Neuroethics Questions to Guide Ethical Research in the International Brain Initiatives

• Published in: Neuron (Cambridge, Mass.) Vol. 100; no. 1; pp. 19 - 36
• Main Authors: Amadio, Jordan, Bi, Guo-Qiang, Boshears, Paul Frederick, Carter, Adrian, Devor, Anna, Doya, Kenji, Garden, Hermann, Illes, Judy, Johnson, L. Syd M., Jorgenson, Lyric, Jun, Bang-Ook, Lee, Inyoung, Michie, Patricia, Miyakawa, Tsuyoshi, Nakazawa, Eisuke, Sakura, Osamu, Sarkissian, Hagop, Sullivan, Laura Specker, Uh, Stepheni, Winickoff, David, Wolpe, Paul Root, Wu, Kevin Chien-Chang, Yasamura, Akira, Zheng, Jialin C., Rommelfanger, Karen S., Jeong, Sung-Jin, Ema, Arisa, Fukushi, Tamami, Kasai, Kiyoto, Ramos, Khara M., Salles, Arleen, Singh, Ilina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 10.10.2018; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Bioethics; Biomedical Research - ethics; Brain; brain projects; Brain research; Buddhism; Collaboration; Confucianism; cross-cultural neuroethics; culture; Ethics; global neuroscience; Humans; Initiatives; international brain initiative; Nervous system; Neural networks; neuroethics; Neurosciences; Neurosciences - ethics; Research ethics; Researchers; responsible research innovation; science and society; Society; Values; Working groups; United States > US; China; Japan; neuroethics; science and society; Buddhism; international brain initiative; brain projects; culture; cross-cultural neuroethics; responsible research innovation; Confucianism; global neuroscience
• ISSN: 0896-6273; 1097-4199; 1097-4199
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2018.09.021

Increasingly, national governments across the globe are prioritizing investments in neuroscience. Currently, seven active or in-development national-level brain research initiatives exist, spanning four continents. Engaging with the underlying values and ethical concerns that drive brain research across cultural and continental divides is critical to future research. Culture influences what kinds of science are supported and where science can be conducted through ethical frameworks and evaluations of risk. Neuroscientists and philosophers alike have found themselves together encountering perennial questions; these questions are engaged by the field of neuroethics, related to understanding of the nature of the self and identity, the existence and meaning of free will, defining the role of reason in human behavior, and more. With this Perspective article, we aim to prioritize and advance to the foreground a list of neuroethics questions for neuroscientists operating in the context of these international brain initiatives. Neuroscience is a national priority across the globe necessitating engagement with the underlying cultural and ethical values that drive brain research. We offer a list of neuroethics questions for neuroscientists to advance and accelerate an ethically tenable globalized neuroscience.