From Philosophical Queries to Greater Dilemmas of Neuroethics

Author(s):  
Martin Petlach

This chapter elucidates the origins and changes in understanding of neuroethics. An accent is then put on the role neuroethics should play. As a consequence, limitations in research are identified, especially in connection with ethical questions that had been proposed by philosophers in previous centuries. The urgency of their remarks has intensified due to the expansion of neuroscience. This theoretical part is subsequently enriched by practical aspects and ethical codes of which prescripts are key and neuromarketing practitioners are expected to obey them. Despite a growth of interest in neuroethics, the author presumes that the field still represents a ceaseless combat from within, and he claims that it may even remain invincible as a vicious circle. In conclusion, new trajectories are brought and considered together with recommendations and suggestions of new research possibilities as in case of political neuromarketing. This branch, however, perfectly illustrates the complexities associated with neuroethics.

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Landes ◽  
Martin Marchman ◽  
Morten Nielsen

The social benefits expected from academia are generally identified as belonging to three broad categories: research, education and contribution to society in general. However, evaluating the present situation of academia according to these criteria reveals a somewhat disturbing phenomenon: an increased pressure to produce articles (in peer-reviewed journals) has created an unbalanced emphasis on the research criterion at the expense of the latter two. More fatally, this pressure has turned academia into a rat race, leading to a deep change in the fundamental structure of academic behaviour, and entailing a self-defeating and hence counter-productive pattern, where more publications is always better and where it becomes increasingly difficult for researchers to keep up with the new research in their field. The article identifies the pressure to publish as a problem of collective action. It ends up by raising questions about how to break this vicious circle and restore a better balance between all three of the social benefits of academia.


2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Ilana Friedner

Abstract This commentary focuses on three points: the need to consider semiotic ideologies of both researchers and autistic people, questions of commensurability, and problems with “the social” as an analytical concept. It ends with a call for new research methodologies that are not deficit-based and that consider a broad range of linguistic and non-linguistic communicative practices.


2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Roth ◽  
Philipp Hammelstein

Based on the conception of sensation seeking as a need rather than a temperamental trait ( Hammelstein, 2004 ), we present a new assessment method, the Need Inventory of Sensation Seeking (NISS), which is considered to assess a motivational disposition. Three studies are presented: The first examined the factorial structure and the reliability of the German versions of the NISS; the second study compared the German and the English versions of the NISS; and finally, the validity of the NISS was examined in a nonclinical study and compared to the validity of conventional methods of assessing sensation seeking (Sensation Seeking Scale – Form V; SSS-V). Compared to the SSS-V, the NISS shows better reliability and validity in addition to providing new research possibilities including application in experimental areas.


2017 ◽  
Vol 225 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Lang ◽  
Lisa M. McTeague ◽  
Margaret M. Bradley

Abstract. Several decades of research are reviewed, assessing patterns of psychophysiological reactivity in anxiety patients responding to a fear/threat imagery challenge. Findings show substantive differences in these measures within principal diagnostic categories, questioning the reliability and categorical specificity of current diagnostic systems. Following a new research framework (US National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], Research Domain Criteria [RDoC]; Cuthbert & Insel, 2013 ), dimensional patterns of physiological reactivity are explored in a large sample of anxiety and mood disorder patients. Patients’ responses (e.g., startle reflex, heart rate) during fear/threat imagery varied significantly with higher questionnaire measured “negative affect,” stress history, and overall life dysfunction – bio-marking disorder groups, independent of Diagnostic and Statistical Manuals (DSM). The review concludes with a description of new research, currently underway, exploring brain function indices (structure activation, circuit connectivity) as potential biological classifiers (collectively with the reflex physiology) of anxiety and mood pathology.


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