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

项目摘要 脑机接口(BCI)已经成为一种很有前途的恢复生理功能的方式 例如移动性、通信和视觉感知。大脑倡议是BCI的关键驱动因素，资金 运动障碍假体、通讯设备和皮质视觉假体的发展 (CVPS)。CVPS旨在为盲人恢复一定程度的视力或功能类似物。不像 其他视力恢复方法，CVPS旁路受损或功能障碍的眼解剖，旨在提供 通过一种独特的、基于大脑的方法，潜在地改变生活的好处。但当其他脑移植手术，包括 其他BCI，被神经伦理学家广泛研究和讨论，CVPS很少被关注，而且有 缺乏关于利益相关者对CVPS的看法的经验数据。由于以下原因，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性问题 非临床风险和收益。CVP是一种潜在的赋权盲人的工具，但其专业性 干预带来了准入问题，这项研究避免意外的群体伤害也至关重要 致盲人社区。此外，CVP技术可能提供的视觉体验即使在 最好的情况与典型的设想截然不同。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CVPS必须考虑到 研究人员和与会者就如何定义功能恢复和确定功能恢复程度的问题 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 利用嵌入的神经伦理学作为研究目标的功能恢复及其伦理重要性 方法(人种学参与者观察)与实验室进行关于CVPS的人类受试者研究。目标 2将从以下角度确定指导和应当指导该领域当前和未来实践的价值观 对CVP研究人员进行了深入的定性访谈。Aim 3将利用类似的采访来探索 从个人的角度指导并应当指导当前和未来的实地实践的价值观 有作为CVP研究参与者的经验。该项目将帮助确定和解决道德和政策问题。 下一代CVP系统的维度，有助于实现个人和社会利益的最大化 研究同时将风险降至最低，并为神经技术的开发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.