The Neurotechnological Cerebral Subject: Persistence of Implicit and Explicit Gender Norms in a Network of Change

Neuroethics - Tập 5 - Trang 261-274 - 2011
Sigrid Schmitz1
1Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Tóm tắt

Under the realm of neurocultures the concept of the cerebral subject emerges as the central category to define the self, socio-cultural interaction and behaviour. The brain is the reference for explaining cognitive processes and behaviour but at the same time the plastic brain is situated in current paradigms of (self)optimization on the market of meritocracy by means of neurotechnologies. This paper explores whether neurotechnological apparatuses may—due to their hybridity and malleability—bear potentials for a change in gender based attributions that have been historically legitimized by apparently natural differences between women and men. Or, in contrast, which gendered ascriptions are (again) produced in theories and applications according to the normative demands for the bio-techno-social cerebral subject situated in neoliberal power relations. An exploration of three main fields of current developments, the neurotechnological apparatus of brain-computer-interfaces, the technologies for brain tuning and the discourses in neuroeconomics, reveals first insights on these gender aspects in reliance with the ethical/political debate. Moreover, this paper concretizes questions for further research on gender and ethical aspects in the field of neurotechnologies.

Tài liệu tham khảo

Dimitrios, K., A.K. Barbey, Michael Su, G. Zamboni, F. Krueger, and J. Grafman. 2009. Cognitive and neural foundations of religious belief. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(12): 4876–4881.

Savic, I., and P. Lindström. 2008. PET and MRI show differences in cerebral asymmetry and functional connectivity between homo- and heterosexual subjects. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(27): 9403–9408.

Ortega, F., and F. Vidal. 2007. Mapping the cerebral subject in contemporary culture. RECIIS 1(2): 255–259.

Kaiser, A., E. Kuenzli, D. Zappatore, and C. Nitsch. 2007. On females’ lateral and males’ bilateral activation during language production: A fMRI study. International Journal of Psychophysiology 63: 192–198.

Maguire, E.M., D.G. Gadian, I.S. Johnsrude, C.D. Good, J. Ashburner, R.S.J. Frackowiak, and C.D. Frith. 2000. Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 97(6): 1–6.

Bogdan, D., C. Gaser, V. Busch, G. Schuierer, U. Bogdahn, and A. May. 2004. Neuroplasticity: Changes in grey matter induced by training. Nature 427: 311–312.

Haynes, J.-D., and G. Rees. 2006. Decoding mental states from brain activity in humans. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 7(7): 523–34.

Roth, G., and K.-J. Grün (eds.). 2006. Das Gehirn und seine Freiheit. Göttingen: Vanderhoek & Ruprecht.

Maasen, S., and B. Sutter (eds.). 2007. On willing selves. Neoliberal politics vis-à-vis the neuroscientific challenge. New York: Palgrave Mcmillan.

Rose, S. 2005. The future of the brain: The promise and perils of tomorrow’s neuroscience. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

Clausen, J. 2009. Man, machine and in between. Nature 457: 1080–1081.

Schmitz, S. 2010. Sex, gender, and the brain—biological determinism versus socio-cultural constructivism. In Gender and sex in biomedicine. Theories, methodologies, results, ed. I. Klinge and C. Wiesemann, 57–76. Göttingen: Universitätsverlag Göttingen.

Sommer, I.E., A. Aleman, A. Bouma, and R.S. Kahn. 2004. Do women really have more bilateral language representation than men? A meta-analysis of functional imaging studies. Brain 127: 1845–1852.

Sommer, I.E., A. Aleman, M. Somers, M.P. Boks, and R.S. Kahn. 2008. Sex differences in handedness, asymmetry of the planum temporale and functional language lateralization. Brain Research 1206: 76–88.

Emanuele, C., and G. Louse. 2004. Gender differences in spatial orientation: A review. Journal of Environmental Psychology 24: 329–340.

Lavenex, P.B., and P. Pierre Lavenex. 2010. Spatial relational learning and memory abilities do not differ between men and women in a real-world, open-field environment. Behavioural Brain Research 207: 125–137.

