Interdisciplinary Centers, Units, and Projects

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 957
  • Publication
    Cosmetic Neurology and Cosmetic Surgery: Parallels, Predictions, and Challenges
    (2007-01-01) Chatterjee, Anjan
    As our knowledge of the functional and pharmacological architecture of the nervous system increases, we are getting better at treating cognitive and affective disorders. Along with the ability to modify cognitive and affective systems in disease, we are also learning how to modify these systems in health. “Cosmetic neurology,” the practice of intervening to improve cognition and affect in healthy individuals, raises several ethical concerns.1 However, its advent seems inevitable.2 In this paper I examine this claim of inevitability by reviewing the evolution of another medical practice, cosmetic surgery. Cosmetic surgery also enhances healthy people and, despite many critics, it is practiced widely. Can we expect the same of cosmetic neurology? The claim of inevitability poses a challenge for both physicians and bioethicists. How will physicians reconsider their professional role? Will bioethicists influence the shape of cosmetic neurology? But first, how did cosmetic surgery become common?
  • Publication
    Will Future Forensic Assessment Be Neurobiologic?
    (2006-04-01) Popma, Arne; Raine, Adrian
    During the past 2 decades, research on the role of biologic factors in antisocial behavior has made vast progress. This article discusses recent findings and their possible implications for future forensic assessment and treatment. In addition, some relevant philosophical, ethical, and political questions are brought forward.
  • Publication
    Volume 2, Number 2
    (1934-06-01)
  • Publication
    The "Difficult" Patient Reconceived: An Expanded Moral Mandate for Clinical Ethics
    (2012-05-01) Fiester, Autumn
    Between 15%-60% of patients are considered “difficult” by their treating physicians. Patient psychiatric pathology is the conventional explanation for why patients are deemed “difficult.” But the prevalence of the problem suggests the possibility of a less pathological cause. I argue that the phenomenon can be better explained as responses to problematic interactions related to healthcare delivery. If there are grounds to reconceive the “difficult” patient as reacting to the perception of ill treatment, then there is an ethical obligation to address this perception of harm. Resolution of such conflicts currently lies with the provider and patient. But the ethical stakes place these conflicts into the province of the ethics consult service. As the resource for addressing ethical dilemmas, there is a moral mandate to offer assistance in the resolution of these ethically charged conflicts that is no less pressing than the more familiar terrain of clinical ethics consultation.
  • Publication
    2.2.2.2 - Bonus
    (2015-12-01) Ghrist, Robert
    In this series, you will find video assets for all video assets from the massive, open, online course, Calculus: Single Variable. The course is taught by Robert Ghrist of the University of Pennsylvania.
  • Publication
    Minds, Motherboards, and Money: Futurism and Realism in the Neuroethics of BCI Technologies
    (2014-05-15) Attiah, Mark A; Farah, Martha J
    From the Introduction: Brain computer interfaces (BCIs) are systems that enable the brain to send and receive information to and from a computer, bypassing the body's own efferent and afferent pathways. BCIs have been used in experimental animal models to augment perception, motor control and even memory (Velliste et al., 2008; Berger et al., 2011; Torab et al., 2011). Human BCIs include cochlear implants and a host of experimental devices including retinal implants (Niparko et al., 2010; Klauke et al., 2011). BCI technology holds the potential to benefit humanity greatly, but also the potential to do harm, and its ethical implications have therefore been addressed by a number of commentators.
  • Publication
    Bioethics and the Brain
    (2003-06-01) Foster, Kenneth R; Wolpe, Paul Root; Caplan, Arthur L.
    Microelectronics and medical imaging are bringing us closer to a world where mind reading is possible and blindness banished - but we may not want to live there. New ways of imaging the human brain and new developments in microelectronics are providing unprecedented capabilities for monitoring the brain in real time and even for controlling brain function. The technologies are novel, but some of the questions that they will raise are not. Electrical activity in the brain can reveal the contents of a person's memory. New imaging techniques might allow physician to detect devastating diseases long before those diseases become clinically apparent. And researchers may one day find brain activity that correlates with behavior patterns such as tendencies toward alcoholism, aggression, pedophilia, or racism. But how reliable will the information be, how should it be used, and what will it do to our notion of privacy? Meanwhile, microelectronics is making access to the brain a two-way street. The same electrical stimulation technologies that allow some deaf people to hear could be fashioned to control behavior as well. What are the appropriate limits to the use of this technology? Ethicists are only now beginning to take note of these developments in neuroscience.
  • Publication
    Correspondence: A Medical View of Potential Adverse Effects
    (2009-01-01) Chatterjee, Anjan
    These letters respond to the Commentary 'Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the health' by Henry Greely and colleagues. (Nature 456, 702-705; 2008)
  • Publication
    Using Anthropometric Indicators for Mexicans in the United States and Mexico to Understand the Selection of Migrants and the "Hispanic Paradox"
    (2005-09-01) Crimmins, Eileen M; Soldo, Beth J; Kim, Jung Ki; Alley, Dawn
    Anthropometric measures including height provide an indication of childhood health that allows exploration of relationships between early life circumstances and adult health. Height can also be used to provide some indication of how early life health is related to selection of migrants and the Hispanic paradox in the United States. This article joins information on persons of Mexican nativity ages 50 and older in the United States collected in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey IV (NHANES IV 1999-2002) with a national sample of persons of the same age living in Mexico from the Mexican Health and Aging Survey (MHAS 2001) to examine relationships between height, education, migration, and late-life health. Mexican immigrants to the United States are selected for greater height and a high school, rather than higher or lower, education. Return migrants from the United States to Mexico are shorter than those who stay. Height is related to a number of indicators of adult health. Results support a role for selection in the Hispanic paradox and demonstrate the importance of education and childhood health as determinants of late-life health in both Mexico and the United States.