Intervention in the Brain: Politics, Policy, and Ethics
- ISBN-10
- 026231374X
- ISBN-13
- 9780262313742
- Category
- Medical
- Pages
- 384
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2013-04-12
- Publisher
- MIT Press
- Author
- Robert H. Blank
Description
The political and policy implications of recent developments in neuroscience, including new techniques in imaging and neurogenetics. New findings in neuroscience have given us unprecedented knowledge about the workings of the brain. Innovative research—much of it based on neuroimaging results—suggests not only treatments for neural disorders but also the possibility of increasingly precise and effective ways to predict, modify, and control behavior. In this book, Robert Blank examines the complex ethical and policy issues raised by our new capabilities of intervention in the brain. After surveying current knowledge about the brain and describing a wide range of experimental and clinical interventions—from behavior-modifying drugs to neural implants to virtual reality—Blank discusses the political and philosophical implications of these scientific advances. If human individuality is simply a product of a network of manipulable nerve cell connections, and if aggressive behavior is a treatable biochemical condition, what happens to our conceptions of individual responsibility, autonomy, and free will? In light of new neuroscientific possibilities, Blank considers such topics as informed consent, addiction, criminal justice, racism, commercial and military applications of neuroscience research, new ways to define death, and political ideology and partisanship. Our political and social institutions have not kept pace with the rapid advances in neuroscience. This book shows why the political issues surrounding the application of this new research should be debated before interventions in the brain become routine.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Brain Change Therapy: Clinical Interventions for Self-Transformation
By Carol Kershaw, J. William WadeSiegel, D. (2006, January 10). Cells that read minds. New York Times, pp. 1–3. Siegel, D. (2007). The mindful brain. New York, NY: Norton. Siegman, A., Townsend, S., Blumenthal, R., Sorkin, J., & Civelak, C. (1998).
-
Neuropsychosocial Intervention: The Practical Treatment of Severe Behavioral Dyscontrol After Acquired Brain Injury
By Robert L. KarolThis book outlines the nature and significance of behavioral dyscontrol, explains aggression, and details the neuropsychosocial treatment approach and the principles on which it is based.
-
Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (Volume 8): Child and Adolescent Health and Development
By Susan Horton, Donald A. P. Bundy, Dean T. JamisonThe volume outlines the investment case for effective, costed, and scalable interventions for low-resource settings, emphasizing the cross-sectoral role of education.
-
Working with Traumatic Brain Injury in Schools: Transition, Assessment, and Intervention
By Erin D. Bigler, Paul B. Jantz, Susan C. DaviesWorking with Traumatic Brain Injury in Schools is a comprehensive practitioner-oriented guide to effective school-based services for students who have experienced a TBI.
-
Brain Stimulation: Methodologies and Interventions
By Irving RetiThe book explores how brainstimulating technologies work in the context of brain pathways that mediate normal and abnormal brain function.
-
Staff Development and Clinical Intervention in Brain Injury Rehabilitation
By Charles J. Durgin, Nancy D. Schmidt, L. Jeanne FryerThis innovative resource offers everything you need to achieve the highest quality services in your rehabilitation program.You'll benefit from a clear philosophical and humanistic perspective to enhancing servicebacked up by...
-
Programming the Brain: Towards Intervention Strategies
By Sanne ClaessensProgramming the Brain: Towards Intervention Strategies
-
Collaborative Brain Injury Intervention: Positive Everyday Routines
By Mark Ylvisaker, Timothy J. FeeneyCollaborative Brain Injury Intervention: Positive Everyday Routines illustrates collaboration and thereby integration in several important ways. The authors succeed in integrating different perspectives into a coherent view of the nature...
-
Psychological Trauma and the Developing Brain: Neurologically Based Interventions for Troubled Children
By Phyllis Stien, Joshua C KendallOffering a new psychobiological model of child development, this book incorporates the influence of both genes and the environment and conceptualizes normal and pathological development in terms of common underlying processes.
-
Neuropsychosocial Intervention: The Practical Treatment of Severe Behavioral Dyscontrol After Acquired Brain Injury
By Robert L. KarolThis book outlines the nature and significance of behavioral dyscontrol, explains aggression, and details the neuropsychosocial treatment approach and the principles on which it i