AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-10-01Epub Date: 2026-10-27DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2026.2736101
Adam Trainer
{"title":"Conditional Acceptability and the Interpretation of Support for Mental Health Chatbots.","authors":"Adam Trainer","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2026.2736101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2026.2736101","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":"17 4","pages":"406-408"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149289149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-10-01Epub Date: 2026-10-27DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2026.2736018
Anna Wexler, Juhi Farooqui, Wonkyung Choi, Casey Halpern
{"title":"Complicating the Ethical Case Against DBS for Obesity.","authors":"Anna Wexler, Juhi Farooqui, Wonkyung Choi, Casey Halpern","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2026.2736018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2026.2736018","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":"17 4","pages":"359-362"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149289153","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-10-01Epub Date: 2026-10-27DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2026.2736015
Srivatsan Swaminathan, Rachel Whitehead, Visweshwar Swaminathan, Jacob M Appel
{"title":"The Potential Use of AI Chatbots as a Therapeutic Homework Companion.","authors":"Srivatsan Swaminathan, Rachel Whitehead, Visweshwar Swaminathan, Jacob M Appel","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2026.2736015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2026.2736015","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":"17 4","pages":"404-406"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149289179","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-10-01Epub Date: 2026-10-27DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2026.2734599
Kevin Doherty
{"title":"Maybe Therapeutic Chatbots Should Be Human-Like: The Goods of AI Sycophancy in Therapeutic Contexts.","authors":"Kevin Doherty","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2026.2734599","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2026.2734599","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":"17 4","pages":"389-391"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149289183","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-09-21DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2026.2729993
Andrew Joshua Parra
{"title":"The Modern Lobotomy: Closed-Loop Neuromodulation, Normalization by Algorithm, and the Disappearance of the Deviant Mind.","authors":"Andrew Joshua Parra","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2026.2729993","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2026.2729993","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Closed-loop neuromodulation systems, particularly adaptive deep brain stimulation, mark a new phase in psychiatric intervention, extending from psychosurgery through pharmacological stabilization to automated algorithmic regulation. Drawing on Foucauldian genealogy and research on adaptive deep brain stimulation, this article develops the concept of \"normalization by algorithm\" to describe how algorithmic systems embed normative judgments about desirable cognition and affect within automated architectures operating below awareness. Their therapeutic potential for severe conditions like treatment-resistant depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder is assessed in full, while questioning whether the neural patterns these devices target are always separable symptoms rather than constitutive aspects of identity. Continuous modulation deepens this problem by eroding the evaluative standpoint consent requires, making withdrawal formally possible but substantively elusive as the device shapes the preferences through which it would be chosen. Institutional incentives then threaten diffusion beyond therapeutic settings, pressing the question of who defines neural norms and what becomes of agency when correction is continuous.</p>","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149013096","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-08-31DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2026.2716034
Samuel Murray
{"title":"Self-Trust as a Unifying Principle for the Dimensions of Agency in Neurotechnology.","authors":"Samuel Murray","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2026.2716034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2026.2716034","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Neurotechnologies such as brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and deep brain stimulation (DBS) raise distinctive concerns about human agency. A recent proposal by Schönau et al. identifies four dimensions along which neurotechnologies may threaten agency: responsibility, privacy, authenticity, and trust. The Schönau et al. framework valuably maps how neurotechnologies affect users and has inspired qualitative assessment tools. Yet although it acknowledges interconnections among the four dimensions, it does not explain what structurally unifies them. This represents a key gap in the view. Assessment instruments modeled on the framework, such as their Qualitative Agentive Competency Tool (Q-ACT), evaluate each dimension independently, risking fragmented assessments that miss the integrated nature of agential harm. I argue that agential self-trust unifies these four dimensions. Each tracks a distinct way that neurotechnologies can erode the self-trust constitutive of planning agency: confidence in one's control over action (responsibility), in the boundaries of one's deliberative life (privacy), in one's psychological continuity (authenticity), and in one's sensory and evaluative capacities (trust). This carries concrete policy implications. Current informed consent procedures for neurotechnology trials enumerate risks along separate dimensions without flagging the cumulative threat to a user's capacity for agential self-trust. Likewise, assessment instruments should include integrative measures that track agential self-trust across domains. As neurotechnology governance develops at the international level, a unified account of agential harm within this dimensional framework can guide both consent design and longitudinal monitoring.</p>","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148867251","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-07-14DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2026.2699705
Byron Hyde, Negar Noveiri Delshad, Georgina Smith
{"title":"Ethics and Biopower in Neuromarketing: A Framework for an Ethical Approach to Marketing.","authors":"Byron Hyde, Negar Noveiri Delshad, Georgina Smith","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2026.2699705","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2026.2699705","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-2"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148449918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-07-13DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2026.2699704
Christopher Bobier, Daniel J Hurst
{"title":"Implanted Pediatric Brain-Computer Interface Research: Recommendations for the Ethical Design of Clinical Trials.","authors":"Christopher Bobier, Daniel J Hurst","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2026.2699704","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2026.2699704","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>For children with severe physical and cognitive disabilities (e.g. iatrogenic neurologic injury, congenital myelopathy, or quadriplegic cerebral palsy), there are limited therapeutic options. Scientific and clinical developments in implantable brain-computer interface (BCI) technology are in clinical trials in adults. The ethical issues around implantable BCI research in adults have recently been examined, but to date, only limited literature is available on the ethical issues that are attendant with implantable pediatric BCI research. Here, we summarize the ethical issues, focusing on (1) whether invasive BCI research should proceed in children, (2) regulatory considerations, (3) study design considerations, (4) pediatric recipient selection for invasive BCI trials, (5) special problems regarding informed consent in this context, and (6) related psychosocial and public perception considerations. We conclude with specific recommendations regarding ethically informed design of invasive pediatric BCI trials.</p>","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-12"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148438436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2026-07-10DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2026.2689620
J Lomax Boyd
{"title":"The Logic of <i>Basho</i> Among the Western Public's Views of Consciousness and Bioethical Decision-Making.","authors":"J Lomax Boyd","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2026.2689620","DOIUrl":"10.1080/21507740.2026.2689620","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":"17 3","pages":"232-236"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148425149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}