A Neuroethics Learning Collaborative

University Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds a project in Ethics Education in Science and Engineering entitled the Neuroethics Learning Collaborative at the University of Pennsylvania under the direction of M.J. Farah. Neuroscience is increasingly used for purposes outside of its traditional medical applications, from brain imaging for lie detection to neuropsychopharmaceuticals for enhancing mental function in normal individuals. The current generation of neuroscience graduate students is among the scientists and citizens who grapple with the ethical issues surrounding the role of neuroscience in society. This project educates the neuroscientists of the future in the field of "neuroethics," the ethical, legal and social implications of their field. To maximize the educational impact of the program, it is offered online, in real time and for free, to faculty and graduate students "attending" from several remote sites. The course is delivered through an online social learning platform designed to encourage neuroscience graduate students from multiple universities to share profiles and to engage in discussion across institutional boundaries. This platform additionally allows for the course to develop into a robust open educational resource. As the instruction and learning activity proceeds, the course content is "recorded" day-by-day, and posted for "play back" as an archive by anyone interested in participating in the course on their own, and in their own time, including students, faculty, industry scientists and journalists. The program includes a number of different instructional formats, some based on traditional classroom education and some using the networking capabilities of the world-wide web. There are also student debates and faculty panel discussions. The subject matter includes the uses of psychopharmaceuticals and other methods for brain enhancement, new applications of brain imaging outside of clinical research and practice, and the implications of neuroscience for legal and moral conceptions of responsibility.