News, Resources, and Events Tagged "Neuroscience"
Video Available Now! Unionization in Health Care: A Health Policy and Bioethics Consortium
Event Description For millions who work in health care settings, including doctors, nurses, technicians, home health and nursing home workers, and environmental services and nutrition specialists, the difficult days of…
Video Now Available! The Pandemic’s Legal Legacy: A Book Talk with Experts on the Ethical, Legal, Regulatory, Social, and Institutional Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Event Description We marked the publication of COVID-19 and the Law: Disruption, Impact and Legacy, an edited volume based on the Petrie-Flom Center’s 2021 annual conference, published in…
From Principles to Practice: Critical Reflections on Human Rights Advocacy in Public Health Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response
Event Description Leading experts in health and human rights shared the capstone webinar to Harvard Petrie-Flom Center's Bill of Health symposium on the 2023 Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights…
Video now available! Aligning Criminal Practice with Addiction Science
Event Description Drawing on the science of substance use disorders (SUD), this presentation focusws on legal responses to SUD that contradict neuroscience and behavioral research, such as incarcerating individuals on…
Young, Vulnerable, and Betrayed: What can be done to help America’s most vulnerable children?
Event Description A child born in America today has a 37% chance of having their welfare investigated by the state by the time they turn 18. For black children, the probability rises…
Feminist Revolt and the Constitution: Abortion Activism on the Island of Ireland with Dr Jane Rooney
Event Description Dr Rooney's current project uses narrative interviews on peoples' experiences in reform of the law on abortion in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to critically…
Video now available! Psychedelics in the Global South
Event Description Interest in psychedelic research is growing internationally. Scientists are advancing our understanding of the chemistry and biology of psychedelics, as well as their effects on human health, psychology,…
Video now available! The Battle for Your Brain: A conversation with Professor Nita Farahany about her new book and defending the right to think freely in the age of neurotechnology.
Event Description A new dawn of brain tracking and hacking is coming. Will you be prepared for what comes next? Imagine a world where your brain can be interrogated to…
Video now available! Neuroscience and Cannabis: Implications for Law and Policy
Event Description The legalization of cannabis has raised significant questions for law and public policy. In this public event, neuroscientist Dr. Yasmin Hurd explored the science of cannabis, CBD, and…
Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies
Event Description Our society has a technology problem. Many want to disconnect from screens but can’t help themselves. These days we spend more time online than ever. Some…
Video now available! When the Science Says Children But the Law Says Adults: Trying and Sentencing Youth as Adults
Event Description All 50 states have transfer laws that either allow or require children to be prosecuted in adult criminal court for certain offenses. Attorney Marsha Levick, Esq. provided an overview…
Video now available! Psychedelics in the Global North
Event Description In partnership with the RAND Drug Policy Research Center, the Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation (POPLAR) at the Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School is pleased to…
Video now available! Comparing Legal Approaches to Accessing Psychedelics
Event Description Voters, lawmakers, and healthcare providers are experimenting with legal approaches to accessing psychedelics. Some take medical approaches by allocating funds for research or leveraging controversial federal policies like…
Disclosed: Conflicts of Interest in the Psychedelics Ecosystem
Event Description In recent years, a growing number of observers have raised concerns about conflicts of interests in the growing psychedelics industry. Beginning with a discussion of cases that have…
Informed Consent in Psychedelic Therapy and Research: Why is it Complicated?
Event Description As psychedelics are quickly becoming implemented into the Western therapeutic medical model, ethical codes and boundaries are essential to ensure safe practices with these substances. An important topic…
Violence in Healthcare: A Growing Crisis
Event Description The threat of violence in the sanctum of the hospital and in the outpatient setting is growing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 63% increase in violent attacks…
Video now available! What Can the Psychedelics Industry Learn from Cannabis Regulation?
