tensions and Opportunities in Convergence: Shifting Concepts of Disease in Emerging Molecular Medicine” by Marianne Boenink, 243-255.
• “Playing God in Frankenstein’s Foosteps: Synthetic Biology and the Meaning of Life” by Henk van den Belt, 257-268.

BioSocieties (Volume 4, Issue 04, December 2009) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Informed Consent in Forensic DNA Databases: Volunteering, Constructions of Risk and Identity Categorization” by Helena Machado and Susana Silva, 335-348.
• “Models of Cloning, Models for the Zoo: Rethinking the Sociological Significance of Cloned Animals” by Carrie Friese, 367-390.
• “The Practice of Genetic Counselling- A Comparative Approach to Understanding Genetic Counselling in China” by Suli Sui, 391-405.
• “Changing Brains: The Emergence of the Field of Adult Neurogenesis” by Beatrix P. Rubin, 407-424.
• “The Cerebral Subject and the Challenge of Neurodiversity” by Francisco Ortega, 425-445.

In the shimmering fantasy realm of the hit movie “Avatar,” a paraplegic Marine leaves his wheelchair behind and finds his feet in a new virtual world thanks to “the link,” a sophisticated chamber that connects his brain to a surrogate alien, via computer. (CNN)