Abstract
The question of whether neuroscience has normative implications or not becomes practically relevant when neuromodulation technologies are used with the aim of pursuing normative goals. The historical burden of such an endeavor is grave and the current knowledge of the neural foundations of moral capacities is surely insufficient for tailored interventions. Nevertheless, invasive and non-invasive neuromodulation techniques are increasingly used to address complex health disturbances and are even discussed for enhancement purposes, whereas both aims entail normative objectives. Taking this observation as an initial position, our contribution will pursue three aims. First, we summarize the potential of neuromodulation techniques for intervening into the “moral brain” using deep brain stimulation as a paradigmatic case and show how neurointerventions are changing our concepts of agency and personality by providing a clearer picture on how humans function. Second, we sketch the “standard model” explanations with respect to ethically justifying such interventions, which rely on a clear separation between normative considerations (“setting the goals of the intervention” or “the desired condition”) and empirical assessments (“evaluating the outcome of the intervention” or “the actual condition”). We then analyze several arguments that challenge this “standard model” and provide bridges between the empirical and normative perspective. We close with the observation that maintaining an analytical distinction between the normative and empirical perspective is reasonable, but that the practical handling of neuromodulation techniques that involve normative intervention goals is likely to push such theoretical distinctions to their limits.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
We deliberately use the expression “harm-benefit analysis” instead of the more commonly used term “risk-benefit” because the latter is misleading.
References
Abi-Rached, J. M. 2008. The implications of the new brain sciences: the ‘decade of the brain’is over but its effects are now becoming visible as neuropolitics and neuroethics, and in the emergence of neuroeconomies. EMBO reports 9 (12): 1158–1162.
Avena-Koenigsberger, A., B. Misic, and O. Sporns. 2018. Communication Dynamics in Complex Brain Networks. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 19 (1): 17.
Ballanger, B., T. van Eimeren, E. Moro, A.M. Lozano, C. Hamani, P. Boulinguez, G. Pellecchia, S. Houle, Y.Y. Poon, A.E. Lang, and A.P. Strafella. 2009. Stimulation of the Subthalamic Nucleus and Impulsivity: Release Your Horses. Annals of Neurology 66 (6): 817–824.
Bandura, A., G.V. Caprara, C. Barbaranelli, M. Gerbino, and C. Pastorelli. 2003. Role of Affective Self-Regulatory Efficacy in Diverse Spheres of Psychosocial Functioning. Child Development 74 (3): 769–782.
Baumeister, R.F., M. Gailliot, C.N. DeWall, and M. Oaten. 2006. Self-Regulation and Personality: How Interventions Increase Regulatory Success, and How Depletion Moderates the Effects of Traits on Behavior. Journal of Personality 74 (6): 1773–1802.
Benedetti-Isaac, J.C., M. Torres-Zambrano, A. Vargas-Toscano, E. Perea-Castro, G. Alcalá-Cerra, L.L. Furlanetti, T. Reithmeier, T.S. Tierney, C. Anastasopoulos, E.T. Fonoff, and W.O. Contreras Lopez. 2015. Seizure Frequency Reduction After Posteromedial Hypothalamus Deep Brain Stimulation in Drug-Resistant Epilepsy Associated with Intractable Aggressive Behavior. Epilepsia 56 (7): 1152–1161.
Berker, S. 2009. The Normative Insignificance of Neuroscience. Philosophy & Public Affairs 37 (4): 293–329.
Bratman, M.E. 2000. Reflection, Planning, and Temporally Extended Agency. Philosophical Review: 35–61.
Bunnik, E.M., N. Aarts, and S. van de Vathorst. 2018. Little to Lose and No Other Options: Ethical Issues in Efforts to Facilitate Expanded Access to Investigational Drugs. Health Policy. 2018 Jun 18. pii: S0168-8510(18)30184-2. doi: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2018.06.005. [Epub ahead of print].
Callon, M. 1986. The Sociology of an Actor-Network: The Case of the Electric Vehicle. In Mapping the Dynamics of Science and Technology, 19–34. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Casebeer, W.D. 2003. Moral Cognition and Its Neural Constituents. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 4 (10): 840.
Casey, B.J., J.N. Epstein, J. Buhle, C. Liston, M.C. Davidson, S.T. Tonev, J. Spicer, S. Niogi, A.J. Millner, A. Reiss, A. Garrett, S.P. Hinshaw, L.L. Greenhill, K.M. Shafritz, A. Vitolo, L.A. Kotler, M.A. Jarrett, and G. Clover. 2007. Frontostriatal Connectivity and its Role in Cognitive Control in Parent-Child Dyads with ADHD. American Journal of Psychiatry 164 (11): 1729–1736.
