scholarly journals Human cerebral organoids as a new legal and ethical challenge†

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Lavazza ◽  
Federico Gustavo Pizzetti
Keyword(s):  
Moral Status ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Ethical Challenge ◽  
Development Path ◽  
Light Stimuli ◽  
The One ◽  
Rudimentary Form ◽  
Special Rights ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Human Biological Material

ABSTRACT Human cerebral organoids (HCOs) are miniature brains cultivated in a dish using pluripotent human cells that, thanks to advanced technologies, tend to reproduce the development path of the brain of an embryo in the mother’s uterus. Recent data from studies carried out in different laboratories have indicated that HCOs show complex electrical activity, are receptive to light stimuli, and can command a muscle connected to them. The presence of the main neuronal structures in them suggests that, despite currently lacking vascularization and sensory exchanges with the outside world, more developed HCOs could exhibit some rudimentary form of consciousness, specifically a minimal sentience with respect to the basic experiences of pain and pleasure. Faced with this possibility, which for many scientists is still a long way off, we have begun to reflect on how we could empirically investigate the presence of consciousness. If we were certain or had a reasonable belief that some types of HCOs are sentient, what kind of entity would we judge them to be? Would they have specific legal protection? Should they be attributed to a moral status? This article tries to give an initial answer to these two questions. On the one side, it seems that no special rights can be claimed for HCOs other than those relating to human biological material. On the other side, instead, a sentient HCO could aspire to having its moral status recognized. If this were the case, the law may have to adapt to this unprecedented situation.

Central Nerve System Impairment, AMA Guides, Sixth Edition: An Overview

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-13
Author(s):  
James B. Talmage ◽  
Jay Blaisdell
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Neurological Impairment ◽  
Sixth Edition ◽  
Central Nerve System ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
The One ◽  
Nerve System ◽  
The Brain

Abstract Injuries that affect the central nervous system (CNS) can be catastrophic because they involve the brain or spinal cord, and determining the underlying clinical cause of impairment is essential in using the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (AMA Guides), in part because the AMA Guides addresses neurological impairment in several chapters. Unlike the musculoskeletal chapters, Chapter 13, The Central and Peripheral Nervous System, does not use grades, grade modifiers, and a net adjustment formula; rather the chapter uses an approach that is similar to that in prior editions of the AMA Guides. The following steps can be used to perform a CNS rating: 1) evaluate all four major categories of cerebral impairment, and choose the one that is most severe; 2) rate the single most severe cerebral impairment of the four major categories; 3) rate all other impairments that are due to neurogenic problems; and 4) combine the rating of the single most severe category of cerebral impairment with the ratings of all other impairments. Because some neurological dysfunctions are rated elsewhere in the AMA Guides, Sixth Edition, the evaluator may consult Table 13-1 to verify the appropriate chapter to use.

Christus Virgo

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-27
Author(s):  
Sissel Undheim
Keyword(s):  
Moral Status ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Female Sex ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

The description of Christ as a virgin, 'Christus virgo', does occur at rare occasions in Early Christian and late antique texts. Considering that 'virgo' was a term that most commonly described the sexual and moral status of a member of the female sex, such representations of Christ as a virgin may exemplify some of the complex negotiations over gender, salvation, sanctity and Christology that we find in the writings of the Church fathers. The article provides some suggestions as to how we can understand the notion of the virgin Christ within the context of early Christian and late antique theological debates on the one hand, and in light of the growing interest in sacred virginity on the other.

scholarly journals Bio-Inspired Modality Fusion for Active Speaker Detection

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 3397
Author(s):  
Gustavo Assunção ◽  
Nuno Gonçalves ◽  
Paulo Menezes
Keyword(s):  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Validation Process ◽  
Detection Approach ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Speaker Detection ◽  
The One ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Fusion Ability

Human beings have developed fantastic abilities to integrate information from various sensory sources exploring their inherent complementarity. Perceptual capabilities are therefore heightened, enabling, for instance, the well-known "cocktail party" and McGurk effects, i.e., speech disambiguation from a panoply of sound signals. This fusion ability is also key in refining the perception of sound source location, as in distinguishing whose voice is being heard in a group conversation. Furthermore, neuroscience has successfully identified the superior colliculus region in the brain as the one responsible for this modality fusion, with a handful of biological models having been proposed to approach its underlying neurophysiological process. Deriving inspiration from one of these models, this paper presents a methodology for effectively fusing correlated auditory and visual information for active speaker detection. Such an ability can have a wide range of applications, from teleconferencing systems to social robotics. The detection approach initially routes auditory and visual information through two specialized neural network structures. The resulting embeddings are fused via a novel layer based on the superior colliculus, whose topological structure emulates spatial neuron cross-mapping of unimodal perceptual fields. The validation process employed two publicly available datasets, with achieved results confirming and greatly surpassing initial expectations.

