Ethical and Policy Aspects of Cortical Visual Prosthetics Research: An Empirical Neuroethics Study

项目摘要 脑-机接口（BCI）已成为恢复生理功能的一种有前途的方式 例如移动性、通信和视觉感知。BRAIN计划是BCI的关键驱动力， 运动障碍修复术、交流装置和皮层视觉修复术的发展 （CVP）。CVP旨在为盲人恢复一定程度的视力或功能类似物。不像 视力恢复的其他方法，CVP绕过受损或功能障碍的眼部解剖结构，旨在提供 通过一种独特的、基于大脑的方法，但是其他的大脑植入物， 其他BCI被神经伦理学家广泛研究和讨论，CVP很少受到关注， 缺乏关于利益相关者对CVP看法的经验数据。CVP提出了特殊考虑， 关于失明在身份，自主性，生活质量和其他方面的作用的概念问题。 非临床风险和受益。CVP是一种赋予盲人权力的潜在工具，但其专业性质 干预措施提出了获取问题，这项研究避免意外的群体伤害也至关重要。 盲人社区。此外，CVP技术即使在一个 最好的情况与典型的视觉完全不同。因此，如何衡量成功存在不确定性 在CVP研究中。负责任地开发CVP必须考虑以下方面的观点： 研究人员和与会者就如何定义恢复功能和确定程度的问题， 取得成功所必需的改进。目标1将决定CVP研究团队的成员如何定义 利用嵌入式神经伦理学恢复功能及其作为研究目标的伦理重要性 方法（民族志参与观察）与实验室进行人类受试者的研究CVP。目的 2将确定指导和应该指导该领域当前和未来实践的价值观， CVP研究人员使用深入的定性访谈。Aim 3将采用类似的访谈来探讨 从个人角度指导并应该指导该领域当前和未来实践的价值观 有参与CVP研究的经验。该项目将有助于确定和处理道德和政策问题 下一代CVP系统的各个方面，有助于最大限度地提高个人和社会效益， 研究，同时最大限度地减少其风险，并为神经技术的发展提供基于价值的指导 旨在恢复视力和其他生理功能。

Project Summary Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have emerged as a promising modality for restoring physiological functions such as mobility, communication, and visual perception. The BRAIN Initiative is a key driver of BCIs, funding development of prosthetics for movement disorders, communication devices, and cortical visual prosthetics (CVPs). CVPs aim to restore some degree of sight or a functional analogue for people who are blind. Unlike other methods of sight restoration, CVPs bypass damaged or dysfunctional ocular anatomy, aiming to provide potentially life-altering benefits via a distinctive, brain-based approach. But while other brain implants, including other BCIs, are widely studied and discussed by neuroethicists, CVPs have received little attention and there is a lack of empirical data on stakeholder perspectives about CVPs. CVPs raise special considerations due to conceptual questions about the role of blindness in identity, autonomy, quality of life, and other dimensions of non-clinical risk and benefit. CVPs are a potential tool for empowering blind individuals, but the specialized nature of the intervention raises issues of access, and it is also crucial that this research avoid unexpected group harms to the blind community. Furthermore, the visual experience that CVP technology is likely to provide even in a best-case scenario is quite different from typical vision. Thus, there is uncertainty about how to measure success in CVP research. Responsible development of CVPs must take into consideration the perspectives of researchers and participants on the issue of how to define restoration of function and determine degree of improvement necessary to qualify as success. Aim 1 will determine how members of a CVP research team define restoration of function and its ethical importance as a research goal by utilizing an embedded neuroethics approach (ethnographic participant observation) with a lab conducting human subjects research on CVPs. Aim 2 will identify the values that guide and ought to guide current and future practice in the field from the perspective of CVP researchers using in-depth qualitative interviews. Aim 3 will employ similar interviews to explore the values that guide and ought to guide current and future practice in the field from the perspective of individuals with experience as participants in CVP research. This project will help identify and address ethics and policy dimensions of next-generation CVP systems, helping to maximize the individual and social benefits of the research while minimizing its risks and providing values-based guidance for development of neurotechnologies aiming to restore vision and other physiological functions.