Page - 48 - in Cyborg Mind - What Brain–Computer and Mind–Cyberspace Interfaces Mean for Cyberneuroethics

48 • Cyborg Mind In this regard, a number of technologies are already being developed or considered that can be used to analyse or modify certain areas of the brain over a long period of time, such as through the use of wireless technologies. Moreover, the development of a better understanding of ‘background’ brain activity is allowing greater control of the information coming in and out of the brain.10 At the moment, neuronal interfaces have generally relied on visual feed- back in which a person looks at the activity produced by the interface in order to decide how best it can be controlled and used, but new forms of sensory feedback systems may become possible in the future. Considerable interest has also been expressed for neuronal interfaces that record and process brain activity in real time through implanted electrodes. It may then be possible for the brain to learn how to incor- porate this activity into normal function. These neuronal interfaces could, for example, be applied to directly control a patient’s paralysed muscles. Indeed, such interfaces are already being used to directly stimulate the muscles in the body of disabled persons, while receiving feedback from the network of neurons responsible for the sense of balance or movement in these persons’ brains.11 Applications that may prove more ethically challenging in the future are those that involve long-term modifications to the strength of connections between the neurons that are associated with learning and behaviour. In this regard, neuronal interfaces could actually modify the brain to react in a certain manner to a certain kind of stimulus in order to enhance the learning process. Progress in the development of neuronal interfaces could also affect higher-order areas of the brain to produce what can be characterised as cogni- tive replacement parts, causing significant changes in terms of how the brain operates and functions. These could be considered, for example, to address the consequences of a stroke in a patient, but could, in addition, be used to manipulate and even exploit others.12 The technology is also enabling new uses to be considered that not only seek to restore a function, but enable human beings to be enhanced in some way or access completely new experiences. For instance, it may in the future be possible to extend neuronal interface applications to new forms of brain manipulation aimed at cognitive enhancement or neuronal ‘modification’ or ‘correction’. In relation to these future possibilities, three types of neuronal interface systems are generally considered: 13 1. Interfacing out (output) of the nervous system: this enables biological information to exit a neuronal network, such as the brain, which can then This open access edition has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale.