Neuroethical issues in clinical neuroscience research

In this chapter, we use the special features of neuroimaging to illustrate research ethics issues for the clinical neurologic sciences, and focus on one particularly compelling case: studies involving first-episode schizophrenic treatment-naïve individuals (FESTNIs) (Eijkholt et al., 2012). FESTNIs are scanned prior to the administration of medication in order to control for the confounding effects of treatment. By concentrating on this program of research, we capture the distinctive ethical challenges associated with neuroimaging research overall, and foreground the issues particular to neuroimaging research involving FESTNIs that have yet to receive sufficient attention in the literature. We highlight assessment of risks and burdens, including risks associated with treatment delays and incidental findings; assessment of benefit, including direct benefit, social value, and scientific quality; subject selection; justice questions related to responsiveness and poststudy access; and, finally, issues related to consent and capacity.