Instructor: Michelle R. Greene, Ph.D

Email: mgreene2@bates.edu

Office hours: Option 1: Book me via calendar
Option 2: Stop by Hathorn 106 - I’m happy to meet when my door is open!

Logistics: T/Th 1:10 - 2:30 Bonney 210

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 a critical examination of the ethics surrounding real-world neuroscience applications in the private and public sectors. This course will address psychopharmacology and cognitive liberty, neuroimaging for lie detection, weaponization of neurotechnology, and neuroprivacy in an era of data mining. You will 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 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 public policy decisions and personal choices: to whom do we afford rights, and how do we preserve these rights in the face of new technologies? How do we protect Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights when we can “read” the thoughts of another person? How do we preserve individual rights as we are better able to predict future psychiatric disease or criminal behavior? Can we improve our brains? Should we?

Whether or not you become president, citizens of the future will face critical decisions that involve neuroscience. The purpose of this course is to give you the cognitive tools to evaluate these vital 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 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 on challenging topics, including mental and physical illness, discrimination, trauma, drug use, and privacy. We must 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 class as entirely confidential.

Academic Integrity

Cheating is wrong, and I think we can all agree to that. The less acknowledged truth is that it’s not even worth it. Cheating cheapens the value of your work and everyone else’s, and a single violation can literally ruin your entire academic and professional career. Please remind yourself of the Bates College policy on academic integrity and its definitions of plagiarism, use/misuse of sources, and cheating. Your 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 see me during office hours as soon as possible. In my experience, violations of academic integrity are acts of desperation. If you are ever feeling desperate enough that a few extra points in this course seem to be worth risking so much, please consider talking to someone first — that could be me, a friend, or even someone at CAPS. I want you to succeed and am happy to talk to you if you feel undue pressure from this course or anything else.

Students with Learning Differences

If you think you need an accommodation for a disability or learning difference, please let me know as soon as possible. Some aspects of this course may be modified to facilitate your participation and progress. You will need to create documentation with the Office of the Dean of Students. I will treat any information about your disability with the utmost discretion.

Because this class takes place in a pandemic…

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic necessitates flexibility from everyone for this course to take place in a safe and supportive environment. Below are some key considerations:

  • To ensure the safety of other students and in line with Bates College and CDC health policies, everyone must wear a mask in the classroom at all times. Please ensure that your mask covers both your nose and mouth.

  • Some students may need to attend class remotely on a temporary basis due to 1) testing positive for Covid-19, 2) being in close contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19, or 3) experiencing symptoms of Covid-19 or are otherwise not feeling well. I encourage you to err on the side of caution and attend remotely. If you need to attend class remotely, please watch the live class session after it is posted on Lyceum and email me to schedule an office hours appointment to address any questions you may have about class content.

  • As your instructor, I am working to ensure your safety by being fully vaccinated. However, if I test positive for Covid-19, have symptoms of Covid-19, or need to quarantine after spending time with someone who tests positive for Covid-19, the class will temporarily be moved to remote format via Zoom.

  • I recognize that this may all seem very unfair. It is. You did not ask for a global crisis, and you may personally have been doing everything possible to do your part. You may be experiencing stress in other ways, such as if someone close to you becomes ill. If you find yourself struggling, please come talk to me. I will help support you and point you towards additional resources.

Grading:

Policy Briefs: 30% total

Policy briefs are short papers (1000 words, hard limit) designed to present a non-expert, such as a CEO, Senator, or President with an overview of a specific situation, outline possible courses of action, and to make a recommendation based on your research. You will write three policy briefs this semester, and each is worth 10% of your final grade. If you are not satisfied with your grade, you will have the opportunity to revise each paper to earn back 50% of your lost points. For example, if your original paper earns a 60, you may earn up to half of the lost points (20) in revision to bring your grade up to an 80. Revisions must be turned in within one week of the paper’s return. The rubric for policy briefs can be found here.

  • Prospects for prediction (due: September 28)
  • Who owns memory? (due: November 5)
  • Making a better brain (due: November 22)

Participation: 40% 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 in-class speaking is only one way to participate. 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
  • Leading class discussions
  • Reading annotation

We will be using the social reading annotation tool Hypothes.is. This is similar to Perusall, but does not assign you a grade via artificial intelligence. In each reading, you may highlight passages and figures for comment or question, follow up on the comments and questions or your colleagues, and use “upvoting” to endorse questions and comments. This has several advantages over traditional reading:

  • It provides you with a richer experience because each reading becomes a conversation.
  • It allows you to get your questions answered by me or a colleague before class.
  • It allows me to get a sense of what the class is thinking ahead of time.

The expectation for this portion of your grade is meaningful contribution to each session’s readings. Your reading annotations are due at midnight on the night before each class meeting. Here is a quick video tutorial to get you started. Please note: although the video states that they will be using public annotations, we will be using the private group linked above instead.

Final Project: 30% total

The goal of the final project is to give you the opportunity to explore one of the course’s topics in depth, and to express this learning in a manner that is congruent with your background, goals, and talents. The project consists of two parts: a 3-minute “lightning” 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 12)
  • 8% Project rubric (Due: October 29)
  • 8% Lightning talk (Given November 30 and December 2)
  • 9% Final written product (Due: December 2)

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

Grade Percentage Grade Percentage
A+ >95% B- 77-79%
A 90-94% C+ 74-76%
A- 87-89% C 70-73%
B+ 84-86% D 50-72%
B 80-83% F <50

Reading:

All required papers will be available on this website, 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 your Hypothes.is notes 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: Prediction, Privacy, and Security


September 2: Course introduction and introduction to neuro-privacy


September 7: History of lie detection

September 9: Foundations of neuroimaging and machine learning

September 14: Brain-based lie detection in theory and practice

September 16: 4th and 5th amendment issues and “neurosecurity”

September 21: Debate: When are your thoughts your own?

  • Imagine that 20-25 years in the future, we can “read” the thoughts of other people. Consider the cases we covered in class that juxtapose personal liberty and privacy with public interest and safety. How should these values be balanced? At what point (if any) should “thought privacy” not be absolute?

September 23: Predictive modeling and its discontents

September 28: Brain hacking: neurosecurity background

September 30: Passive to active: can we intervene in neural activity?

October 5: A brain scan is worth 1000 words?

Unit 2: Memory

 

October 7: Predicting future Alzheimer’s disease

October 12: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Selective Memory Erasure

Final project proposal due October 12 23:59

October 14: NO CLASS: FALL BREAK


October 19: Who owns a memory?

October 21: False memories

Unit 3: Neuroscience, personhood, and the law

 

October 28: Neuroscience and personal responsibility

Unit 4: Making better brains: enhancement


November 4: Is it possible to be better than well?

Policy paper 2 due November 5 23:59

November 9: Is it permissible to be better than well?

November 11: Nootropics in the college environment

November 16: Next-generation enhancements

November 18: No class


Policy paper 3 due November 19 23:59

November 23: NO CLASS: THANKSGIVING BREAK


November 25: NO CLASS: THANKSGIVING BREAK


November 30: FINAL PRESENTATIONS


December 2: FINAL PRESENTATIONS

Final written product due