Brain Day 2023
On Tuesday, Lower Sixth Form psychologists participated in ‘Brain Day’, a series of neuroscience seminars delivered by Dr Guy Sutton, Honorary Special Lecturer in Neuroscience and Psychiatry at University of Nottingham Medical School.
Pupils consolidated the work they are covering in Biopsychology, looking at the structure and function of neurons and synaptic transmission. Dr Sutton performed a sheep brain dissection with pupils getting to poke and prod key brain structures including the hippocampus and pineal gland.
Dr Sutton spoke about recent advancements in neuroscience, including Oxford University’s work growing cerebral organoids (human brains grown in vitro from stem cells) which raised interesting and important ethical questions: What happens if/when these organoids become increasingly complex and develop consciousness? Should they be subject to the same ethical standards as human and non-human animal subjects? Would it be unethical to now prevent this technology, knowing its important applications for understanding various neurological disorders?
Dr Sutton helped to bust brain myths and explained how our current models of schizophrenia, language, dementia, and even criminal behaviour are rapidly developing based on our new understanding of genetics, neurodevelopment and advanced brain imaging techniques. Dr Sutton spoke to pupils about the future of neuroscience and the inevitable widespread implementation of brain-computer interfaces (BCI). He took pupils through where the technology is now: allowing completely paralysed ‘locked-in’ patients to communicate in full sentences using only their thoughts via bluetooth, to where it will be in 20 to 30 years time, where he predicts humans will have microchips inserted purely for extrasensory and cosmetic purposes (e.g. enhanced memory and intelligence). He shared with pupils his work as an advisor to barristers and judges, discussing the ethics of BCI in the criminal justice system: should we use this technology to ‘read minds’ and determine the guilt of an offender? Should they be used to prevent offending, by reading the unique pattern of brain activity that precedes aggressive behaviour to interrupt brain signaling to placate the individual? Could this be a viable alternative to custodial sentencing?
Pupils were certainly left with plenty to ponder about the future of neuroscience and what this means for humankind.
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