Event Description Psychedelics have recently become a serious topic of legal reform and intense commercial investment. In the past few years, dozens of cities and states have enacted or proposed…
Video now available! Book Talk: Choose Your Medicine: Freedom of Therapeutic Choice in America
Event Description On November 3rd, we hosted a book talk and moderated discussion with author Lewis A. Grossman on his new book, Choose Your Medicine: Freedom of Therapeutic Choice in…
Video now available! Life Sentences for Children?: The Neuroscientific Basis for Limitations on Harsh Sentencing
Event Description Neuroscience is playing a key role in legal decisions about children and young adults serving life sentences. The US Supreme Court relied upon research on adolescent brain development…
Race and Psychedelics: How Can We Do Better?
Event Description There have been many supported theories as to whether and how psychedelics and plant medicines can further our perception and understanding of identity. However, we still see systemic…
Video now available! The Science of Addiction
View the conversation on Twitter @PetrieFlom using #LawAndNeuro. View the fully captioned event recording. Event Description Advances in the scientific understanding of addiction have important…
Neuroscience and Law Experts Discuss Cannabis and Public Policy at Harvard Law School Panel
Experts in neuroscience and law discussed the legalization of cannabis and highlighted its implications for public policy at a virtual panel hosted by Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center…
Video now available! Neuroscience and Cannabis: Implications for Law and Policy
Watch the fully captioned event recording. Read the event coverage: Clea Simon, "Neuroscientist says jury still out on addictive qualities, effects on neurodevelopment of fetuses, adolescents," The…
Petrie-Flom Center Hosts Discussion About the Criminalization of Addiction
Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center hosted a virtual panel on the highly publicized court case Commonwealth v. Eldred on Thursday afternoon. The event — entitled “The Criminalization…
Video now available! The Criminalization of Addiction: Law, Medicine, and Future Directions
View the conversation on Twitter @PetrieFlom using #LawAndNeuro. Read the press coverage of the event: Danish Bajwa and Dorcas Y. Gadri, "Petrie-Flom Center Hosts…
Video now available! Families, Substance Use Disorder, and the Courts: Is Compassion Consistent with Accountability?
View the conversation on Twitter @PetrieFlom using #LawAndNeuro. Check out the event coverage: Paul E. Alexis and Krishi Kishore, "Legal and Medical Experts Discuss Alternative Approaches for Aiding Families Struggling…
Video now available! Neuroscience and Criminal Law: The Post-Jones Landscape for Late Adolescents and Emerging Adults
View the conversation on Twitter @PetrieFlom using #LawAndNeuro. Watch the fully captioned event recording. Event Description The U.S. Supreme Court landmark case of Roper v. Simmons (2005) barring execution for…
When Should Neuroendovascular Care for Patients With Acute Stroke Be Palliative?
Noncurative surgeries intended to relieve suffering during serious illness or near end of life have been analyzed across palliative settings. Yet sparse guidance is available to inform clinical management decisions…
Restoring US Leadership for Global Health
Event Description On May 18th, we hosted a discussion with government officials on plans to restore US leadership for global health. Governments around the world failed to contain COVID-19, with…
Video now available! Trends Transforming Advanced Illness Care: The Promise of Technology
COVID and other dynamic forces are upending traditional ways of caring for people with serious and advanced illness. People want care in their home and community, not isolated in institutions.…
Video now available! Mental Health Moonshot: Unlocking Federal Funds for Psychedelics Research
Online Viewing View the conversation on Twitter at @PetrieFlom using #MHMoonshot. View the fully captioned event video. Event Description The U.S. needs a mental health moonshot. Inspired by the…
Video now available! Policing and the Brain: How Neuroscience Can Contribute to Police Reform
Online Viewing View the conversation on Twitter at @PetrieFlom using #LawandNeuro. Watch the fully captioned event video. Event Description The language of medical science has been used by law enforcement…
Petrie-Flom & Coalition to Transform Advanced Care Welcome New Senior Fellow
The Petrie-Flom Center is excited to announce our 2021–2022 Senior Fellow in Advanced Care and Health Policy, Cheryl Matheis! Project on Advanced Care and Health Policy The Project on Advanced…
Petrie-Flom Welcomes New Senior Fellow in Law and Applied Neuroscience!