Spelke, E.S. 2005. Sex differences in intrinsic aptitudes for mathematics and science? A critical review. American Psychologist 60: 950–958.

Else-Quest, N.M., J.S. Hyde, and M.C. Linn. 2010. Cross-national patterns of gender differences in mathematics: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin 136: 103–127.

Bishop, K.M., and D. Wahlsten. 1997. Sex differences in the human Corpus Callosum: Myth or reality? Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 21(5): 581–601.

Kaiser, A., S. Haller, S. Schmitz, and C. Nitsch. 2009. On sex/gender related similarities and differences in fMRI language research. Brain Research Reviews 61: 49–59.

Wallentin, M. 2009. Putative sex differences in verbal abilities and language cortex: A critical review. Brain and Language 108: 175–183.

Fausto-Sterling, A. 2000. Sexing the body. Gender politics and the construction of sexuality. New York: Basic Books.

Beaulieu, A. 2002. Images are not the (only) truth: Brain mapping, visual knowledge, and iconoclasm. Science, Technology & Human Values 27(1): 53–86.

Burri, R.V. 2008. Doing images. Zur Praxis medizinischer Bilder. Bielefeld: transcript.

Joyce, K. 2005. Appealing images: Magnetic resonance imaging and the production of authoritative knowledge. Social Studies of Sciences 35(3): 437–462.

McCabe, D.P., and A.D. Castel. 2008. Seeing is believing: The effect of brain images on judgments of scientific reasoning. Cognition 107: 343–352.

Haraway, D. 1991. A cyborg manifesto: Science, technology, and socialist-feminism in the late twentieth century. In Simians, cyborgs and women: The reinvention of nature, ed. D. Haraway, 149–181. New York: Routledge.

Barad, K. 2003. Posthumanist perfomativity: Toward an understanding of how matter comes to matter. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28(3): 801–831.

Wolpaw, J.R., N. Birbaumer, D.J. McFarlanda, G. Pfurtscheller, and T.M. Vaughan. 2002. Brain–computer interfaces for communication and control. Clinical Neurophysiology 113: 767–791.

Karim, A.A., T. Hinterberger, J. Richter, J. Mellinger, N. Neumann, H. Flor, A. Kübler, and N. Birbaumer. 2006. Neural internet: Web surfing with brain potentials for the completely paralyzed. Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair 20: 508–515.

Birbaumer, N., N. Ghanayim, I.T. Hinterberger, B. Iversen, B. Kotchoubey, A. Kubler, J. Perelmouter, E. Taub, and H. Flor. 1999. A spelling device for the paralyzed. Nature 398: 297–298.

Hochberg, L.R., M.D. Serruya, G.M. Friehs, J.A. Mukand, M. Saleh, A.H. Caplan, B. Almut, D. Chen, R.D. Penn, and J.P. Donoghue. 2006. Neural ensemble contol of prothetic devices by a human with tetraplegia. Nature 442: 64–172.

Nicolelis, M.A. 2003. Brain–machine interfaces to restore motor function and probe neural circuits. Nature Reviews 4: 417–422.

Nicolelis, M.A., and M.A. Lebedev. 2009. Principles of neural ensemble physiology underlying the operation of brain–machine interfaces. Nature Reviews Neurosciences 10: 530–540.

Lebedev, M., and M.A. Nicolelis. 2006. Brain-machine interfaces: Past, present and future. Trends in Neuroscience 29(9): 536–546.

Friedman, D., R. Leeb, G. Pfurtscheller, and M. Slater. Human-Computer Interaction Issues in Brain-Computer Interface and Virtual Reality. http://hmi.ewi.utwente.nl/chi2008/chi2008_files/friedman.pdf. Accessed 28. November 2010.

Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interfaces. http://bci.tugraz.at/index.html. Accessed 28. November 2010.

