Neuroscience Marches On

[Danielle La Belle]

The Neuroscience Revolution.



by Paul Root Wolpe


While the world's attention has been diverted by the drama of the Human Genome Project, neuroscience has been quietly creating a revolution with implications every bit as profound as those of genetics. Neuroimaging advances, psychopharmaceuticals with enormous potential for clinical use, neural-technological interfaces, brain stimulation technologies, and organic implants such as fetal cell therapy are transforming our ability to understand and intervene in the brain. Along the way, they are also challenging accepted standards for the proper limits of technology, possibly giving criminal justice some revolutionary and troubling new tools, redefining our sense of selfhood and brain-body relations, and raising a host of other ethical and social questions. And all this without a multibillion dollar, public-private juggernaut like the Human Genome Project to drive it forward.

Ethicists are only now beginning to take note of these developments. Two recent conferences, one on each coast, have raised a call to ethicists by highlighting the astonishing scientific advances in neurosciences and the oft-times novel ethical challenges they present.

The first conference, funded by the Greenwall and Medtronic Foundations and hosted in February 2000 by the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics and Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, was the culmination of a series of meetings of ethicists and neuroscientists in early 2000. A larger, more ambitious conference took place in San Francisco in May, sponsored by the Dana Foundation and hosted jointly by Stanford and the University of California at San Francisco. Promising to kick-start the "new field" of neuroethics," the conference included leaders in neuroscience, law, social science, and ethics--and William Satire as master of ceremonies. The two conferences explored issues such as the proper use of psychopharmaceuticals, the proper role of physicians in dispensing neuroactive drugs, the nature of human rights and responsibilities, the proper use of neurodiagnostics (for example, for predicting a child's susceptibility to a late-onset disease like Alzheimers), public discourse and social policy, and the proper nature and limits to the practice of science.

The increasing attention to neuroscience is not surprising given the novel problems of these technologies. Neuroimaging studies are beginning to demonstrate an ability to correlate mental states and traits to detectable brain patterns or structures. Research has shown, for example, that a history of depression, or addiction, leaves identifiable brain sequelae even if the disease is in remission. In some cases, neuroimaging may be able to detect racist ideation, to differentiate false and true memories, and to discover mood states (even when they are preconscious in the subject), intentional prevarication, and even the content of thought (to discover whether someone is thinking of a face or a chair, for example). While these studies are preliminary and their powers of prediction so far modest, they portend a time when the criminal justice system, employers, schools, and other institutions may want to use imaging to detect or refute other kinds of evidence about people's aptitudes, honesty, or history.

In addition to these diagnostic or scanning technologies, new psychopharmaceuticals are promising to redefine how we conceive of disease, treatment, and professional privilege. Drugs like Prozac, Viagra, and soon perhaps modafinil (which fights fatigue without the side effects of amphetamines), are being used by people without any diagnosable pathology, and are often prescribed by physicians upon request. Drugs are being developed that can enhance memory, confidence, and other aspects of normal functioning and will likely be as freely available as Viagra, which can now be purchased on the web with at best a transparent nod to diagnostic and prescriptive requirements. As the power and specificity of these drugs increase, so will the ability of the average person to manage his daily life pharmacologically, adding a host of mood and cognitive enhancers to the morning cup of coffee and the after-work cocktail.

Neuroimaging and psychopharmaceuticals are only the tip of the neuroscience iceberg. Implantable computer "brain chips" are allowing the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and monkeys to control cursors on computer screens entirely with their minds. Trans-cranial magnetic stimulation can temporarily turn specific areas of the brain off by sending electric charges through the skull. Electrode implantation has allowed scientists to create "robo-rats" whose travels are controlled by the joysticks of scientists, and monkeys whose thought processes can control mechanical arms thousands of miles away.

Clearly the influence of these technologies on everyday life is only years away, rather than decades, as in the case of genetic technologies. Bioethicists are coming to the game a bit late, and often underprepared, but the issues are real and complex, and the neuroscientists are not waiting for the ethical groundwork to be laid.

--Paul Root Wolpe
University of Pennsylvania
2002....

Hi Girls:

Certainly something to consider as we watch our current sci-fy "X-Men," where fiction and reality meet head on with our current and near future skills in Neuroscience.

Hugs

Danielle Marie

[Jeannie]

That was a very interesting article but a bit scary.I hope we never get to the point that when we are born we all are profiled and labeled. Some would be blessed and others comdemned.
Hope all is well with you Hon and you had a great Memorial Day weekend. It would be nice to have a three day weekend every week. I believe everyone would be a bit happier. Happiness comes in small doses. Have a great week Danielle. Love your gallery. You have great style. Classic. You should be a model in an Ann Taylor catalogue. Did you ever check out Chicos? They have some great outfits. Soft and comfortable with some great colors and styles for us more mature gals! Hugs


Love
Jeannie

[Danielle La Belle]

Hi Jeannie:

Thanks for the tip on "Chicos." I will look them up on the internet tonight. I had a decent Monday. Spouse worked at the clinic. Patients with chronic kidney disease need dialysis no matter what holiday it is. A double edged sword I guess. Job security comes with a price.

Thank you for the compliments on my gallery. I will be adding some updates soon. I like to think simple, but feminine as well. A happy mix of womanhood.

Yes, I think we are nearing a time when insurance companies are going to be in a position to reduce the odds in their favor even more. The house is going to win by rejecting those that do not fall into specific criteria narrowed down with DNA studies and neuroscience.

Mutt and Jeff may have to move over in the "baby development class" as we fall in line with the rest of the world and use predictors for "improved child selection techniques." We used to eat fish on Friday's as a Roman Catholic, but, when the church saw that people went for the meat, they changed their ruling rather than go against the grain and lose future supporters.


Hugs

Danielle Marie