CV Science

laure tabouy What ethics does neuroethics bring to bear on the issue of non-invasive neurotechnologies?

Course and current status

I hold a PhD in neuroscience (2012) and a master's degree in ethics (2021), and I'm doing a second PhD in ethics and neuroethics (defense expected early 2025).
I am an associate researcher - lecturer - lecturer and a 2nd time PhD student.
I'm doing this 2nd PhD in October 2021 in neuroethics, on the ethical issues of neuroscience and neurotechnology, at the CESP-U1018-INSERM in Paris-Saclay, in the Research in Ethics and Epistemology team.

I have also been a certified "Digital Ethics Officer" (DEO) at EDHEC Business School / EDHEC Augmented Law Institute since 2023. (https://alll.legal/formation-digital-ethics-officer-edhec/)

My dual multi-disciplinary / DEO profile, between private enterprise and academic research, enables me to intervene on various intersecting subjects and to conduct research work around neuroscience, datas, digital and PhD in the light of research ethics and scientific integrity in an effective and innovative way.

I can intervene on issues related to :
- neurosciences (molecular, cellular, genetic, biochemical), microbiota, gut-brain axis issues
- neuroethics, ethics of neuroscience and neurotechnology / BCI
- ethics and digital technology, AI
- ethics and data
- ethics and innovation
- research ethics and integrity, open sciences
- PhDs, their career paths and the challenges they face in terms of ethics, integrity and open sciences.

Previously, between September 2014 and February 2021, I worked on the gut microbiome and the gut-brain axis in autism and cancer.

Scientific summary

It is the year 2035, Julie is walking towards a train station to catch her train. She walks with a determined step, headphones connected on the ears, to the rhythm of a lively music. Imagine her crossing at a red light, thinking without saying a word that she is not endangering anyone. Her helmet has above all the function of controlling, regulating, and monitoring her mental state, then captures her brain waves corresponding to her intention to cross and her thoughts. It will then send them, via its wireless connection, to the police, who will arrest her for not respecting the rules. She is then registered and risks a fine. This world, which you might say is science fiction, is at our doorstep. It is already here, and it questions me. Do I want my innermost thoughts and intentions to be available to everyone? What kind of world are we building, and do we want for tomorrow? The work of my 2^ème PhD in ethics/Neuroethics is based on this tension between conceptions of what it is to be human as autonomous, free, and responsible persons and the consequences of their use on human identity and society. How will the use of neurotechnologies, by altering the structure and function of brain networks and processes, influence the human person? Research that aims to understand the structure and functioning of the networks and brain processes uses neurotechnologies, invasive, semi-invasive and non-invasive, but are no less intrusive. They allow to record and to intervene on the cerebral activity. Developed in research laboratories as well as in private companies, and already marketed to a healthy public, the frontier between medical and non-medical uses, between civil and military, is becoming very porous, with different objectives and investments. In a society where urgency and economic necessity dominate, and because they are bearers of hope and their development calls for ethical vigilance in the face of the risk of attacking psychological integrity and hindering freedom of thought. Making it indispensable to reflect on the societal, ethical and legal issues at stake; design interdisciplinary safeguards ; establish governance frameworks adapted to the sociological, ethical and legal values of France and Europe, as called for in the 2019 OECD and 2021-2023 UNESCO recommendation and the 2022 French Charter. I would like to propose that we take a step back on what ethics does neuroethics implement, so that neuroscientific and philosophical terms can be reconciled?