Lucca

Research Talks – Lucca A

15:15-16:30 / Guinigi Room / Webinar

• The Dilemma of Neuroscientific Technologies: Ethical and Policy Responses to the Governance of Nueral Data – Jongsoo Park (#8, in-person)
• Neurotechnologies in the Workplace: Reconciling Privacy with Collective Health and Safety — José M. Diéguez-Rodríguez, University of Murcia (#62, in-person)
• Epistemological Uncertainty and Ethical Responsibility in AI-Supported Psychiatry: Insights from a Delphi Study – Eike Buhr (#184, in-person)
• Should AI serve as surrogates for patient decision-making? AI-driven psychotherapy as a case study – Julia M. R. Pace, University of Oxford (#196, in-person)

Research Talks – Lucca B

15:15-16:30 / Sagrestia Room / Webinar

• Ethical Principles and Governance Strategies for Neurotechnology:A Global Analysis of Guidelines with a Focus on Justice and Fairness – Elena Schiller, Technical University of Munich (#101, in-person)
• Too Bot to Handle: Conversational AI and Neuroethical Concerns of Artificial Intimacy – Corrado Claverini, University of Salento (#127, in-person)
• Responsibility Without Free Will – Ally Delshad Tehrani, Independent Researcher (#129, in-person)
• When innocence appears guilty: Ironic rebound, neural responsivity, and the ethics of brain fingerprinting — Daniel Lee, Mi3, Munich; 2. GSN, Munich; 3. Department of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, and Religious Studies, LMU, Munich (#141, in-person)

Research Talks – Lucca C

15:15-16:30 / Room 1 / Webinar

• The neuro-informed sanction: the impact of emotions and empathy on brain-plasticity in the light of Restorative Justice paradigm – Martina Greppi, University of Parma (#36, virtual)
• Exploring ethical implications of using a machine learning algorithm to predict brain tumor prognosis and inform surgical decisions – Tristan McIntosh, Washington University School of Medicine (#113, virtual)
• Ethical perspectives and methodological issues in neuroscientific research protocols for behavioral addictions – Laura Angioletti, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy (#136, virtual)
• Operationalising Mental Privacy – Claude Castelluccia, Inria, France (#137, virtual)
• The Neuroethical Implications of Human–Robot Collaboration on Workers’ Mental Workload and Well-being – Domenico Gambino, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, Italia (#150, virtual)

Glocal Neuroethics: the Value of Cross-Cultural Approaches to Emerging Neuroethical Challenges

9:00-10:00 / Guinigi Room / Webinar

This panel brought together scholars from underrepresented regions including East Asia, Southern and Eastern Europe, and the MENA region. Speakers explored the value of cultural-sensitivity in addressing ethical challenges in neuroscience and neurotechnology; how evidence, culture, and lived experience can inform ethical frameworks that are first locally responsive and then globally relevant; and the role of cross-cultural exchange in shaping glocal neuroethics. Speakers include Katherine Bassil, Mariam Gamaleldin, Tamami Fukushi, Anibal Astobiza, and Ioana Podina.

Lived Experience, Inferred States: Neuroethical Challenges of Multimodal AI

9:00-10:00 / Sagrestia Room / Webinar

Because existing legal and technical frameworks regulate identifiable data but not the inferences multimodal systems generate, a governance gap arises where opacity, personalization, and clinical consequence meet. This session aimed to clarify what multimodal systems can infer, how those inferences shape neuromodulation and computational psychiatry, and the ethical, clinical, and regulatory challenges they introduce. It assessed implications for consent, explanation, transparency, and legitimacy, and outline criteria for patient-aligned, trustworthy use. Speakers are: Kristin Kostick-Quenet, Marcello Ienca, Georg Stark, Laura Cabrera, and Phillipp Kellmeyer.

Research Talks – Lucca D

10:00-11:15 / Guinigi Room / Webinar

• Unplugging the brain: the unique severity of neuroabandonment and how to build resilience – George Kouvas, University of Basel, Institute for Biomedical Ethics (#39, in-person)
• Addressing the gaps in forensic neurotechnology research: first step towards standardized ethical guidelines – Francesco Stocchi, University of Milano-Bicocca (#59, in-person)
• Ethical Roadmaps for Multimodal Inference in Neuromodulation — Kristin Kostick-Quenet, Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine (#60, in-person)
• Towards a Community-Grounded Neuroethics: Addressing compensations, benefit-sharing, and reciprocity through XSCAPE transdisciplinary collaboration with culturally diverse contexts – Camino EnríquezTraba, Institute of Heritage Sciences – Spanish National Research Council (#169, in-person)

Research Talks – Lucca F

10:00-11:15 / Room 1 / Webinar

• Beyond punishment: neuroscience and restorative justice in post-conviction contexts – Beatrice Picollo, Bar of Asti / University of Bologna (#35, virtual)
• Philosophy of Brain-Computer Interface – Tony Chae, University of Texas at Austin (#80, virtual)
• When Safety Is Not Enough: Ethical Blind Spots in Visual Neuroprosthesis Research – Leili Soo, University Miguel Hernández (#124, virtual)
• Acts without Movement – Khadija Imranova, Kyushu University Graduate School of Law (#166, virtual)

When does death really occur in the context of donation after death determined by circulatory criteria?

