Being neurologically human today

Life and science and adult cerebral plasticity (an ethical analysis)

Bibliographic Data

ID2279013
AuthorsT Rees (0000-0002-8273-7393, McGill University, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume37
Issue1
Pages150-166
Publication date2010-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Ethnologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1548-1425.2010.01247.x
OpenAlexW1999469550
LanguageEN
Citations received22
References cited57

Throughout the 20th century, scientists believed that the adult human brain is fully developed, organized in fixed and immutable function-specific neural circuits. Since the discovery of the profound plasticity of the human brain in the late 1990s, this belief has been thoroughly undermined. In this article, combining ethnographic and historical research, I develop an "ethical analysis" to show that (and in what concrete sense) the emergence of adult cerebral plasticity was a major mutation of the neurologically human-a metamorphosis of the confines within which neuroscience requires all those who live under the spell of the brain to think and live the human

Brain function · Cognitive science · Epistemology · Human brain · Human life · Neuroplasticity · Political science · Sociology · Spell · Anthropology · Law · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations · Neurological disorders and treatments · Neurology and Historical Studies · Neuroscience · Philosophy · Psychology

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