PUBLIC FORUM BRAIN, MIND & TECHNOLOGIES: WHAT S NEW & WHAT S NEXT?

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Lawrence Barker
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PUBLIC FORUM BRAIN, MIND & TECHNOLOGIES: WHAT S NEW & WHAT S NEXT? Date: 12 January 2013 (Saturday) Time: Venue: Admission: 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm (Registration begins at 1.

Time Programme 1.30 2.00 pm Registration 2.00 2.

1 PUBLIC FORUM BRAIN, MIND & TECHNOLOGIES: WHAT S NEW & WHAT S NEXT? Date: 12 January 2013 (Saturday) Time: Venue: Admission: 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm (Registration begins at 1.30 pm) Dalton Hall (Level 3) Science Centre Singapore FREE Prior registration is required. Please complete the booking form attached and to rsvp@science.edu.sg by 8th January Time Programme pm Registration pm Welcome Address & Introduction Associate Professor Lim Tit Meng Chief Executive, Science Centre Singapore; and ember, Bioethics Advisory Committee pm Brain Stimulation: the Way to a Better Life? Associate Professor John Thomas Senior Consultant Neurosurgeon, National Neuroscience Institute pm Neurotechnology: Brain Monitoring to Brain Machine Interface Professor Nitish V. Thakor Provost Professor, National University of Singapore; and Director, Singapore Institute for Neurotechnology pm Cognitive Enhancement: Promise and Perils Professor Steven E. Hyman Director, Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute, USA; and ember of International Panel of Expert, Bioethics Advisory Committee, Singapore pm Q&A pm Refreshments & Meet the Speakers Organised by:

2 INTRODUCTION In the past few decades, astounding developments have occurred in the field of neuroscience. Neuroimaging has progressed from detecting structural abnormalities to providing valuable insights into the functional anatomy of the brain. Coupled with advances in surgical technologies, specific areas of the brain can now be targeted to alleviate distressing symptoms of some neurological disorders; for example, deep brain stimulation, which involves the use of a brain pacemaker implanted in the brain, may relieve movement problem in Parkinson s disease when medication is no longer effective. How does brain stimulation work, and what else can it be used for? Neurotechnologies are also being developed to facilitate direct communication between the brain and a machine, in hope that such brain machine interfaces would allow restoration of lost functions, or to overcome human limitations with the aid of machines. Can brain-machine interface be used to communicate with an unconscious person or someone suffering from lock-in syndrome? Is it possible for someone who has lost a limb or is tetraplegic to control a robotic prosthesis simply through thought? How close are we from being able to control machines using our thoughts? The amazing advances and possibilities in neuroscience and technology have given rise to ethical, legal and social issues. One contentious application of neurotechnologies is for the purpose of neuroenhancement. What level of risk are we willing to take to perform better than normal? Is it ethical to conduct research involving novel neurotechnologies on healthy volunteers and children, particularly for non-medical purposes like cognitive enhancement, given the uncertainty of side effects such as impact on one s personal identity? This forum will provide an overview of the various types of neurotechnologies, such as neuroimaging, brain stimulation, neuropharmaceuticals, and brain-machine interfaces. It will discuss currently available medical applications, limitations and future possibilities, and ethical issues arising from the use of neurotechnologies.

3 BRAIN STIMULATION: THE WAY TO A BETTER LIFE? The field of neuromodulation (the use of electrical therapy to optimise brain, spinal cord and nerve function) has grown significantly, in tandem with our improved understanding of the function and structure of the human nervous system. This talk will present an overview of the relevant anatomy, imaging modalities, techniques and current applications of the technology of brain stimulation in clinical practice. The current limitations and challenges and research will also be reviewed. About the Speaker: Associate Professor John Thomas MBBS, M.Med (Surgery), FRCS (Ed ), FRCS (Neurosurgery)(UK), FAMS (Neurosurgery) Dr Thomas was trained at the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) and underwent advanced training at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, UK. He is currently a Senior Consultant at the NNI, and Adjunct Associate Professor at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School. At NNI, he is the Lead Senior Consultant for Radiosurgery, and Functional Neurosurgery. He is the Co-Lead Senior Consultant for Cerebrovacular Surgery at NNI, and for Neuro-Oncology and Skull Base Surgery at the NNI-Singapore General Hospital (SGH) Campus. He is a Visiting Senior Consultant Neurosurgeon to the National Cancer Centre and the Singapore National Eye Centre. His subspecialty interests lie in Functional Neurosurgery (Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson s disease, and Dystonia, Micro-vascular Decompression for Hemifacial Spasm and Trigeminal Neuralgia); Radiosurgery; and Endoscopic Sympathectomy for sweaty palms, facial hyperhidrosis and bromhidrosis (body odour).