Edlinger, G., C. Groenegress, R. Prückl, C. Guger, M. Slater. 2010. Goal orientated Brain-Computer interfaces for Control: a virtual smart home application study. BMC Neuroscience 11 (Suppl 1): P134. http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2202-11-S1-P134.pdf. Accessed 28. November 2010.

g.tech Medical engineering. g.tec smart home control with Thoughts. http://www.gtec.at/Research/Videos. Accessed 28. November 2010.

Crutzen, C.K.M. 2005. Intelligent Ambience between Heaven and Hell. In The gender politics of ICT, ed. J. Archibald, J. Emms, F. Grundy, J. Payne, and E. Turner, 29–50. Middlesex: Middlesex Univ. Press.

Richard, J. 2008. A computer game headset that reads minds. 2008. Times Online 20.2.08. http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3402734.ece. Accessed 28. November 2010.

Emotiv Brain Computer Interface Technology. Epoc System. http://www.emotiv.com/. Accessed 28. November 2010.

Hoag, H. 2003. Remote control. Nature 423: 796–798.

Ling, G. Revolutionizing Prosthetics. http://www.darpa.mil/dso/thrusts/bio/restbio_tech/revprost/index.htm. Accessed 28. November 2010.

Gibbs, A. 2008. Northrop Grumman-Led Team Awarded Contract to Develop Electronic Binoculars That Use Brain Activity to Detect Threats. Northrop Grumman News 06/08. http://www.es.northropgrumman.com/news/2008/06/144249_Northrop_Grumman-Led_Te.html. Accessed 28. November 2010.

Cook, P.S. 2004. The Modernistic Posthuman Prophecy of Donna Haraway. In Social Change in the 21st Century Conference, Centre for Social Change Research. Queensland University of Technology. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/646/1/cook_peta.pdf. Accessed 28. November 2010.

Wassermann, E.M., C. Epstein, U. Ziemann, V. Walsh, T. Paus, and S.H. Linsaby (eds.). 2008. The Oxford handbook of transcranial stimulation. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

Birbaumer, N. 1999. Rain man’s revelations. Nature 399: 211–212.

Snyder, A., H. Homayoun Bahramali, T. Hawker, and D. Lohn Mitchell. 2006. Savant-like numerosity skills revealed in normal people by magnetic pulses. Perception 35: 837–845.

Hamilton, R., S. Messing, and A. Chatterjee. 2011. Retinking the thinking cap: Ehtics of neural enhancement using non-invasive brain stimulation. Neurology 76: 187–193.

Karafyllis, N.C. 2008. Oneself as another? Autism and emotional intelligence as pop science, and the establishment of ‘essential’ differences. In Sexualized brains. Scientific modeling of emotional intelligence form a cultural perspective, ed. N.C. Karafyllis and G. Ulshöfer, 237–315. Cambridge: MIT.

Treffert, D.E. 2009. The savant syndrome: An extraordinary condition. A synopsis: past, present, future. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 364: 1351–1357.

Jordan-Young, R.M. 2010. Brain storm: The flaws in the science of sex differences. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Baron-Cohen, S. 2003. The essential difference: The truth about the male and female brain. New York: Basic Books.

Karafyllis, N.C. 2009. (M)othering the male brain. Das Geschlecht des technisierten Gehirns. In Die Technisierung des Gehirns. Ethische Aspekte aktueller Neurotechnologien, ed. J. Clausen and O. Müller. Paderborn: Mentis.

Haraway, D. 1988. Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. Feminist Studies 14(3): 575–599.

Angel B., C. Pittenger, and E.R. Kandel. CREB, memory enhancement and the treatment of memory disorders: Promises, pitfalls and prospects. Informa Healthcare 7(1): 101–114.

Sahakian, B., and S. Morein-Zamir. 2007. Professors little helpers. Nature 450(20): 1157–1159.

Greely, H., B. Sahakian, J. Harris, R.C. Kessler, M. Gazzaniga, P. Campbell, and M.J. Farah. 2008. Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy. Nature 456: 702–705.

