Neuroimaging-based prediction of mental traits: Road to utopia or Orwell?
Open Access
- 14 November 2019
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) in PLoS Biology
- Vol. 17 (11), e3000497
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000497
Abstract
Predicting individual mental traits and behavioral dispositions from brain imaging data through machine-learning approaches is becoming a rapidly evolving field in neuroscience. Beyond scientific and clinical applications, such approaches also hold the potential to gain substantial influence in fields such as human resource management, education, or criminal law. Although several challenges render real-life applications of such tools difficult, future conflicts of individual, economic, and public interests are preprogrammed, given the prospect of improved personalized predictions across many domains. In this Perspective paper, we thus argue for the need to engage in a discussion on the ethical, legal, and societal implications of the emergent possibilities for brain-based predictions and outline some of the aspects for this discourse.Keywords
This publication has 22 references indexed in Scilit:
- Building better biomarkers: brain models in translational neuroimagingNature Neuroscience, 2017
- Using connectome-based predictive modeling to predict individual behavior from brain connectivityNature Protocols, 2017
- Neuroethics in the Age of Brain ProjectsNeuron, 2016
- Decoding the Charitable Brain: Empathy, Perspective Taking, and Attention Shifts Differentially Predict Altruistic GivingJournal of Neuroscience, 2016
- The Neuroethics of BiomarkersPublished by Oxford University Press (OUP) ,2016
- A neuromarker of sustained attention from whole-brain functional connectivityNature Neuroscience, 2015
- Prediction as a Humanitarian and Pragmatic Contribution from Human Cognitive NeuroscienceNeuron, 2015
- Puzzlingly High Correlations in fMRI Studies of Emotion, Personality, and Social CognitionPerspectives on Psychological Science, 2009
- Neuroethics: the practical and the philosophicalTrends in Cognitive Sciences, 2005
- Emerging ethical issues in neuroscienceNature Neuroscience, 2002