scholarly journals Brain stimulation used as biofeedback in neuronal activation of the temporal lobe area in autistic children

2016 ◽  
Vol 74 (8) ◽  
pp. 632-637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vernon Furtado da Silva ◽  
Mauricio Rocha Calomeni ◽  
Rodolfo Alkmim Moreira Nunes ◽  
Carlos Elias Pimentel ◽  
Gabriela Paes Martins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Brain Stimulation ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Autistic Children ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
The One ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Data Collection Procedure

ABSTRACT This study focused upon the functional capacity of mirror neurons in autistic children. 30 individuals, 10 carriers of the autistic syndrome (GCA), 10 with intellectual impairments (GDI), and 10 non-autistics (GCN) had registered eletroencephalogram from the brain area theoretically related to mirror neurons. Data collection procedure occurred prior to brain stimulation and after the stimulation session. During the second session, participants had to alternately process figures evoking neutral, happy, and/or sorrowful feelings. Results proved that, for all groups, the stimulation process in fact produced additional activation in the neural area under study. The level of activation was related to the format of emotional stimuli and the likelihood of boosting such stimuli. Since the increase of activation occurred in a model similar to the one observed for the control group, we may suggest that the difficulty people with autism have at expressing emotions is not due to nonexistence of mirror neurons.

scholarly journals Computed tomography of the brain and associated structures of the one-humped camel (Camelus dromedarius): an anatomic study

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Blanco ◽  
José M. Vázquez ◽  
Miguel A. Rivero ◽  
Juan A. Corbera ◽  
Alberto Arencibia
Keyword(s):  
Computed Tomography ◽  
Camelus Dromedarius ◽  
Anatomic Study ◽  
The One ◽  
The Brain

scholarly journals Evolution in the Brain, Evolution in the Mind: The Hierarchical Brain and the Interface between Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-377
Author(s):  
Leonardo Niro Nascimento
Keyword(s):  
Brain Evolution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Common Source ◽  
Evolutionary Models ◽  
Anatomy And Physiology ◽  
Psychodynamically Oriented ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Shed Light

This article first aims to demonstrate the different ways the work of the English neurologist John Hughlings Jackson influenced Freud. It argues that these can be summarized in six points. It is further argued that the framework proposed by Jackson continued to be pursued by twentieth-century neuroscientists such as Papez, MacLean and Panksepp in terms of tripartite hierarchical evolutionary models. Finally, the account presented here aims to shed light on the analogies encountered by psychodynamically oriented neuroscientists, between contemporary accounts of the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system on the one hand, and Freudian models of the mind on the other. These parallels, I will suggest, are not coincidental. They have a historical underpinning, as both accounts most likely originate from a common source: John Hughlings Jackson's tripartite evolutionary hierarchical view of the brain.

scholarly journals DET ZOOFILE ÅRHUNDREDE

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Knudsen
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Moral Status ◽  
Logical Consequence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Status ◽  
The One ◽  
Point Of Departure

Anne Knudsen: The Century of Zoophilia Taking as her point of departure the protests against a dying child having his last wish fulfilled because his wish was to kill a bear, the author argues that animals have achieved a higher moral status than that of humans during the 20th century. The status of animals (and of “nature”) is seen as a consequence of their muteness which on the one hånd makes it impossible for animals to lie, and which on the other hånd allows humans to imagine what animals would say, if they spoke. The development toward zoophilia is explained as a a logical consequence of the cultural naturalisation of humans, and the author draws the conclusion that we may end up entirely without animals as a category. This hypothetical situation will lead to juridical as well as philosophical complications.

scholarly journals Human Creativity and Consciousness: Unintended Consequences of the Brain’s Extraordinary Energy Efficiency?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Large Network ◽  
Active Neuron ◽  
Available Energy ◽  
Human Creativity ◽  
The One ◽  
The Brain

