Neurotechnologies: Delivering their responsible development and use

Rapid scientific advancement in the area of neurotechnological applications, in both medical and non-medical fields can have profound implications for fundamental human experiences, potentially transforming our understanding of identity, autonomy, privacy, and cognitive agency. The potential of reshaping human experiences on both individual and collective level calls for responsible development and deployment of neurotechnologies. Regulation of such applications presents challenges, such as balancing innovation with human rights protection or financial infrastructure-transforming potential with ethical and social accountability. In the light of the need to balance often conflicting values, it is especially important that ethical reflections and public debates have profound insight into whose and which interests are at stake. To achieve such profound insight into the necessary, responsible development and deployment of neurotechnologies, it is indispensable to allow and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration to bring together neuroscientists, ethicists, legal experts, policymakers, economists and representatives from diverse social and cultural backgrounds.

Bringing together a multidisciplinary team of experts representing the fields of law, ethics, neuroscience, medicine, economics and humanities, this Theme investigates ethical and legal boundaries of medical and non-medical deployment of neurotechnologies from the perspective of different stakeholder groups, analyses the implications of commercialization and use of neurotechnological applications intended for a broad range of interventions and treatments, and studies how neurotechnologies can alter financial and payment modalities. In all these areas, understanding the needs and challenges faced by different stakeholder groups is given particular consideration when balancing conflicting values and interests.

The group shall contribute towards the responsible development and deployment of neurotechnologies in Sweden and will engage in the international debate on neurotechnology regulation, making use of the wisdom obtained in the Theme activities to facilitate better understanding of implications of neurotechnologies for society and actively participating in public outreach.

Neurotechnology is the fast-growing field of measuring, analysing, and changing the activity of the human nervous system. Certain applications may access and modify individual’s neural system or alter cognitive functions. Such uses can profoundly affect fundamental human experiences and can transform our understanding of identity, autonomy, privacy, and cognitive agency. This Theme will study how ethical and legal boundaries should be drawn for uses of neurotechnologies for medical and non-medical purposes, intended for brains in different stages of development. Additionally, the group will discuss the societal and ethical implications of commercializing neurotechnology, particularly regarding financial infrastructures and human rights protection.