14:00-15:00 / Guinigi Room / Webinar / Use Zoom Q&A

A larger multi-centre study — Neurologic Physiology after Removal of Therapy (NeuPaRT) — is a pivotal advance that is closely studying the neurophysiology of the dying process in the ICU. This panel, with four researchers involved in the NeuPaRT study, addressed the scientific and clinical implications from the perspectives of neurology and critical care medicine, organ donation policy, ethics and law. Speakers are: Jennifer A. Chandler, Marat Slessarev, Teneille Gofton, and Nicholas Murphy.

This session is sponsored by the Bertram Loeb Organ & Tissue Donation Institute.

Building bridges within the European Neuroethics Community on UNESCO Guidelines pillars

14:00-15:00 / Sagrestia Room / Webinar / Use Zoom Q&A

This panel discussed how the recently-adopted UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of Neurotechnology can help build bridges within the European neuroethics community and beyond. Co-organized by SINe and RHUNE networks, the objective of the discussion and associated collaborations is to build bridges between regional and national communities, with the UNESCO Guidelines providing a framework for identifying commonalities and differences and developing shared visions for the future. Speakers are: Bert Heinrichs, Elisabetta Sirgiovanni, Saskia Nagel, and Marcello Ienca.

Research Talks – Lucca G

15:00-16:15 / Guinigi Room / Webinar / Use Zoom Q&A

• Clinicians’ Perspectives on the Use of Large Language Models (LLMs) in Brain and Mental Healthcare – Katherine Bassil, UMC Utrecht (#152, in-person)
• Sentience in temporo-spatial theory of consciousness and global neuronal workspace theory: a comparative analysis based on type of brain activity – Francesca Parisi, No institutional affiliation (#190, in-person)
• Developing minds in the digital age: Neuroethics and child protection, and the challenge of virtual neurotechnology – Antonio Jorge Pereira Junior (#194, in-person)

Research Talks – Lucca H

15:00-16:15 / Sagrestia Room / Webinar / Use Zoom Q&A

• Neurotechnology and English Law on Consent – Lisa Forsberg (#115, in-person)
• Bridging theory and practice in neuroethics of the artificial era – Noa Cohen, Tuscia University (#170, in-person)
• Neuroethics as a reflexive and collaborative process: insights from an experimentation in a neuromodulation project – Allison Marchildon, Université de Sherbrooke (#172, in-person)
• Brain Data and the Private Sector: Towards Responsible Neurotechnology – Valérie Nowak, Technical University of Munich / TUM (#183, in-person)

Research Talks – Lucca I

15:00-16:15 / Room 1 / Webinar / Use Zoom Q&A

• Informed consent in neurotechnologies: integrating trust and data privacy to safeguard human rights – Ana Guadalupe Olvera Arellano, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo (#2, virtual)
• A human-centred framework for the ethical sharing of qualitative data in mental health research – Arianna Zuanazzi, Child Mind Institute (#40, virtual)
• Assessing the Limitations of Large Language Models in Identifying Spin in Neurosurgical Press Releases – Jacob Sternberg-Sher, Department of Neurosurgery, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI (#138, virtual)

ERA-NET NEURON ELSA-EPNA Paper Award and Talk

9:00-10:00 / Guinigi Room / Webinar / Use Zoom Q&A

Christopher Poppe, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, gave a talk titled ‘Dying with a Brain-Computer Interface’ discussing his research recently recognized by ERA-NET NEURON. His published paper — ‘Brain–Computer Interfaces, Completely Locked-In State in Neurodegenerative Diseases, and End-of-Life Decisions‘ — received the ELSA-EPNA Paper Award in 2025.

This session is sponsored by ERA-NET NEURON.

Bridging the Regulation, the Science, and the Practice of the Brain-Computer Interfaces

9:00-10:00 / Sagrestia Room / Webinar / Use Zoom Q&A

Many countries, including Japan and the United States, use regulatory taxonomies that categorize neurotechnology by intended medical or nonmedical use. As brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and related neurotechnology spread across clinical, consumer, and hybrid domains, the need for a more effective categorization system has become urgent. This session examined the conceptual, ethical, and regulatory difficulties inherent in the medical/nonmedical distinction, and discussed the use of medical BCIs within the broader landscape of AI and information technology.

