The Complete Consciousness of You — A Neuroethics Narrative

In 1987, Kenneth James Park entered the home of his in-laws using a spare key. He took the tire iron from his car and beat his mother-in-law to death; then proceeded to choke her husband (Staff, 2006). Though this sounds like a typical case of homicide, one aspect that makes the case interesting was this: Kenneth Parks was asleep the whole time. With this, the story of Kenneth Parks became a curious case that had led experts into discussions and debates, specifically from a psychological and ethical perspective.

Parks was known to have a history of sleepwalking, but numerous questions arise regardless. If he was asleep the whole time, did he really commit the murder? What if there was a way to gain insight into his mind and perhaps treat this disorder? Would that even be ethical? What can neuroscience tell us about things like free will or self-control? These are the kinds of questions that neuroethics aims to answer. Neuroethics, defined by the International Neuroethics Society as “a field that studies the implications of neuroscience for human self-understanding, ethics, and policy” (“What is Neuroethics?”, n.d.), is a relatively new field of neuroscience.

Researcher Adina Roskies categorizes this area of study into two classifications: the ethics of neuroscience and the neuroscience of ethics (Roskies, 2004). The ethics of neuroscience aims to provide a moral framework in both conducting scientific inquiry in the field itself, and also applying such knowledge to our lives. On the other hand, the neuroscience of ethics reflects our own understanding of moral judgements and behaviours from a neuroscience perspective (Levy, 2009). 

Due to the wide variety of topics being discussed in neuroethics, researchers are primarily focusing on issues related to “pharmacological enhancement, brain interventions, neuroimaging, and free will” (Ienca, 2019). For instance, recent studies are interested in investigating the efficacy of machine learning in recognizing schizophrenia (McFarlane & Illes, 2020). According to researchers, Jacob McFarlane and Judy Illes, advances in this aspect of biomedicine and neuroscience have shown “promising results in identifying psychosis through automated analysis of speech and patterns of social media use;” and that artificial intelligence (AI) will soon be used “to the possibility of predicting psychosis before a human could ever reliably do so” (McFarlane & Illes, 2020). 

Of course, such advancements sound promising in theory, yet similar to the Kenneth Parks case, debates about ethical issues arise. One concern that the researchers have was about the bias that could potentially occur in AI. For instance, a study had found that Google Photos had automatically identified their African American models as gorillas (Garcia, 2016). In another study, it was found that Amazon’s machine-learning software had prohibited applicants whose resumés had feminine or women-related language (Dastin, 2018). Such biases would undoubtedly raise questions in the topic of schizophrenia, especially since in the Western world, Schizophrenia is unfortunately more prevalent in ethnic minorities and immigrants. For this reason, McFarlane and Illes claimed that, “Biased results from machine-learning models may further promulgate overdiagnosis and lead to misdirected treatment” (McFarlane & Illes, 2020). 

Bias in artificial intelligence is not the only ethical concern that occurs in this discussion. Studies are currently investigating if it is possible to identify psychosis from “prompted unstructured speech” that would be publicly available (Ben-Zeev et al., 2019). Being prone to misuse, such an idea would raise issues of privacy. 

From this discussion, it is clear that neuroethics aims to provide an ethical framework for research in neuroscience as well as understanding the way we comprehend ethics itself. As we journey further into our minds, neuroethics will guide us towards advancements in civilization, as well as understanding our own consciousness. Until those days, the field of neuroethics will continue on the search for breakthroughs, as it appreciates the complexity of the human mind. In essence, they will continue in examining the way our minds affect our behaviour, and perhaps, you will soon be able to understand the complete consciousness of yourself.