Anticipating Ethical Concerns in a New Era of Neuroscience

Ongoing advances in neuroscience hold tremendous promise for reducing the burden of neurologic and psychiatric diseases, and may fundamentally change how we understand ourselves. The UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences was established to foster translational research in neuroscience, bringing new approaches and interventions to address the problems of patients with diseases of the brain. Given the complexity of the brain and the centrality of brain function to who we are, these efforts also pose deep ethical, legal and conceptual questions. To anticipate and address these problems, we are inviting input from leaders in many different fields.

The mission of this symposium is twofold: 1) To better prepare the neurosciences community to anticipate and address neuroethical concerns arising from their work, and 2) To prepare for broader public engagement with these issues.