Research Talks – Lucca J

10:00-11:15 / Guinigi Room / Webinar / Use Zoom Q&A

• The urgency of the Neurotechnology prediction problem: A case study of EEG earbuds and Emotion Recognition, Daria Mihăilă (#28, in-person)
• Homo respondens: Responsiveness in Neuroethics between Objectivity and Intersubjectivity – Roberta Gambardella, LUMSA University (#97, in-person)
• Neurorights of indigenous peoples: vulnerability and intersectionality – Ana Maria D’Ávila Lopes, Universidade de Fortaleza (#131, in-person)
• Rethinking Mental Privacy in Neurotechnology: Empirical Perspectives from Disability and Neurodivergence – Carolin Heizmann (#177, in-person)

Research Talks – Lucca K

10:00-11:15 / Sagrestia Room / Webinar / Use Zoom Q&A

• From Neural Data to Neuro-Governance: Ethical and Policy Challenges in the Age of AI-Driven Neuroscience (#9, in-person)
• Bridging clinical success and identity crisis: Legal and ethical obligations in deep brain stimulation – Tzu-Chieh Chang, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (#133, in-person)
• Revisiting the right to psychological continuity: Ethical and legal reflections – Shu Ishida, Hiroshima University (#173, in-person)
• Rethinking Maternal Positivity: Cross-Cultural Neurodevelopment and the Ethics of Caregiving Norms – Iandra Ramos (#193, in-person)

Research Talks – Lucca L

10:00-11:15 / Room 1 / Webinar / Use Zoom Q&A

• Neuroethics, bioethics, and neurotechnologies: how independent can they be? – Tabouy Laure (#91, virtual)
• From Virtue to Relational Justice: Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Neuroethical Insights on Social Responsibility – Eva Bonda (#100, virtual)
• Moral judgment and moral decision-making in comparison: evidence from EEG hyperscanning – Angelica Daffinà, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano (#130, recording)
• Algorithmic responsibility and epistemic injustice: How bias in neuroimaging AI training data creates diagnostic failures in neurodivergent populations — Vishnu Malladi, Oakridge International School, Hyderabad (#145, virtual)
• From Moral Distress to Moral Injury: A Qualitative Research on Chinese Surgical Clinicians and Its Significance for Preventive Interventions – Shuting Yang (#182, virtual)

Research Talks – Lucca M

14:00-15:15 / Guinigi Room / Webinar / Use Zoom Q&A

• Guarding the locus internus: the right to privacy in the age of neurotechnology – Irene Rocchesso, Chair for Law and AI, University of Tübingen (#123, in-person)
• Modeling risk for callous–unemotional traits and aggression in children with Disruptive Behavior Disorders: a multimodal AI approach and its neuroethical implications – Giulia Grassi, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca (#153, in-person)
• Advancing neurotech justice in youth digital mental health: a participatory framework for ethical AI-enabled psychiatry – Craig W. McFarland, University of Oxford (#202, in-person)
• Quality over Neuroethics: Who is Responsible for “Mind Reading”? – Ekaterina Kalugina (#214, in-person)
• Building trust in neurotechnologies: the French Charter as a collective moral commitment – Hadhemi Kaddour Robin, Agence de la biomédecine (#140, in-person)

Research Talks – Lucca O

14:00-15:15 / Room 1 / Webinar / Use Zoom Q&A

• Cognitive Frontiers: Neurotechnology and Global Internet Governance – Roxana Radu, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford (#156, virtual)
• De-tabooing in women’s and gender-diverse brain health: a citizen science and participatory mixed-methods study bridging lived experience, research, and clinical priorities – Emily May, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (#175, virtual)
• Anthropomorphism in biased AI-supported acute mental health decision-making – Shrika Vejandla, Queen’s University (#179, virtual)
• When Survival and Personhood Conflict: Ethical Decision-Making in Life-Saving Neurosurgery – Silky Chotai (#220, virtual)

Aggression, Brain, and Ethics: Revisiting Threat, Intent, and Responsibility

15:15-16:15 / Guinigi Room / Webinar / Use Zoom Q&A

Aggression is a multidimensional phenomenon arising from the interplay of neural circuits involved in threat detection, emotional arousal, cognitive control, and social evaluation. Contemporary neuroscience distinguishes reactive aggression, a rapid defensive response to perceived threat, from proactive aggression, a goal-directed and instrumental form of violence. This distinction has far-reaching consequences for ethics, responsibility, and legal decision-making. This session brought together perspectives from cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary anthropology, philosophy, and clinical/forensic science to reconsider the roots and implications of human aggression. Speakers are: Raffaella Rumiati, Gianluca Sadun Bordoni, Andrea Lavazza, and Hugo Meijer.

Accountability for War Crimes involving Neurotoxins: A Case Study of Applied Neuroethics in Syria

15:15-16:15 / Sagrestia Room / Webinar / Use Zoom Q&A

This session uses the Syrian chemical weapons attacks and an ongoing French war-crimes case as a concrete lens to explore how neuroethics can be practiced in the service of survivors and international justice. Neurotoxic agents such as sarin are designed to target the nervous system, disrupting acetylcholinesterase, inducing seizures, hypoxia, and producing long-term neurocognitive and psychiatric sequelae. This panel examined current practices and limitations of how evidence of such brain-based harm is documented and used in legal settings. Speakers are: Turhan Canli, Mark Cameron, Clemence Witt, and Houssam al-Nahhashas.