The Petrie-Flom Center is excited to announce our 2021–2022 Senior Fellow in Law and Applied Neuroscience, Elyssa Spitzer! Project on Law and Applied Neuroscience The Project on Law and Applied…
The Future Is P-Tau—Anticipating Direct-to-Consumer Alzheimer Disease Blood Tests
Recent studies suggest blood levels of phosphorylated tau (p-tau) isoforms can detect both the tau and amyloid pathologies that define Alzheimer disease (AD).1 More research is needed to replicate these…
Accuracy of US College Football Players’ Estimates of Their Risk of Concussion or Injury
Importance Despite increased concern about the health consequences of contact sports, little is known about athletes’ understanding of their own risk of sports-related injury. Objective To assess whether college…
Neuro-scientific evidence used in criminal cases in US, Europe: Harvard Presidential Fellow
Presidential Fellow, Harvard University and Executive Director, Education and Outreach for MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience, USA, Prof Francis X Shen Friday said that neuro-scientific evidence were…
He’d Waited Decades to Argue His Innocence
FRANCIS SHEN, executive director of Harvard’s Center for Law, Brain and Behavior, said the issue of cognitive decline among judges is both considerable and complicated. To take the…
Why every story is a brain story
In this powerful TEDMED 2020 Talk, Neurolaw Rebel Francis X. Shen makes a compelling case for merging the field of neuroscience with the legal system to move our society constantly closer…
The Next Frontier of Neuroscience and Juvenile Justice
Event Description In the fifteen years since the United States Supreme Court referred to developmental science in ruling the death penalty unconstitutional for juveniles in Roper v. Simmons, state and…
Computational Justice: How Artificial Intelligence and Digital Phenotyping Can Advance Social Good
Couldn't join us for the event? Check out some of the panelists' slide presentations below! And read a write-up of the event in the Harvard Crimson! Description The future…
Research Assistant for MGH Psychiatry, Psychiatry Dept., Massachusetts General Hospital
From the job description: Scope of position: Under the direction of Dr. Francis Shen, JD, PhD, the Executive Director of the MGH Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior …
Research Assistant for the Center for Law, Brain and Behavior, Massachusetts General Hospital
General Summary Under the direction of Dr. Francis Shen, JD, PhD, the Executive Director of the MGH Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior (CLBB), the research assistant will conduct…
Cheap, portable scanners could transform brain imaging: But how will scientists deliver the data?
From the article: "If such devices become widespread, they’ll raise new ethical questions, says Francis Shen, a law professor and neuroethicist at the University of Minnesota (UMN) in…
The Neuroscience of Hate
Description Human beings are biologically predisposed to divide humanity into ingroups and outgroups, and this comes with a great social cost – the capacity for hate. While we may view…
Trauma at the Border
Couldn't join us in person? Check out some of the panelists' presentations and additional reading on this subject below! Description At the center of contemporary political debate are the…
From cyborgs to sex robots: University of Minnesota professor studies how brain science is changing
From the article: Francis Shen spends a lot of time thinking about transhuman cyborgs, brain-wave lie detectors, sex robots and terrorists hacking into devices implanted in our heads. And, no,…
A Dangerous Brain: Can neuroscience predict how likely someone is to commit another crime?"
