An ethical brain? Authors Bernabé Robles Servei de Neurologia, Comitè d’Ètica Assistencial, Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu Keywords: ethics, brain, neuroimaging, morality. Abstract Can neuroscience tell us what is right and wrong? It is difficult to deny that there is an intimate connection between brain and behavior, and a special relationship between our brains and ourselves. In recent decades, neuroscientists and philosophers have discovered that they always return to the same questions: conscience, the self, perception, thought, feelings, will, intentionality, morality, etc. Functional neuroimaging does not show human thought “per se” but only correlates of certain functions involved. It is an indirect approach that generates important ethical, legal and social questions. Its growing popularity, the expectations generated and the emerging commercial, educational and legal applications have led to a surge of publications in strictly scientific journals and in others dedicated to areas such as ethics or law, although there is a notable lack of communication between them. In this article, we review what we currently know about the neurological basis of ethics from a philosophy of science perspective, defending the idea that there is no “ethics module” in the brain, if we understand correctly the meaning of ethics, an attractive but overused term.Keywords: ethics, brain, neuroimaging, morality. Downloads Download data is not yet available. Downloads PDF (Català) Issue Vol. 67 (2016) Section Destacats de recerca License The intellectual property of the articles belongs to the respective authors. At the time of submitting the articles to Treballs de la Societat Catalana de Biologia, authors accept the following terms: — Authors assign to the SCB (a subsidiary of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans) the rights of reproduction, public communication (including communication through social networks) and distribution of the articles submitted for publication to Treballs de la Societat Catalana de Biologia, in any form and medium, including digital platforms. The Publications Committee reserves the right to accept or refuse submitted articles and the right to make any editorial changes it deems appropriate. If the suggested changes are accepted by authors, they should re-submit the article with such changes. — Authors answer to the SCB for the authorship and originality of submitted articles. In other words, authors assure that submitted articles do not contain fragments of works by other authors or fragments of their own previously published works; that the content of articles is original, and that the copyright of third parties is not infringed upon. Authors accept this responsibility and undertake to hold harmless the SCB for any loss or damage resulting from non-compliance with this obligation. Furthermore, they should include a statement in articles submitted to the journal regarding their responsibility for the content of the articles. — Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for the reproduction of all graphic material included in articles, and they should moreover ensure that images, videos, etc., have been created with the consent of the individuals appearing in them, and that material belonging to third parties is clearly identified and acknowledged as such within the text. Likewise, authors should provide the respective consents and authorisations to the SCB when submitting articles. — The SCB is exempt from any liability arising from the possible infringement of intellectual property rights by authors. In all cases, it undertakes to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies, if necessary. — Unless otherwise stated in the text or in the graphic material, the contents published in the journal are subject to an Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivs 3.0 Spain (by-nc-nd) license from Creative Commons, the full text of which may be consulted at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/deed.en. Therefore, the general public is authorised to reproduce, distribute and communicate articles as long as their authorship and publishing entity are acknowledged, and no commercial use is made of them nor derivative work produced from them. — The journal is not responsible for the ideas and opinions expressed by the authors of published articles.
