Poynter Center Ethics Seminars

As the result of research in the fields of neuroethics and neuroscience, important issues are being raised. Neuroscientist Stephanie Bird discusses some of those issues in her lecture, “Emerging Issues in Neuroethics: Individual Responsibility and Empathy,” sponsored by the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions at Indiana University Bloomington, delivered on December 9, 2009.

Listen to the Entire Program

or listen by topic by clicking below

• Introduction by Brian Schrag, Executive Director of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics


• Opening remarks
Outline of lecture and discussion
About neuroscience, the brain, and the nervous system


• Variability from one individual to another


• About neuroethics
Areas of research


• About the neuroscience of ethics
Focus on two aspects of neuroecthics
Legal responsibility that reflects social notions of responsibility
Three scenarios


• Societal expectations of self-control
Tension between free will and determinism
Elements of decision-making
Factors affecting decision-making
Biological constraints affect the factors


• About mirror neurons
Animal model for empathy
Gene environment interaction as a factor of biological constraint


• Conclusion
Three take-home messages


• Q&A