Instructor: Michelle R. Greene, Ph.D

Email: mgreene2@bates.edu

Office hours: TTh 8-9am, 4-6pm (Hathorn 106) If neither of these times work, please know that I’m happy to meet when my door is open!

Logistics: T/Th 7:30pm - 9:00 (P’Gill G65)

Prerequisites: NRSC 130, NS/PH 117, NS/PY 160, or PSYC 215.

Course Description

As our ability to measure, predict, and manipulate brain function progresses, so too does our need to grapple with the societal consequences of neuroscientific discovery. This course invites critical examination of the ethics surrounding real-world neuroscience applications in private and public sectors. With topics that include psychopharmacology and cognitive liberty, neuroimaging for lie detection, weaponization of neurotechnology, and neuroprivacy in an era of data mining, students engage two overarching questions: How does the practice of neuroscience simultaneously mirror and mould social attitudes and policy-making agendas? What does it mean to be a responsible consumer and/or producer of neuroscientific knowledge?

Introduction

The alternative title for this course is “Neuroscience for Future Presidents”. This title was loosely inspired by Richard Muller’s “Physics for Future Presidents” at UC Berkeley. Unlike the policy issues that involve physics, the ethical issues in neuroscience cut deep into the heart of human identity. Findings in neuroscience are being used to advocate for policies on education, criminal justice, drugs, abortion, and many others. These issues affect both public policy decisions as well as personal choices: to whom do we afford rights and how we preserve these rights in the face of new technologies? How do we preserve Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights when we can “read” the thoughts of another person? As we become better able to predict future psychiatric disease or criminal behavior, how do we act on this knowledge to preserve individual rights? Can we improve our brains? Should we?

Citizens of the future (including Presidents, and including you, whether or not you become President) will face critical decisions that involve neuroscience. The purpose of course is to give you the cognitive tools to evaluate these critical decisions.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

  • Describe emerging ethical issues that accompany nascent technologies associated with studying and altering brain function.

  • Use current scholarly literature to critically assess the claims made about measuring and altering brain activity.

  • Work effectively within a team to compile, discuss, interpret, and present multiple perspectives on neuroethical issues.

  • Acquire a personal framework for bioethical thought that allows the justification of one’s moral beliefs.

Classroom Expectations:

Commitment to Diversity

I expect all students to be respectful of the widely varied experiences and backgrounds represented by the classroom members as a group. Disrespect or discrimination on any basis will not be tolerated. Whether inside or outside the classroom, if you encounter sexual harassment, sexual violence, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, age, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, or disability, you are encouraged to report it to Gwen Lexow, Director of Title IX and Civil Rights Compliance at Bates at glexow@bates.edu or 207-786-6445. Additionally, please remember that Bates faculty are concerned about your well-being and development, and we are available to discuss any concerns you have. Students should be aware that faculty are legally obligated to share disclosures of sexual violence, sexual harassment, relationship violence, and stalking with the college’s Title IX Officer to help ensure that your safety and welfare are being addressed.

Commitment to Respect

This course will touch challenging topics including mental and physical illness, discrimination, trauma, and privacy. It is essential that we build our class community into a place where everyone is entirely comfortable in participating, questioning, and intellectually experimenting without fear of retribution or overly harsh, judgmental, or critical responses. To this end, your continued participation in this course requires your commitment to challenge ideas rather than people, and to treat any personal information shared in the course as completely confidential.

Academic Integrity

Please remind yourself of the Bates College policy on academic integrity. Please read this guide and its definitions of plagiarism, use/misuse of sources, and cheating. Students’ work will be closely scrutinized for plagiarism and violations of the College policy will not be tolerated. If you are concerned that your collaboration might put you at risk of an academic integrity violation, please come see me during office hours as soon as possible.

Students with Learning Differences

If you have a condition or disability that creates difficulties with the assignments, please notify me as soon as possible. You will need to create documentation with the Office of the Dean of Students, so if you need accommodation, please do this as soon as possible.

Grading:

Policy Briefs: 30% total

1000 words (hard limit) paper designed to give an overview of a situation to a non-expert, such as a CEO, Senator, or President. Each paper is worth 10% of your final grade.