From the article: To date, neuroprediction has not been admitted into the courtroom or parole hearings. Some scholars, like Thomas Nadelhoffer, a fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at…
Our Aging Brains: Decision-making, Fraud, and Undue Influence
Couldn't join us? Check out the conversation online! #OurAgingBrains @PetrieFlom @mghclbb Check out some of the panelists' slide presentations below! With over 70 million Baby Boomers retiring, elder financial exploitation…
Harvard Medical School Annual Bioethics Conference 2018: Defining Death: Organ Transplantation and the 50-Year Legacy of the Harvard Report on Brain Death
The 2018 Annual Bioethics Conference explored the legacy of the 1968 report from the Harvard Medical School committee that proposed the concept of “brain death” as a new criterion for…
How to Fix Youth Sports Concussion Laws: Neuroscientific Perspectives
Couldn't join us for the event? Check out some of the panelists' slide presentations below! Description With growing neuroscientific research on sports concussions, states have revised their policies and…
Crimes of Passion: New Neuroscience vs. Old Doctrine
Couldn't join us for the event? Check out some of the panelists' slide presentations below! Description The criminal law often sees love and passion turned into violence. How does…
Brain Scans in the Courts: Prosecutor’s Dream or Civil Rights Nightmare?
From the article: One of the foundations of the U.S. legal system is the Bill of Rights, which enshrines the idea that there are certain individual liberties and inalienable…
Addiction, Neuroscience, and the Criminal Law: Commonwealth vs. Julie Eldred
Description Is addiction a disease? And does it matter for the criminal law? The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court now faces these questions in the potentially landmark case, Commonwealth vs. Julie…
You can love the brain and football, too
Check out the new op-ed from Francis X. Shen, Senior Fellow in Law and Neuroscience at the Project on Law and Applied Neuroscience, a collaboration between the Center for Law,…
Harvard Forum: Should Older Politicians And Judges Be Tested For Mental Decline?
This article describes the event "Dementia and Democracy: America's Aging Judges and Politicians," held on November 15, 2017 at Harvard Law School. The speculation spreads every time an older politician of…
Dementia and Democracy: America's Aging Judges and Politicians
Couldn't join us for the event? Check out some of the panelists' slide presentations below! Description Our judiciary and our elected officials are getting old. Five of the nine…
HLS in the World: New Technologies, New Dilemmas: Part of the HLS200 Bicentennial Celebration
This event was part of the HLS in the World sessions of HLS │200, a bicentennial summit of academic sessions and programs devoted to legal issues of pressing importance. Panel Description …
Health Law Workshop: Francis X. Shen
Presentation Watch Professor Shen's inaugural lecture as the 2017-2018 Senior Fellow in Law and Applied Neuroscience: "The Neurolaw Revolution"! Topic: "How Dangerous are Youth Sports for the Brain? A…
The Neurolaw Revolution: A lecture by Francis X. Shen
Couldn't join us for the event? Check out the panelist's slide presentation below! Description Rapid advances in the brain sciences offer both promise and peril for the law.…
Petrie-Flom Welcomes New Senior Fellow in Law and Applied Neuroscience!
We’re excited to announce our 2017–2018 Senior Fellow in Law and Applied Neuroscience, Francis X. Shen! Project on Law and Applied Neuroscience The Project on Law and Applied…
Second Chance Kids
On May 2, 2017, PBS's Frontline aired "Second Chance Kids," an exploration of the fight over the fate of juveniles in prison for murder, following a landmark Supreme Court ruling. Robert…
Healing in the Wake of Community Violence: Lessons from Newtown and Beyond: Panel discussion and screening of the documentary Newtown (2016)
Couldn't join us for the event? Check out some of the panelists' slide presentations below! This film screening and panel discussion addressed challenges that arise from tragic acts of…
PFC Spotlight: Student Fellow Alumnus Matthew Baum
Matthew Baum was a Student Fellow for the 2013-2014 academic year, as a second year MD-PhD student in the Health Science and Technology combined program of Harvard and MIT. Then…
Opiate Regulation Policies: Balancing Pain and Addiction
Couldn't join us for the event? Check out the slide presentations below! Description The current opiate epidemic has spurred long-overdue scrutiny on the pharmaceutical production and distribution of opiate…
Teen Behind Landmark Juvenile Decision Back Before Judge to Be Resentenced
From the article: “The result of this developmental process means that adolescents will not think like or process like adults will until probably their mid-20s,” said Robert…
Graduate Student Opportunity, National Core for Neuroethics, University of British Columbia
GRADUATE STUDENT OPPORTUNITY Area of research: Psychiatric Interventions and Public Attitudes A Master’s or PhD scholarship opportunity is available at the National Core for Neuroethics, University of British…
Review of The Neuroethics of Biomarkers: by Matthew L. Baum (Student Fellow Alumnus)
Matthew L. Baum. The Neuroethics of Biomarkers: What the Development of Bioprediction Means for Moral Responsibility, Justice, and the Nature of Mental Disorder. Oxford University Press, 2016. From the review: The…
Half A Life: Legal and Policy Implications of Releasing Youth Incarcerated for Murder
Couldn't attend the event? Check out the speakers' slide presentations below! Description Youth convicted of murder ordinarily serve decades in prison before they complete a sentence or are paroled.…
Workshop on Pretrial Justice: What Works and Why
In September 2016, the Federal Judicial Center hosted a workshop for federal judges and law enforcement officials on issues relating to pretrial diversionary courts, exploring the question of "What Works and…
Battling Blood in the Streets: How Can Neuroscience Promote Public Health and Support Public Policy to Prevent Community Violence?
