Emerging Cognitive Neuroscience and Related Technologies (2008) / Chapter Skim
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4 Cultural and Ethical Underpinnings of Social Neuroscience
Pages 103-123

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From page 103...
... understanding of the expected directions of this research in the next 20 years. In the context of the present report, this chapter serves as a link between scientific findings in neuroscience in general and current social-science research on culture in particular. The chapter also builds on the recommendation of a recent National Research Council report, Human Behavior in Military Contexts, that the military and the IC support several fields of relevant social-science research (NRC, 2008)
From page 104...
... Contemporary foreign and military policy and intelligence gathering and analysis require understanding of the efforts undertaken by states in their dealings not only with other states but with numerous other external actors. Political realists in international relations have traditionally considered the state to be the most important element of concern.
From page 105...
... International organizations and transnational corporations and affiliations, with their own organizational and ethnic cultural perspectives, have increasing influence on foreign and military policy. That challenges the notion that the state is a unitary actor but that it is composed of interest groups, bureaucracies, and individuals that have their own cultural identities and influences on foreign and military policy.
From page 106...
... . A pluralist view of culture would pay attention to the interrelated levels of culture, which are more practical for understanding human behavior.
From page 107...
... These cultural groupings can identify the set of behavioral norms, practices, and institutions that guide particular cultures' members and overcomes the reductionist approach that compares cultures only in terms of their behavioral norms. The use of behavioral norms, practices, and institutions and a comparison model of cultural preferences can lend practical guidance in self-awareness and awareness of others (Walker et al., 2003)
From page 108...
... Another key skill is to develop cultural dialogue abilities to elicit cultural information, to build trust and rapport through conversation, to illuminate cultural underpinnings of behavior and performance, and to close cultural gaps and create cultural synergy (Schmitz, 2005)
From page 109...
... , The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, which concerned the Japanese national character. Understanding one's friends and enemies requires not only intelligence from a satellite photo of an arms dump but intelligence about a group's cultural interests, habits, intentions, beliefs, social organizations, and political symbols.
From page 110...
... Current intelligence systems and organizations remain traditionally structured and collect battlefield elements of information to support commanders in physical combat. As contemporary conflicts have moved further from combat involving regular formations and heavy maneuvering warfare, it has become apparent that technical battle information has diminished in importance relative to the requirements for ethnographic, economic, and cultural information to stabilize an indigenous government (Kipp et al., 2006; Packer, 2007; Kilcullen, 2007)
From page 111...
... . Further research may lead to better understanding of the neural basis of cultural differences in fundamental processes of cognition, emotion, and motivation.
From page 112...
...   Neurolinguistic programming is defined as the study of the human subjective experience and of how it provides a structure for all behavior. Neurolinguistic programming was created specifically to understand how verbal communication and nonverbal communication affect the human brain and enhance management of otherwise automatic neurological functions.
From page 113...
... Investment should be made particularly in neuroscience research on the effects of culture on human cognition, with special attention to the relationship between culture and brain development. Ethical Implications of cognitive neuroScience and related technologies Introduction Modern bioethics is a complex field that emerged in the late 1960s among a small group of philosophers, theologians, and physicians. Motivated by such d ­ ramatic developments in the life sciences as the decoding of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
From page 114...
... Current guidelines for ethical recruitment and participation of human volunteers in research generally prohibit participation by prisoners, due to actual or potential coercion risk. There is a   The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research was established under Title II of Public Law 93-348, Section 201(a)
From page 115...
... In contrast with bioethical principles that are well established, such as the obligation to obtain the informed consent of competent subjects, there are many unresolved questions. For example, under what circumstances is a deceptive research design, as is common in social psychology, ethically acceptable?
From page 116...
... They further noted that the allied governments had themselves engaged in human experiments on captive populations for national-security purposes during the war, such as a malaria study involving 800 federal prisoners. The three American judges finally rejected the defense arguments and sentenced eight of the defendants to death and eight others to long prison terms for complicity in murder, but they were sufficiently impressed by the apparent absence of international experiment standards that they decided to write their own (Moreno, 2001)
From page 117...
... In the last few years, however, new information has emerged concerning the exposure of sailors and soldiers to active nerve agents during the 1960s. Secret military and intelligence-related human experiments seem to have ceased after the Army and CIA scandals of the middle 1970s, and a vastly more sensitive attitude on these matters appears to have prevailed, although some insist that secret experiments should continue, citing the development of the anthrax
From page 118...
... A contemporary problem is the status of detainees at military installations who are suspects in the war on terrorism. Presumably, the ethical standards that apply to all human research subjects should apply to them as well. But if they are not protected by the provisions of the Geneva protocols for prisoners of war, the question would be whether as potential research subjects they are nonetheless   The Uniform Code of Military Justice is available from http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/10/ stApIIch47.html.
From page 119...
... Revelations associated with the 1953 death of a British soldier in one of those experiments led to a new inquest in 2005 that cast some light on the work and raised grave questions about the consent and safety procedures in place at the time. Ethics, Cognitive Neuroscience, and National-Security Research The field of bioethics has spawned several related fields -- clinical ethics, research ethics, and public-health ethics -- and more recently has given rise to neuroethics.10 Intensive interest in the ethical issues raised by the rapid advances in neuroscience led first to several academic conferences in the early 2000s, then to a spate of literature, and now to the creation of a professional organization and at least two academic journals. Among the topics addressed in neuroethics are the nature of personal identity, human dignity, and autonomy in light of various novel surgical and pharmacological interventions; the relationship between mind and body in light of new information about brain processes; the implications of neural imaging for privacy; neurogenetics and behavior control; and the management of suspicious results of neuroimaging research.
From page 120...
... Serious contemporary ethical discussion of neuroscience and nationals ­ ecurity policy carries an unusual historical burden. The current underlying science and resulting technology are far more sophisticated and, to many, threatening to personal autonomy and human dignity.
From page 121...
... For example, How great is the impact of international ethical rules and regulations governing humansubjects research, such as the Declaration of Helsinki (DoH) (World Medical Association, 1964)
From page 122...
... 2008. Human Behavior in Military Contexts.
From page 123...
... 1964. Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects.


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