KEY ISSUES: NEUROSCIENCE
The field of neuroscience has undergone dramatic growth in recent years, leading many to dub this the "Decade of the Brain." The convergence of interest of many disciplines - such as psychology, computer science, and medicine - has greatly expanded the scope of neuroscience to include all systematic scientific investigations of the nervous systems and cognitive processes of human and other biological organisms.
In conducting these investigations, scientists now employ increasingly advanced technologies in their studies, including neural modeling simulations, biological computers, brain-machine interfaces, mapping technologies, and psychopharmaceuticals. By utilizing multiple methods of analysis, neuroscience seeks to examine, understand, and even control the complex interplay between the brain, behavior, and environment - giving rise to concerns about privacy, autonomy, informed consent, and human cognitive augmentation, among others.
Neuroscience is a rapidly growing field that has dramatically improved knowledge helpful in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disorders of the nervous system. Neuroscience encompasses a range of disciplines that examine the genetic, molecular, cellular, anatomical, neurophysiological, evolutionary, behavioral, and computational basis of brain phenomena. Neuroscientists employ increasingly advanced technologies including high resolution structural and functional brain imaging, neural modeling simulations, biological computers, brain-machine interfaces, cortical mapping technologies, and psychopharmaceuticals targeted to the molecular basis of brain functions. The convergence of interest of these disciplines seeks an exhaustive understanding of the human brain with the potential to enable novel methods of controlling the complex interplay between the brain, behavior, and the environment. The medical, social and legal applications of neuroscience give rise to ethical challenges that include concerns about privacy, autonomy, informed consent, justice, and human cognitive augmentation, among others.
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"Vast issues of policy across every area will be hit by the transformative effects of emerging technologies whether robotics/AI, synthetic bio, virtual reality, neuroscience, or the next generation of research in genetics. The innovation economy. Security. Environment. Freedom. Dignity.
Risk, technology, and human values come to a single point, and must drive a far-sighted policy discussion that we have barely begun."
—Nigel Cameron
President and CEO, C-PET
"Americans have always defined themselves in terms of the future. It is therefore astonishing that there is no policy institute on emerging technologies in the nation's capital, one that cuts across philosophical lines. C-PET addresses that absence in our national conversation."
—JONATHAN MORENO
