Serotonin and value-based decision making

Can antidepressive medicine alter your decision behaviour? A recent paper in Science now demonstrates that alterations in subjects’ serotonin levels leads to significant changes in their decision making behaviour. In the study, subjects were set to play the Ultimatum Game repeatedly. Subjects had to do the task two times at two different days, and at [...]

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Oxytocin: the direct route to altruism?

In relation to our previous and well-visited post about oxytocin, we should mention a new study that uses this very substance in a neuroeconomic set-up. In the study, recently published by Neuron, and headed by Baumgartner et al., it was found that the administration of oxytocin affected subjects’ in a trust game. In particular, it [...]

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Wikipedia on transhumanism

Today's featured article at Wikipedia is about transhumanism, "an international intellectual and cultural movement supporting the use of new sciences and technologies to enhance human physical and cognitiveameliorate what it regards as harsh and unnecessary aspects of the human condition, such as disease and aging." If you think of humanism as the attempt to help [...]

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Cognitive enhancement videos up

 
Adina Roskies is a neurophilosopher with a strong interest in neuroethics. (See a list below with some of her contributions to the field.) Recently she spoke on the topic of cognitive enhancement at a conference called Forbidding Science at Arizona State University. Also speaking on the same topic at this event were Nick Bostrom and [...]

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Mind Wars!

In the wake of my post yesterday about US government attempts to build a workable lie detector for use in the war on terror, here is an article about Jonathan Moreno, bioethics adviser for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, who has a book coming out later this year entitled Mind Wars: National Security and the [...]

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More on neuroprosthetics

If you downloaded the radio programme on neuroprosthetics that Thomas mentions in a post below, you’ll want to also hear the January 13 version of BBC’s excellent radio show Science Frontier. Here’s the presentation of the programme, to be found at Radio 4’s web-site:
People with nerve or limb injuries may one day be able to [...]

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iHuman on podcast

There is a most interesting question being posed at the ABC The Science Show:
“What are the implications of the latest advances in neural prosthetics?”
THE SCIENCE SHOW with Robyn Williams – iHuman
Saturday 14 January, Midday, repeat Monday 16 January, 7pm
What are the implications of the latest advances in neural prosthetics, electronic implants and robotics for humankind? [...]

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Brushing up the brain

While we’re at it with cosmetic neurology, there is also a nice article by Chatterjee freely available in Neurology. I think the conclusion in this paper says it all:
In this paper, I have raised issues about cosmetic neurology that our profession will encounter. We may have our personal opinions on the correctness of such “treatments,” [...]

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