Members
Co-leads: Nathan Higgins, JuanMartin Abreu-Melon
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Activities
Neuroethics and Neurotechnology in Conversation: Building a Shared Vision
March 14, 2025
Effective dialogue between neuroethics and neurotechnology development is crucial for fostering a culture of responsible innovation. This webinar brings together experts from both communities to explore questions of effective communication and collaboration.
Articles
The Illusion of Distinction in ‘Neural Data’ Governance: Rethinking United States Consumer Data Protections Through a European Lens
Members of the Neural Interfaces Affinity Group wrote an article published in Neuroethics titled ‘The Illusion of Distinction in ‘Neural Data’ Governance: Rethinking United States Consumer Data Protections Through a European Lens.’ Authors included: Nicole Chiappone, Diana Urian, Leili Soo, Chanel Matney, Julie Moonga, Francisco Rosero-Villarreal, Talha Soluoku, JuanMartin Abreu-Melon and Nathan Higgins. The abstract concludes with: “While establishing a universal definition of ‘neural data’ is conceptually appealing, we argue that it should not distract from the broader issues that give rise to the need for such a definition in the first place. Ultimately, our research suggests that policymakers may be better served by regulating the outcomes of data use rather than focusing exclusively on the data’s origin. Such an approach could better address the tension between promoting innovation, protecting individual rights, and ensuring product safety.”
Neglected Stakeholder Perspectives in Qualitative Neural Implant Research
The Neural Interfaces Affinity Group wrote an article published in AJOB Neuroscience titled ‘Neglected Stakeholder Perspectives in Qualitative Neural Implant Research‘. Written by INS members Diana Urian, Nathan Higgins, Juan Martin Abreu-Melon, Vishruth Nagam, Claudia González-Márquez, Abigail Oppong and Barisua Nsaanee, the article discusses the benefits and significance of including the perspectives of various parties key to the development yet conventionally left out of the neural implant research.
Journal Club
We held our next journal club on February 27, 2024, via Zoom. They discussed a recent article from Christof Bublitz, titled ‘What an International Declaration on Neurotechnologies and Human Rights Could Look like: Ideas, Suggestions, Desiderata‘; published by AJOB Neuroscience.
On November 8, 2023, we held our first journal club virtual meet up to discuss a recent article by Rafael Yuste titled ‘Advocating for neurodata privacy and neurotechnology regulation‘; published by Nature Protocols. The meeting was stimulating, well-organized, and lasted the full hour. JuanMartin provided an excellent summary of the article and nicely articulated questions to the group. The journal club format worked well even with relatively low turnout, and we got a sense there there is a real appetite amongst our membership for content related to neuroprivacy and data regulation.