Castrioto, A., E. Lhommée, E. Moro, and P. Krack. 2014. Mood and Behavioural Effects of Subthalamic Stimulation in Parkinson’s Disease. The Lancet Neurology 13 (3): 287–305.
Cathcart, T. 2013. The Trolley Problem, or Would You Throw the Fat Guy Off the Bridge?: A Philosophical Conundrum. Workman Publishing.
Christen, M., and S. Müller. 2012. Current Status and Future Challenges of Deep Brain Stimulation in Switzerland. Swiss Medical Weekly 142: w13570.
Christen, M., and M. Regard. 2012. Der ‘unmoralische Patient’. Eine Analyse der Nutzung hirnverletzter Menschen in der Moralforschung. Nervenheilkunde 31: 209–214.
Craig, P., P. Dieppe, S. Macintyre, S. Michie, I. Nazareth, and M. Petticrew. 2008. Developing and Evaluating Complex Interventions: The New Medical Research Council Guidance. BMJ 337: a1655.
Da Cunha, C., S.L. Boschen, A.A. Gómez, E.K. Ross, W.S. Gibson, H.K. Min, K.H. Lee, and C.D. Blaha. 2015. Toward Sophisticated Basal Ganglia Neuromodulation: Review on Basal Ganglia Deep Brain Stimulation. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 58: 186–210.
De Ridder, D., B. Langguth, M. Plazier, and T. Menowsky. 2009. Moral Dysfunction and Potential Treatments. In The Moral Brain, ed. J. Verplaetse et al., 155–183. Berlin: Springer.
Deuschl, G., C. Schade-Brittinger, P. Krack, J. Volkmann, H. Schäfer, K. Bötzel, C. Daniels, A. Deutschländer, U. Dillmann, W. Eisner, and D. Gruber. 2006. A Randomized Trial of Deep-Brain Stimulation for Parkinson’s Disease. New England Journal of Medicine 355 (9): 896–908.
Dolan, R.J. 1999. On the Neurology of Morals. Nature Neuroscience 2 (11): 927.
Earp, B.D., T. Douglas, and J. Savulescu. 2017. Chapter 11: Moral Neuroenhancement. In The Routledge Handbook of Neuroethics, ed. Johnson LSM and K.S. Rommelfanger. New York: Routledge.
El-Hai, J. 2005. The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Follett, K.A., F.M. Weaver, M. Stern, K. Hur, C.L. Harris, P. Luo, W.J. Marks Jr., J. Rothlind, O. Sagher, C. Moy, and R. Pahwa. 2010. Pallidal Versus Subthalamic Deep-Brain Stimulation for Parkinson’s Disease. New England Journal of Medicine 362 (22): 2077–2091.
Foot, P. (1967). The Problem of Abortion and the Doctrine of Double Effect.
Frank, M.J., J. Samanta, A.A. Moustafa, and S.J. Sherman. 2007. Hold Your Horses: Impulsivity, Deep Brain Stimulation, and Medication in Parkinsonism. Science 318 (5854): 1309–1312.
Fumagalli, M., and A. Priori. 2012. Functional and Clinical Neuroanatomy of Morality. Brain 135 (7): 2006–2021.
Gehlen, A. 1940. Der Mensch. Seine Natur und seine Stellung in der Welt.
Gilbert, F., J.N.M. Viaña, and C. Ineichen. 2018. Deflating the “DBS causes personality changes” bubble. Neuroethics 1–17.
______. 2020. Deflating the Deep Brain Stimulation Causes Personality Changes Bubble: The Authors Reply. Neuroethics 1–12.
Glannon, W., and C. Ineichen. 2016. Philosophical Aspects of Closed-Loop Neuroscience. In Closed Loop Neuroscience, 259–270.
Greene, J.D., R.B. Sommerville, L.E. Nystrom, J.M. Darley, and J.D. Cohen. 2001. An fMRI Investigation of Emotional Engagement in Moral Judgment. Science 293 (5537): 2105–2108.
Gross, J.J. 1998. The Emerging Field of Emotion Regulation: An Integrative Review. Review of General Psychology 2 (3): 271.
Hack, N., U. Akbar, A. Thompson-Avila, S.M. Fayad, E.M. Hastings, E. Moro, K. Nestor, H. Ward, M. York, and M.S. Okun. 2014. Impulsive and Compulsive Behaviors in Parkinson Study Group (PSG) Centers Performing Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery. Journal of Parkinson’s Disease 4 (4): 591–598.
Haggard, P. 2017. Sense of Agency in the Human Brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18 (4): 196.
Haidt, J. 2007. The New Synthesis in Moral Psychology. Science 316 (5827): 998–1002.
Hamani, C., M.P. McAndrews, M. Cohn, M. Oh, D. Zumsteg, C.M. Shapiro, R.A. Wennberg, and A.M. Lozano. 2008. Memory Enhancement Induced by Hypothalamic/Fornix Deep Brain Stimulation. Annals of Neurology 63 (1): 119–123.
