CV Science

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

Course and current status

I am a PhD in neuroscience and I started my 2nd PhD in ethics and neuroethics.
I am doing now a Digital Ethics Officer Training with Edhec Business School.

I have a double profile, multidisciplinary, between private compagny and academic research : which makes that I can intervene on different subjects which cross:

- neurosciences (molecular, cellular, genetics, biochemistry), microbiota, gut-brain axis issues
- neuroethics, ethics of neurosciences and neurotechnologies / BCI
- ethics and digital, IA
- ethics and data
- ethics and innovation
- research ethics and research integrity, open sciences
- the PhD, the career path of PhDs and its ethical / integrity / open sciences issues.

I am a research associate-doctorate, I started my 2nd PhD (in October 2021) in neuroethics, on the ethical issues of neurosciences and neurotechnology, within the CESP-U1018-INSERM of Paris-Saclay, in the team of Research in Ethics and Epistemology.

My interdisciplinary research hat within the company and my academic affiliation allow me to conduct this research work around neuroscience, datas, digital, and PhD in light of research ethics and scientific integrity in an efficient and innovative way.

And between Sept 2014 and Feb 2021, I worked on the gut-microbiome and 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?