Wolpe, P.R. 2002. Treatment, enhancement, and the ethics of neurotherapeutics. Brain and Cognition 50(3): 387–395.

Farah, M.J., J. Illez, R. Cook-Deegan, H. Gardner, E. Kandel, P. King, E. Parens, B. Sahakian, and P.R. Wolpe. 2004. Neurocognitive enhancement: What can we do and what should we do. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 5: 421–425.

Farah, M.J., and P.R. Wolpe. 2004. Monitoring and manipulating brain function: New neuroscience technologies and their ethical implications. The Hastings Center Report 34(3): 35–45.

Rose, N. 2007. The politics of life itself: Biomedicine, power, and subjectivity in the twenty-first century. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.

Bostrom, N., and A. Sandberg. 2009. Cognitive enhancement: Methods, ethics, regulatory challenges. Science and Engineering Ethics 15: 311–341.

Singh, I. 2002. Bad boys, good mothers, and the “miracle” of Ritalin. Science in Context 15: 577–603.

Blum, L.M., and N.F. Stracuzzi. 2004. Gender in the Prozac Nation: Popular discourse and productive femininity. Gender and Society 18(3): 269–286.

Kurbjuweit, D., and G. Spörl. 2002. Schöner neuere Mensch. Spiegel Gespräch. Der Spiegel 21(2002): 122–128.

Scharper-Rinkel, P. 2004. Die neurowissenschaftliche Gouvernementalität. Re-Konfiguration von Geschlecht zwischen Formbarkeit, Abschaffung und Re-Essentialisierung. In Transformationen von Wissen, Mensch und Geschlecht, ed. I. Dölling, S. Hark, K. Esders, and C. Genschel, 94–208. Königstein: Helmer.

Kirsch, I., B.J. Deacon, T.B. Huedo-Medina, A. Scoboria, T.J. Moore, and B.T. Johnson. 2008. Initial severity and antidepressant benefits: A meta-analysis of data submitted to the food and drug administration. PLoS Medicine 5: 260–268.

Braeutigam, S. 2005. Neuroeconomics ─ From neural systems to economic behaviour. Brain Research Bulletin 67: 355–360.

Schmitz, S. 2011: Entscheidungsraum Gehirn: Neurokultur, Neuroökonomie und das cerebrale Subjekt. In Bioökonomien. Objekte, Praxen, Strukturen, ed. S. Lettow, in press, Bielefeld: transcript.

Sanfey, A.G., J.K. Rilling, J.A. Aronson, L.E. Nystrom, and J.D. Cohen. 2003. The neural basis of economic decision-making in the ultimatum game. Science 300: 1755–1758.

Illouz, E. 2008. Emotional capital, therapeutic language, and the habitus of “the new man”. In Sexualized brains. Scientific modeling of emotional intelligence form a cultural perspective, ed. N.C. Karafyllis and G. Ulshöfer, 151–178. Cambridge: MIT.

Ulshöfer, G. 2008. The economic brain: Neuroeconomics and “post-autistic economics” through the lens of gender. In Sexualized brains. Scientific modeling of emotional intelligence form a cultural perspective, ed. N.C. Karafyllis and G. Ulshöfer, 191–220. Cambridge: MIT.

Häusel, H.-G. 2007. Neuromarketing mit Limbic®. Emotions- und Motivwelten im Gehirn des Kunden treffen. Innovation Management 3/2007.

Traindl, A. 2007. Neuromarketing am Point of Sale (POS): Mit Neuronen zu Millionen. In Neuromarketing: Erkenntnisse der Hirnforschung für Markenführung, Werbung und Verkauf, ed. H.-G. Häusel, 48–59. Freiburg: Haufe.

Haraway, D. 1992. The promise of monsters: A regenerative politics for inapproriate/d others. In Cultural studies, ed. L. Grossberg, C. Nelson, and P.A. Treichler, 295–337. New York: Routledge.

Boltanski, L., and E. Chiapello. 2005. The new spirit of capitalism. London: Verso.

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Neuroethics

Tập 5

261-274

Thông tin tác giả