NEUROTECHNOLOGY: BRAIN MONITORING TO BRAIN MACHINE INTERFACE This talk will present many frontiers of Neurotechnology, from monitoring the brain rhythms and activity to using these brain rhythms to

4 NEUROTECHNOLOGY: BRAIN MONITORING TO BRAIN MACHINE INTERFACE This talk will present many frontiers of Neurotechnology, from monitoring the brain rhythms and activity to using these brain rhythms to control computers and machines. I will present the origins and nature of brain rhythms - how they originate from brain cells to how they manifest on the brain surface for relatively easy recording and monitoring. They offer a window into detecting any abnormalities in brain rhythms such as when heart stops or the brain gets damaged. This may allow us to monitor brain activity in intensive care unit or operating room. On the other hand, with the development of signal processing algorithms, now it is possible to record and analyse brain rhythm changes pertaining to thoughts which can be converted into actions, leading to building brain machine interfaces, for control of computers to prosthesis. We are now discovering new frontiers of understanding the brain rhythms and what we can do with them. These and other neurotechnologies raise many practical and ethical questions of their use in day to day lives to critical care clinical situations worthy of further discussion and exploration. About the Speaker: Professor Nitish V. Thakor Nitish V. Thakor has been appointed as the Provost Professor, National University of Singapore, and he now leads the SiNAPSE Institute, focused on neurotechnology research and development. He is also a Professor of Biomedical Engineering. Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Neurology at Johns Hopkins and directs the Laboratory for Neuroengineering. Dr. Thakor s technical expertise is in the areas of neural diagnostic instrumentation, neural microsystem, neural signal processing, optical imaging of the nervous system, rehabilitation, neural control of prosthesis and brain machine interface. He is the Director of a Neuroengineering Training program funded by the National Institute of Health. He has published 230 refereed journal papers, generated 11 patents, co-founded four companies, and carries out research funded mainly by the NIH, NSF and DARPA. He was the Editor in Chief of IEEE Transactions on Neural and Rehabilitation Engineering ( ). Dr. Thakor is a recipient of a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health and a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, IEEE and Founding Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, Technical Achievement Award from IEEE and Distinguished Alumnus award from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and University of Wisconsin, Madison.

COGNITIVE ENHANCEMENT: PROMISES & PERILS Drugs (such as stimulants or memory altering drugs), and devices (such as deep brain stimulation technologies) are developed to treat illnesses such as

5 COGNITIVE ENHANCEMENT: PROMISES & PERILS Drugs (such as stimulants or memory altering drugs), and devices (such as deep brain stimulation technologies) are developed to treat illnesses such as depression, posttraumatic stress, and dementia. However, they may also act on healthy people, to enhance normal alertness and attention or to boost or edit memory. The possibility of cognitive enhancement raises important ethical issues of testing in healthy people, fairness, and implicit coercions (e.g., enhancement arms races in schools or the workplace). The possibility of memory editing raises deep ethical issues related to personal identity and moral agency. About the Speaker: Professor Steven E. Hyman Professor Hyman received his Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from Yale College, Masters of Arts from the University of Cambridge, and Doctor of Medicine from Harvard Medical School, where he became a Professor of Psychiatry in He served as Director of the US National Institute of Mental Health from 1996 to 2001, and was the Provost of Harvard University from 2001 to He is currently Director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Distinguished Service Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University, founding president of the International Neuroethics Society, and Editor of the Annual Review of Neuroscience. In addition, he is a member of the International Panel of Experts of the Bioethics Advisory Committee, Singapore; a Council member of the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academies of Science; a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American College of Neuro-psychopharmacology; a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association; and a member of the Dana Foundation Board. His research interest is in the regulation of gene expression by neurotransmitters and drugs that act on dopamine receptors. His current focus is on the application of modern genomics and biological tools to understand neuropsychiatric disorders and, above all, advancing treatment discovery. He has received numerous awards, including recognition for public service from the U.S. government and from patient advocacy groups including the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

6 TECHNOLOGI ES

Kevin Guskiewicz is the Kenan Distinguished Professor and founding director of the

Kevin Guskiewicz is the Kenan Distinguished Professor and founding director of the Jeffrey T. Barth, Ph.D., ABPP-Cn John Edward Fowler Professor Director, Brain Injury and Sports Concussion Institute University of Virginia, School of Medicine Dr. Barth presently holds the position of