  • Making a better brain (due: September 27)
  • Prospects for prediction (due: October 30)
  • Who owns memory? (due: November 16)

Participation: 30% total

What you get out of this class is in direct proportion to what you put in. Thoughtful participation is critical. That said, we all have different personalities and strengths, and participation need not come in the form of in-class speaking. Your participation grade will come from your engagement in several venues. Excellence in one can make up for sparse participation in another:

  • Class attendance and active, thoughtful contributions to discussion
  • Backchannel online chat in class
  • Out-of-class online forum participation
  • Debate preparation and performance

Final Project: 40% total

The goal of the final project is to give you the opportunity to take a deep dive in one of the course’s topics, and to express this learning in a manner that is congruent with your background, goals, and talents. The project consists of two parts: a 15-minute TED-style talk that will be given in the last week of class, and a written piece. The written component can take the form of a traditional research paper (4000-5000 words), or it could be an interdisciplinary piece (examples: a screen play or novella in which characters grapple with a neuroethics-related issue; proposed legislation on a neuroethics-related issue). The grade for the final project will be distributed as:

  • 5% Project proposal (Due: October 15)
  • 15% TED-style talk
  • 20% final written product (Due: December 6)

Your final percentage score will be assigned a letter grade on the following scale:

Grade Percentage Grade Percentage
A+ >95% B- 71-74%
A 87-94% C+ 67-70%
A- 83-86% C 63-66%
B+ 79-82% D 50-62%
B 75-78% F <50

Reading:

All required papers will be available on this website and Lyceum, and should be done before class.

Policies:

Late work:

For all of our deadlines, if you turn in a component late, you will lose 10% of the total score per day. For example, the maximum possible percentage for a paper turned in one day late is 90. This policy does not apply to a documented personal or family emergency.

Emergencies:

If I must cancel class due to weather or an emergency, I will inform you via the class email list. Please consider your Bates email to be the default place to look for class-related information and get into the habit of checking it daily.

Electronics:

Please silence your cell phone upon entering class, and be mindful of your use of technology in class. Although I encourage you to make use of backchannel chat for course discussions, please limit your in-class online activity to this venue. Off-topic online browsing not only hurts your own learning, but is associated with lower learning for those around you.

Course Calendar

Unit 1: Enhancement: Can We Build Better Brains? Should We?

 

September 6: NO CLASS: MRG AT CONFERENCE  

 

September 11: What is normal? What is natural?

September 13: Is it possible to be “better than well”? Is it permissible?

September 18: Studying, in the form of a pill

September 20: Not your grandpa’s cognitive enhancement: TDCS and microdosing

September 25: Debate: Should Bates adopt an anti-doping clause to policies governing academic integrity?

  • You will be randomly assigned to the affirmative or negative side at the beginning of class. Come prepared to persuasively argue either side of the issue.
     

Unit 2: Prediction, Privacy, and Security

 

September 27: Foundations of neuroimaging and machine learning

October 2: History of lie detection

October 4: Brain-based lie detection in theory and in practice

October 9: 4th and 5th amendment issues and neurosecurity

October 11: Passive to active: can we intervene in neural activity?

October 16: A brain scan is worth 1000 words?

October 18: NO CLASS: FALL BREAK

 

Unit 3: Neuroscience and the Law

 

October 25: Neuroscience and personal responsibility

October 30: Can we prevent crimes with predictive modeling?

November 1: Are predictive models just?

  • Read: Excerpts from O’Neil Weapons of Math Destruction  

Unit 4: Memory

 

November 6: Debate: Should Supreme Court Nominees take a test to predict future Alzheimer’s disease?

November 8: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Selective memory erasure

November 13: Who owns a memory?

November 15: Ethics of Patient H.M.

November 20: NO CLASS: THANKSGIVING BREAK

 

November 22: NO CLASS: THANKSGIVING BREAK

 

Unit 5: Persons and Personhood

 

November 27: Where is the “you”?

November 29: Disorders of Consciousness

December 4: FINAL PRESENTATIONS

 

December 6: FINAL PRESENTATIONS

  • Final written product due