Hariz, M. 2012. Twenty-Five Years of Deep Brain Stimulation: Celebrations and Apprehensions. Movement Disorders 27 (7): 930–933.
Harris, S. 2011. The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values. Simon and Schuster.
Ineichen, C., and M. Christen. 2017. Hypo-and Hyperagentic Psychiatric States, Next-Generation Closed-Loop DBS, and the Question of Agency. AJOB Neuroscience 8 (2): 77–79.
Ineichen, C., H. Baumann-Vogel, and M. Christen. 2016. Deep Brain Stimulation: In Search of Reliable Instruments for Assessing Complex Personality-Related Changes. Brain Sciences 6 (3): 40.
Ineichen, C., M. Christen, and C. Tanner. 2017. Measuring Value Sensitivity in Medicine. BMC Medical Ethics 18 (1): 5.
Ineichen, C., N.R. Shepherd, and O. Sürücü. 2018. Understanding the Effects and Adverse Reactions of Deep Brain Stimulation: Is It Time for a Paradigm Shift Towards a Focus on Heterogenous Biophysical Tissue Properties Instead of Electrode Design Only? Fontiers in Human Neuroscience. under review.
Jahanshahi, M., I. Obeso, C. Baunez, M. Alegre, and P. Krack. 2015. Parkinson’s Disease, the Subthalamic Nucleus, Inhibition, and Impulsivity. Movement Disorders 30 (2): 128–140.
Jonides, J., and D.E. Nee. 2006. Brain Mechanisms of Proactive Interference in Working Memory. Neuroscience 139 (1): 181–193.
Jonides, J., C. Marshuetz, E.E. Smith, P.A. Reuter-Lorenz, R.A. Koeppe, and A. Hartley. 2000. Age Differences in Behavior and Pet Activation Reveal Differences in Interference Resolution in Verbal Working Memory. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 12 (1): 188–196.
Kahneman, D., and D. Chajczyk. 1983. Tests of the Automaticity of Reading: Dilution of Stroop Effects by Color-Irrelevant Stimuli. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 9 (4): 497.
Kennett, J. 2001. Agency and Responsibility: A Common-Sense Moral Psychology. Oxford University Press.
Kober, H., P. Mende-Siedlecki, E.F. Kross, J. Weber, W. Mischel, C.L. Hart, and K.N. Ochsner. 2010. Prefrontal–Striatal Pathway Underlies Cognitive Regulation of Craving. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (33): 14811–14816.
Kopell, B.H., and B.D. Greenberg. 2008. Anatomy and Physiology of the Basal Ganglia: Implications for dbs in Psychiatry. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 32 (3): 408–422.
Lambert, C., L. Zrinzo, Z. Nagy, A. Lutti, M. Hariz, T. Foltynie, B. Draganski, J. Ashburner, and R. Frackowiak. 2015. Do We Need to Revise the Tripartite Subdivision Hypothesis of the Human Subthalamic Nucleus (STN)? Response to Alkemade and Forstmann. NeuroImage 110: 1–2.
Laxton, A.W., D.F. Tang-Wai, M.P. McAndrews, D. Zumsteg, R. Wennberg, R. Keren, et al. 2010. A Phase I Trial of Deep Brain Stimulation of Memory Circuits in Alzheimer’s Disease. Annals of Neurology 68 (4): 521–534.
Liston, C., M.M. Miller, D.S. Goldwater, J.J. Radley, A.B. Rocher, P.R. Hof, and B.S. McEwen. 2006. Stress-Induced Alterations in Prefrontal Cortical Dendritic Morphology Predict Selective Impairments in Perceptual Attentional Set-Shifting. Journal of Neuroscience 26 (30): 7870–7874.
Macmillan, M. 2000. An Odd Kind of Fame. Stories of Phineas Gage. Cambridge, MA: MIT-Press.
Mele, A.R. 2001. Autonomous Agents: From Self-Control to Autonomy. Oxford University Press on Demand.
Müller, S., and M. Christen. 2011. Deep Brain Stimulation in Parkinsonian Patients—Ethical Evaluation of Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Sequelae. AJOB Neuroscience 2 (1): 3–13.
Nambu, A. 2008. Seven Problems on the Basal Ganglia. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 18 (6): 595–604.
Olanow, C.W., F. Stocchi, and A. Lang, eds. 2011. Parkinson’s Disease: Non-motor and Non-dopaminergic Features. Wiley.
Persson, I., and J. Savulescu. 2012. Unfit for the Future: The Need for Moral Enhancement. Uehiro Series in Practical Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Petrides, M., and D.N. Pandya. 1999. Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex: Comparative Cytoarchitectonic Analysis in the Human and the Macaque Brain and Corticocortical Connection Patterns. European Journal of Neuroscience 11 (3): 1011–1036.