It is proposed that both human creativity and human consciousness are (unintended) consequences of the human brain’s extraordinary energy efficiency. The topics of creativity and consciousness are treated separately, though have a common sub-structure. It is argued that creativity arises from a synergy between two cognitive modes of the human brain (which broadly coincide with Kahneman’s Systems 1 and 2). In the first, available energy is spread across a relatively large network of neurons. As such, the amount of energy per active neuron is so small that the operation of such neurons is susceptible to thermal (ultimately quantum decoherent) noise. In the second, available energy is focussed on a small enough subset of neurons to guarantee a deterministic operation. An illustration of how this synergy can lead to creativity with implications for computing in silicon are discussed. Starting with a discussion of the concept of free will, the notion of consciousness is defined in terms of an awareness of what are perceived to be nearby counterfactual worlds in state space. It is argued that such awareness arises from an interplay between our memories on the one hand, and quantum physical mechanisms (where, unlike in classical physics, nearby counterfactual worlds play an indispensable dynamical role) in the ion channels of neural networks. As with the brain’s susceptibility to noise, it is argued that in situations where quantum physics plays a role in the brain, it does so for reasons of energy efficiency. As an illustration of this definition of consciousness, a novel proposal is outlined as to why quantum entanglement appears so counter-intuitive.

SPECIAL REVIEWS

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1951 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-293
Author(s):  
CHARLES C. CHAPPLE
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Caloric Content ◽  
Maturation Factor ◽  
Drug Actions ◽  
The Common ◽  
Cellular Permeability ◽  
The One ◽  
External Stimuli ◽  
The Brain

A study has been made of the known phenomena which affect the biologic organism. Certain correlations have been found and other correlations are logically inferred. The common grounds of anatomic structures, the anatomic responses to endocrine stimuli, the interrelationships and interdependencies of the endocrines and external stimuli have been followed and have been related to cellular permeability and hyaluronic acid. Cellular phases, including the rhythmic alternations in physiologic functions, have been delineated and their importance stressed. Further, the probability is advanced that this rhythmicity originates physiologically in the brain but that the brain itself is capable of receiving transmissions from within and without the body, and disseminating them, again rhythmically, in normal or altered amplitude and frequency. Further experimental evidence of these correlations and their practical extrapolations into drug actions and the therapy of infections and metabolic disease will be reported and will include clinical, animal and in vitro studies. At present, the following conclusions seem justified: 1. No component of the body is capable of independent action. 2. Action in any component is reflected, according to its magnitude and directness of application, upon all the body. 3. All such actions are mediated by the brain. 4. There is a dynamic, rhythmic cyclicity in physiologic action which can be altered in amplitude and frequency. 5. These rhythms are alternations of cellular tenseness and relaxation. 6. The concomitants of the tense phase are compactness, impermeability, electric conductivity and contraction of all cells, and these characteristics might be described collectively as the factors operative in maturing the cell. The concomitants of the relaxed phase are laxness, permeability, electric resistance and expansion of all cells and are factors of growth. 7. The phase of tenseness is accompanied by an increase in certain hormonal activities and that of relaxation by an increase in others. 8. The hormones may be causes of the phase or the results of it. 9. Infectious disease cannot act as an extraneous agent capable of bringing its own engine into such a highly integrated mechanism but must act on the body through its ability to affect one of the body's mechanisms. 10. Drugs must act through the same channels available to disease. 11. Foods may contain, in addition to their caloric content, components capable of stimulating either the phase of cellular expansion or cellular compaction, particularly foods from the reproductive systems of plants or animals (milk, eggs, cereal, for example). 12. Vitamins each stimulate one phase and should be evaluated in terms of positive actions. 13. Inherent growth and maturation factors are not of fixed capacity in an individual but beyond certain limits must be supplied him or applied to him constantly. 14. The hormone most manifest in the tense phase is estrogen and so may be considered the maturation factor, and the one most manifest in the phase of relaxation or cell division is progesterone, which may be considered the growth factor.

Some Economic Aspects of the Brain Drain

1979 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 7-14
Author(s):  
Harry G. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Brain Drain ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Economic Aspects ◽  
National State ◽  
The One ◽  
Professional People ◽  
The Brain

The concept of “brain drain” is in its origins a nationalistic concept, by which is meant a concept that visualizes economic and cultural welfare in terms of the welfare of the residents of a national state or region, viewed as a totality, and excludes from consideration both the welfare of people born in that region who choose to leave it, and the welfare of the outside world in general. Moreover, though the available statistics are far from adequate on this point, there is generally assumed to be a net flow of trained professional people from the former colonial territories to the ex-imperial European nations, and from Europe and elsewhere to North America and particularly the United States. The concept thus lends itself easily to the expression of anti-colonial sentiments on the one hand, and anti-American sentiments on the other. The expression of such sentiments can be dignified by the presentation of brain drain as a serious economic and cultural problem, by relying on nationalistic sentiments and assumptions and ignoring the principles of economics—especially the principle that in every transaction there is both a demand and a supply—or by elevating certain theoretical economic possibilities into presumed hard facts.

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