The Neuroethics Research Unit was created in 2006, at the

Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM), (also known, in English, as Montreal Clinical Research Institute), is a medical research institute affiliated with Université de Montréal. Its work focuses mainly on cellular biology, molecula ...

(IRCM), which is affiliated to the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (; UdeM; ) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on M ...

. The Unit is one of the pioneer units in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

in this area of research.

Neuroethics In philosophy and neuroscience, neuroethics is the study of both the ethics of neuroscience and the neuroscience of ethics. The ethics of neuroscience concerns the ethical, legal, and social impact of neuroscience, including the ways in which ne ...

is a new area of research where

bioethics Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, me ...

and

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...

intersect. The focus is on ethical considerations in neuroscience research and the many ethical issues that arise from the transfer of neuroscience to

health care Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

Research themes

The Neuroethics research unit pursues research within the fields of public and

intercultural Cross-cultural communication is a field of study investigating how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate, in similar and different ways among themselves, and how they endeavor to communicate across cultures. Intercultural communi ...

, clinical, research, reflexive, or theoretical neuroethics to address a large spectrum of challenges in

neurological Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the s ...

and

psychiatric Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, mood, emotion, and behavior. Initial psychiatric assessment of ...

care such as providing quality patient information, diminishing stigma, and promoting respectful healthcare services. The Unit’s research themes cover subjects as diverse as

MRI Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to generate pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes inside the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and rad ...

, end-of-life decision making, cognitive enhancement, ethical policy, etc.

Funding

Research projects of the Neuroethics Research Unit are funded by the

Canadian Institutes of Health Research The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR; ; IRSC) is a federal agency responsible for funding health and medical research in Canada. Comprising 13 institutes, it is the successor to the Medical Research Council of Canada. CIHR supports ...

, the

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC; , CRSNG) is the major federal agency responsible for funding natural sciences and engineering research in Canada. NSERC directly funds university professors and students as ...

and the

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC; , CRSH), often colloquially pronounced 'shirk' (), is a Canadian federal research-funding agency that promotes and supports post-secondary research and training in the humani ...

Outreach

In June 2007, at the annual meeting of the Canadian Bioethics Society (CBS) held in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, over 70 attendees met to discuss the need to learn more about Canadian and international advances in neuroethics including research, funding, and events. A new interest group was launched. One of the group’s strongest recommendations was to create a newsletter, featuring forthcoming events and literature updates. BRAINSTORM was born. The Unit also created the Montreal Neuroethics Network. Its main goal is to organize neuroethics talks,

seminars A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some part ...

workshops Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the only ...

and

symposia ''Symposia'' is a genus of South American araneomorph spiders in the family Cybaeidae, and was first described by Eugène Simon in 1898. Species it contains six species in Venezuela and Colombia: *'' Symposia bifurca'' Roth, 1967 – Venezuel ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

to develop neuroethics in Montreal in both

Academia An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

and in the community.

References

{{authority control Bioethics Ethics of science and technology Neuroscience research centres in Canada Université de Montréal Research institutes established in 2006 Research institutes in Canada Education in Montreal