# Achieving ethical integration in the development of novel neurotechnologies

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2020 · $469,945

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
New technologies that modulate brain function have tremendous potential for alleviating the persistent burden
of depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders, but also raise challenging ethical and societal questions
regarding self-ownership and control over our thoughts, emotions and actions. For these reasons, the
President’s Bioethics Commission and other experts have called for the integration of ethics and
neuroscience from the earliest stages of research. Such integration requires collaboration across humanistic
and scientific disciplines; and for this work to effectively shape the future ethical development of the field, it
must also actively engage patients and researchers at the forefront of novel neurotechnologies. The need for
ethical integration in neuroscience will be addressed by a cohesive interdisciplinary team with expertise in
neuroscience, clinical care, law, philosophy and social science. This work will be embedded in one of the two
teams funded by DARPA as part of the BRAIN Initiative to develop implantable “closed-loop” devices that will
both monitor and adaptively modify brain systems involved in mood and behavior regulation. Such
embedding will facilitate the overall goal of enabling the successful development and adoption of needed new
treatments for neuropsychiatric illness by recognizing, communicating, and incorporating the ethical concerns
of patients and other stakeholders into the design of neurotechnological therapies. Innovative comparative
ethnographic techniques will be applied in populations at the clinical frontier of human neurotechnology, in
pursuit of three specific aims: 1) Elicit ethical concerns in existing clinical applications of closed-loop
neuromodulation; 2) Elicit ethical concerns in investigational research on closed-loop neuromodulation of
mood; and 3) Assess the influence of disciplinary backgrounds on investigators’ evaluation of ethical
concerns. Aim 1 will focus on clinic patients with drug-resistant epilepsy undergoing NeuroPace stimulation,
the only form of closed-loop brain modulation currently approved for clinical use. Aim 2 will focus on research
patients with Parkinson’s disease and comorbid depression in a DARPA-sponsored research project to
measure and modify neural correlates of mood using a novel implanted deep brain stimulator. Aim 3
addresses how these patient experiences and concerns can be incorporated in clinicians’ and researchers’
views about the ethical development of neurotechnology. The approach is innovative, as embedding an
interdisciplinary team with expertise in advanced qualitative methods directly in a DARPA-funded
neurotechnology program will facilitate the incorporation of ethical concerns in the earliest stages of
technology development. The proposed research is significant, because it addresses core ethical and societal
concerns that will affect the acceptability of closed-loop neuromodulation of mood, a core element of the
BRAIN Init...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9929648
- **Project number:** 5R01MH114860-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Winston Chiong
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $469,945
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-13 → 2021-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9929648

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9929648, Achieving ethical integration in the development of novel neurotechnologies (5R01MH114860-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9929648. Licensed CC0.

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