Ethical considerations of neuroscience research: The perspectives on neuroethics in Japan

Recent technologies and developments in neuroscience have contributed to remarkable scientific discoveries, and have also raised many new philosophical, ethical, legal, and social issues. Research in “neuroethics” has identified various ethical issues, which will be difficult for current biomedical ethics to resolve from both an experimental and a social perspective, such as criminal applications of brain scans, incidental findings during non-clinical brain imaging, and cognitive enhancement. Although American and European neuroscience societies have demonstrated immediate, concrete reactions to these ethical issues, including academic conferences, study programs, and publications, Japanese neuroscientists have so far produced little response. Ethics is tightly linked with one's religion, nationality, culture, and social background, whereas science is tightly linked with the demand, economics, and politics of the society to which individuals belong. Taken together, it is important and necessary for Japanese neuroscientists to consider the ethical problems in Japanese neuroscience. In this paper, we first review the history of neuroethics in the world, and then report the less-developed ethical issues in the Japanese neuroscience community, focusing on neuroimaging and manipulative neuroscience as a first step in discussing how to apply principles in neuroethics to this rapidly progressing field of research.