Endorsement of Events and Activities

The mission of the International Neuroethics Society is to promote the development and responsible application of neuroscience through better understanding of its capabilities and its consequences. The Society is committed to broad development of the field of neuroethics. The Society will endorse Events and Activities by groups and individuals which will promote understanding of the advances in neurosciences and cognitive science generally relevant to their ethical, social and legal implications, or of those implications themselves. Requests for endorsement of Neuroethics Events and Activities should be forwarded to the Executive Committee who will endorse applications of sufficient relevance and quality on behalf of the Society.

Penn Neuroscience Boot Camp, July 30 - August 8, 2012

The Penn Neuroscience Boot Camp is designed to give participants a basic foundation in cognitive and affective neuroscience and to equip them to be informed consumers of neuroscience research.  Through a combination of lectures, break-out groups, panel discussions and laboratory visits, participants will gain an understanding of the methods of neuroscience and key findings on the cognitive and social-emotional functions of the brain, lifespan development and disorders of brain function.

Each lecture will be followed by extensive Q&A. Break-out groups will allow participants to delve more deeply into topics of relevance to their fields. Laboratory visits will include trips to an MRI scanner, an EEG/ERP lab, and a transcranial magnetic stimulation lab. Participants will also have access to an extensive online library of copyrighted materials, including classic and review articles and textbook chapters in cognitive and affective neuroscience.

Please see this link for more information: http://neuroethics.upenn.edu/bootcamp.html 

Brain Matters 3: Values at the Crossroads of Neurology, Psychiatry, and Psychology, October 24-25, 2012, Cleveland Ohio

Symposium Organizers: Paul J Ford, PhD & Imad Najm, MD, PhD

Brain Matters 3 follows in the tradition of the two previous brain matters conferences in fostering further development in the field of NeuroEthics. Although abstracts will be elicited for presentations on a broad spectrum of NeuroEthics Research, the primary themes of the plenary talks for the conference address ethical dilemmas in the treatment and research for conditions with neurological symptomatology but that are without identifiable biological correlates/causes. The conditions of interest are often framed as medically unexplained symptoms (MUS), non-specific etiologies (NoS), or purely psychological. These diagnoses include, but are not limited to, chronic pain disorders, psychogenic movement disorders, conversion disorders, post traumatic stress disorder, and fibromyalgia. The complexities of suffering and disability experienced by individuals with these conditions are significant; including exposure to dangerous and futile treatments. Among clinicians, disagreement continues over which aspects of these conditions are “all in one's head,” either literally or figuratively. Hidden value assumptions about causation permeate research studies and clinical decisions, and effect underlying treatment and care of patients. These assumptions have significant influence on the obligations, roles, and entitlements for patients and health care providers. Patients who suffer from these conditions are “orphaned” by specialties and largely ignored in bioethics discussions. Research abstracts will be solicited both for oral presentations as well as poster presentations.

Plenary Speakers Include: 

Lisa Andermann, MD, MA   University of Toronto

Grant Gillett, MD, PhD  University of Otago (New Zealand)

Ben Greenberg, MD, PhD  Brown Unversity

Mark Hallett, MD  Human Motor Control Section, NIH

Siri Hustvedt, PhD   International Author

W. Curt LaFrance, MD  Brown University

Carmen Paradis, MD, MA  Cleveland Clinic

Markus Reuber, MD, PhD University of Sheffield (UK)

Col. E. “Cam” Ritchie, MD, MPH US Army

Jeffrey Schwartz, MD UCLA