Description Far too many people across the country are left dead, injured, or traumatized by community violence. Communities can be safer when neuroscience, public health strategies, and collective advocacy are…
The Ethical Duty to Know: The Tragic Case of Facilitated Communication for Autism
Event Description Our speakers will review and discuss the history of a technique called Facilitated Communication, purportedly used to communicate with individuals with severe autism, developmental delay, or brain injuries.…
The Neuroethics of Biomarkers: What the Development of Bioprediction Means for Moral Responsibility, Justice, and the Nature of Mental Disorder
About the Book: Neuroscientists are mining nucleic acids, blood, saliva, and brain images in hopes of uncovering biomarkers that could help estimate risk of brain disorders like psychosis and dementia;…
Experts in Psychology, Law Discuss Juvenile Sentencing
From the article: [...] “When the Supreme Court eliminated mandatory life without parole for juvenile homicides, it was unquestionably an earth shattering decision,” Judge Nancy Gertner, the moderator of…
Boys to Men to Boys
Couldn't join us for the event? Check out more information, including related publications and our speakers' slides, below! Description Approximately 2,000 youth sentenced to life without parole are now serving…
Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Brain Death
Event Description Even in the US, some controversy persists over the conceptual defensibility of brain death. Around the world, the philosophical defensibility of brain death is even more debatable. Dr.…
Therapeutic Misconception in ALS
Event Description Some subjects who participate in trials of novel therapies mistakenly believe that the trial is designed to maximize benefit to the individual subjects -- thus laboring under the…
New Journal of Law & Biosciences featuring Harvard student work
The Journal of Law and the Biosciences, the open-access journal launched in 2014 by the Petrie-Flom Center and Harvard Law School in partnership with Duke University and Stanford University, has published…
Fetal Pain: An Update on the Science and Legal Implications
Learn more about the presentations - check out slides below! Amanda Pustilnik, JD and Maureen Strafford MD discussed fetal pain, including advances in neuroscience and treatment and their implications for…
Deception in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Psychogenic Non-epileptic Seizures
Event Description Neurologists who treat epilepsy face substantial difficulty distinguishing "true" seizures caused by abnormal electrical discharges from seizures that are caused by psychological factors (psychogenic nonepileptic seizures, or PNES).…
Neuroethics Seminar: Plugged-In Patients: Brain-Computer Interfaces
Event Description This event was free and open to the public. Twitter: Follow @HMSbioethics on Twitter and join the conversation using #neuroethx Connecting the human brain to a computer is…
Health Law Workshop: Amanda C. Pustilnik
Presentation Download the Presentation: “And If Your Friends Jumped Off a Bridge, Would You Do It Too?”: How Developmental Neuroscience Can Inform Regimes Governing Adolescents (co-authored with Michael…
Should the Science of Adolescent Brain Development Inform Legal Policy?: A lecture by Laurence Steinberg, PhD
In the past decade, the United States Supreme Court has issued landmark opinions in three cases that involved the criminal culpability of juveniles. In 2005, the Court abolished the juvenile death…
Neuroethics Seminar: Busting Clots on Your Behalf?: The Ethics of Presumed Consent to Thrombolytics in Acute Stroke
Event Description You've just suffered a large stroke, and are unable to communicate. Your doctor in the ER wants to give you a thrombolytic ("clot-busting") drug. The drug will…
