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Applying Neuroscience Research: The Bioethical Problems of Predicting and Explaining Behavior

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Medical Research Ethics: Challenges in the 21st Century

Part of the book series: Philosophy and Medicine ((volume 132))

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Abstract

Advances in neuroscience research have changed the ways in which the relationship between brain and behavior are studied and conceptualized. These advances are important and suggest the possibility of new approaches to helping people with neurological and psychiatric illnesses, but they also bring with them the risk of applying supposed breakthroughs without acknowledgment of the limits and assumptions which underlie the research. As neuroscience is increasingly used to, or proposed as, a means of controlling behavior, through criminal and civil legal systems, researchers have an obligation to articulate the assumptions, limits, and ecological validity of their findings. Yet, neuroscience researchers rarely describe the assumptions underlying the studies, the generalizability of the findings and most importantly, the limits of its applicability to real world behavior.

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    David Freedman

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Correspondence to David Freedman .

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  1. Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Tomas Zima

  2. International Academy of Law and Mental Health, Montréal, QC, Canada

    David N. Weisstub

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Freedman, D. (2023). Applying Neuroscience Research: The Bioethical Problems of Predicting and Explaining Behavior. In: Zima, T., Weisstub, D.N. (eds) Medical Research Ethics: Challenges in the 21st Century. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 132. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12692-5_10

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