The Wellcome Centre for Neuroethics

Established in January 2009, The Wellcome Centre for Neuroethics aims to address concerns about the effects neuroscience and neurotechnologies will have on various aspects of human life. Its research focuses on five key areas: cognitive enhancement; borderline consciousness and severe neurological impairment; free will, responsibility and addiction; the neuroscience of morality and decision-making; and applied neuroethics.
 
New Items
 
BBC article "Vegetative State patients respond to questions", commented on by Professor Neil Levy and Dominic Wilkinson in their Uehiro Centre blog entries 4 February 2010, see left of screen.
Also, see recent article by Shea, N. and Bayne, T. (2010), "The Vegetative State and the Science of Consciousness", British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 1-26.
 

New Vacancies

 
The Laces Trust has generously agred to sponsor a postgraduate studentship at St Cross College, University of Oxford, for entry in 2010, covering the cost of college fees and a small stipend.  For more information, please click here.

The National Core for Neuroethics is seeking a Postdoctoral or Masters level researcher to join a vibrant team at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada, and help lead a new initiative at the interface of ethics and neuroscience, with a focus on neurodevelopmental disorders: Cerebral Palsy, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder. The position will be in collaboration with the new National Centre for Excellence "NeuroDevNet" at UBC (http://www.neurodevnet.ca/) and the IRCM (http://www.ircm.qc.ca/en) in Montreal.
For more information, or to apply, please contact Ms. Altaira Northe at altaira.northe@ubc.ca.

 

 
Recent Publications by Centre Members

Skene, L., Savulescu, J., Wilkinson, D. (2009),  "Neuroimaging and the Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment from Patients in
Vegetative State" was recently listed on SSRN's Top Ten download list for Law & Neuroscience.
Morein-Zamir, S., Sahakian, B.J. (2009),

"Neuroethics and public engagement training needed for neuroscientists", Trends in Cognitive Sciences, November 17.
Mohamed, A.D., Loewenthal, D., "Is it possible to ethically research the mental health needs of the Somali communities in the UK?", Journal of Ethics in Mental Health, 4 (1).

Wilkinson, D., Kahane, G., Savulescu, J., "Functional neuroimaging and withdrawal of life- sustaining treatment from vegetative patients", Journal of Medical Ethics 35, 508-511.
Sinnott-Armstrong, W. et al., "Neural Lie Detection in Courts" in American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Using Imaging to Identify Deceit: Scientific and Ethical Questions.

 

Recent Activity

 
 Pablo Stafforini was interviewed in the South American magazine Revista de cultura on Transhumanism: "El hombre maquina".
 
 
   
 
Professor Barbara Sahakian has appeared in an episode of Horizon, entitled Pill Poppers, and was recently quoted in an Independent article entitled "Are smart drugs really that clever?", and was interviewed for Channel 4 News: The Home Office asks the government's advisory body on drugs to look at the use of 'cognitive enhancers'.  She has appeared on BBC Radio 4's "Start the Week" and in a Sunday Times article "It's a no brainer - bring on the pills that will make us smarter"
 
Dr Tom Douglas researched a parliamentary briefing on the dual-use dilemma as part of a Wellcome Trust Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology Fellowship. The dual-use dilemma is the ethical quandary that arises when scientific work can be used in both ethical and unethical ways and it is not clear whether the likelihood of good uses outweighs the risk of misuse. Parliamentary briefing; Podcast

 

Professor Julian Savulescu and Dr Dominic Wilkinson were interviewed by The Wellcome Trust:  Caution urged over the use of fMRI for life or death decisions.  Professor Savulescu recently took part in the BBC World Service programme "The Forum."

 
 

Professor Neil Levy was interviewed for "The Australian":  Enhanced brains say know to drugs

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More 

 
Forthcoming Events
 
First Annual Wellcome Lecture
 
A public lecture to be given by Professor Steven Hyman (Provost, Harvard University): "Meditations on Self-Control: Lessons from the Neurobiology of Addiction."
 
19:00-20:15, Tuesday 12 May 2010, in the Oxford University Musuem of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford.  Map of Museum
 
 
Conference: Preliminary announcement

The Mechanisms of Self-Control: Lessons from Addiction
May 13-14 2010, University of Oxford

Loss of control over some aspects of behavior is usually held to be a defining feature of addiction. But the loss of control envisaged is somewhat mysterious. The series of actions in which addicts engage in order to procure and consume their drug is not reflexive; should it nevertheless be properly seen as uncontrolled? What mechanisms are impaired in the addict’s behavior, and how can those impairments illuminate normal agency? This conference will bring together leading thinkers in neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry and philosophy to explore and advance our understanding of the mechanisms of self-control and the way in which they are weakened  in addiction.

Main Speakers:

George Ainslie (Coatesville Veterans Affairs Medical Center)
Nomy Arpaly (Brown Univeristy).
Kent Berridge (Michigan University)
Richard Holton (MIT)
Steven Hyman (Harvard)
Mark Muraven (SUNY Albany)
Steve Pearce (Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Trust)
Hanna Pickard (All Souls College, Oxford)
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (Duke University)
Gideon Yaffe (University of Southern California).

 

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