Health Law Workshop: Adam Kolber
Presentation Download the paper: "Two Views of First Amendment Thought Privacy" About the Presenter Adam Kolber is a Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School. He writes and teaches in…
Neuroethics Seminar: Brain Hacking to Boost Your A-Game: The Ethics of Cognitive Enhancement in Gaming and Competition
Event Description This event was free and open to the public. Personal enhancement isn't new (think hard work and caffeine), but our ability to directly improve performance using drugs…
Moral Bioprediction, Bioenhancement, and the Law: A Lecture by Julian Savulescu
Description Increasingly, knowledge from biology and neuroscience allows us to identify biological states that are predictive but not determinative of human behavior in certain situations. These are called biomarkers of…
Seeing Consciousness: The Promise and Perils of Brain Imaging in Disorders of Consciousness
Event Description Modern neuroimaging technology such as functional MRI can now sometimes detect conscious awareness in patients who otherwise appear unconscious. Such a finding may or may not have major…
Scholars Discuss Role of Neuroscience in Youth Criminal Justice: Summary of Project on Law & Applied Neuroscience Panel on the Neuroscience of Teen Sentencing
Check out the Harvard Crimson's summary of our first event of the year, "From Trouble Teens to Tsarnaev: Promises and Perils of Adolescent Neuroscience and the Law." This event…
From Troubled Teens to Tsarnaev: Promises and Perils of Adolescent Neuroscience and Law
Read the Harvard Crimson's summary of the event! Description The neuroscience of adolescent brain development has had increasing impact on American jurisprudence. The U.S. Supreme Court relied on…
At the Frontier: The Ethics of Innovative Surgery: A Neuroethics Seminar Series Event
All modern surgical techniques were once new, so the ethics of surgical innovation is not a new topic. But as our understanding of the brain advances, so does our ability…
Visible Solutions: How Neuroimaging Helps Law Re-envision Pain
Description Can brain imaging be a “pain-o-meter” that tells courts when a person is in pain? Can fMRI help us discern whether intractable chronic pain is “all…
This is Your Brain on Human Rights: Moral Enhancement and Human Rights
Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen has authored a new paper on the use of moral enhacement to increase the respect for human rights. Abstract: It seems fair to say that…
Moral Decisions in the Law: What's the Brain Got to Do with It?
Law – particularly criminal law – is infused with moral judgment and calls upon prosecutors, judges, and and jurors to make morally-informed decisions. But where does morality come from? How…
April 14 Panel, “Does Brain-Based Lie Detection Belong in American Courtrooms?”: Featuring Visiting Scholar Francis Shen
Petrie-Flom Visiting Scholar Dr. Francis Shen served as a panelist at the Neuroethics Seminar Series event, "Does Brain-Based Lie Detection Belong in American Courtrooms?" at the Center for Bioethics, Harvard…
Does Brain Difference Affect Legal and Moral Responsibility?
Brains create behavior. Yet we hold people, not brains, morally and legally responsible for their actions. Under what conditions could - or should - brain disorder affect the ways in…
The Policeman at the Elbow: The Neuroscience of Addiction, Self-Control, and Criminal Responsibility
Couldn't join us? Watch the full event online! Do criminal penalties have any deterrent effect on drug addicts - people who already are willing to throw away their jobs,…
Health Law Workshop: Robert Truog
Presentation Download the Presentation: "Defining Death: Getting It Wrong for All the Right Reasons" About the Presenter Robert D. Truog is Professor of Medical Ethics, Anaesthesiology & Pediatrics at Harvard…