Poldrack, R.A., and M.J. Farah. 2015. Progress and Challenges in Probing the Human Brain. Nature 526 (7573): 371.
Putnam, H. 2002. The Collapse of the Fact/Value Dichotomy and Other Essays. Harvard University Press.
Rüfner, V. 1964. Das Personsein im Lichte gestalthaft-genetischer Betrachtungsweise: Im Hinblick auf das religiöse Erleben. Archiv für Religionspsychologie/Archive for the Psychology of Religion: 231–248.
Schapira, A.H., K.R. Chaudhuri, and P. Jenner. 2017. Non-motor Features of Parkinson Disease. sNature Reviews Neuroscience 18 (7): 435.
Sesack, S.R., and A.A. Grace. 2010. Cortico-Basal Ganglia Reward Network: Microcircuitry. Neuropsychopharmacology 35 (1): 27–47.
Shook, J.R. 2012. Neuroethics and the Possible Types of Moral Enhancement. AJOB Neuroscience 3 (4): 3–14.
Skinner, B.F. 1972. Beyond Freedom and Dignity. New York: Bantam Books.
Somerville, L.H., T.F. Heatherton, and W.M. Kelley. 2006. Anterior Cingulate Cortex Responds Differentially to Expectancy Violation and Social Rejection. Nature Neuroscience 9 (8): 1007–1008.
Synofzik, M., T.E. Schlaepfer, and J.J. Fins. 2012. How Happy Is Too Happy? Euphoria, Neuroethics, and Deep Brain Stimulation of the Nucleus Accumbens. AJOB Neuroscience 3 (1): 30–36.
Tangney, J.P., R.F. Baumeister, and A.L. Boone. 2004. High Self-Control Predicts Good Adjustment, Less Pathology, Better Grades, and Interpersonal Success. Journal of Personality 72 (2): 271–324.
Tanner, C., and M. Christen. 2013. Moral Intelligence: A Framework for Understanding Moral Competences. In Empirically Informed Ethics: Morality Between Facts and Norms, ed. M. Christen, J. Fischer, M. Huppenbauer, C. Tanner, and C. van Schaik, 119–136. Berlin: Springer.
Temel, Y., A. Blokland, H.W. Steinbusch, and V. Visser-Vandewalle. 2005. The Functional Role of the Subthalamic Nucleus in Cognitive and Limbic Circuits. Progress in Neurobiology 76 (6): 393–413.
Thomson, J.J. 1985. The Trolley Problem. The Yale Law Journal 94 (6): 1395–1415.
Tremblay, L., Y. Worbe, S. Thobois, V. Sgambato-Faure, and J. Féger. 2015. Selective Dysfunction of Basal Ganglia Subterritories: From Movement to Behavioral Disorders. Movement Disorders 30 (9): 1155–1170.
Valenstein, E.S. 1986. Great and Desperate Cures: The Rise and Decline of Psychosurgery and Other Radical Treatments for Mental Illness. Basic Books.
Wallace, R.J. 1994. Responsibility and the Moral Sentiments. Harvard University Press.
Weaver, F.M., K. Follett, M. Stern, K. Hur, C. Harris, W.J. Marks, J. Rothlind, O. Sagher, D. Reda, C.S. Moy, and R. Pahwa. 2009. Bilateral Deep Brain Stimulation vs Best Medical Therapy for Patients With Advanced Parkinson Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial. JAMA 301 (1): 63–73.
Welt, L. 2009. Über Charakterveränderungen des Menschen infolge von Läsionen des Stirnhirns. Deutsches Archiv für klinische Medicin 42: 339–390.
Wikström, P.O.H. 2005. The Social Origins of Pathways in Crime: Towards a Developmental Ecological Action Theory of Crime Involvement and Its Changes. Integrated Developmental and Life-Course Theories of Offending 14: 211–245.
Young, Liane, and James Dungan. 2012. Where in the Brain Is Morality? Everywhere and Maybe Nowhere. Social Neuroscience 7 (1): 1–10.
Youngerman, Brett E., Andrew K. Chan, Charles B. Mikell, Guy M. McKhann, and Sameer A. Sheth. 2016. A Decade of Emerging Indications: Deep Brain Stimulation in the United States. Journal of Neurosurgery 125 (2): 461–471.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ineichen, C., Christen, M. (2020). Neuromodulation of the “Moral Brain” – Evaluating Bridges Between Neural Foundations of Moral Capacities and Normative Aims of the Intervention. In: Holtzman, G.S., Hildt, E. (eds) Does Neuroscience Have Normative Implications?. The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology, vol 22. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56134-5_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56134-5_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-56133-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-56134-5
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)