The ethical, legal and social issues of neuroergonomics in the workplace

In the near future it is anticipated that neuroergonomic technologies will be widely deployed in multiple real-world applications including many work environments. Neuroergonomics will be especially relevant in an increasingly knowledge-based, technology-driven economy where there will likely be significant incentives to apply it to increase worker productivity. However, this accelerating convergence of the brain, technology and work also raises serious issues including the privacy rights of workers' neural data and the protection of workers from coercion and discrimination over the use of the technology. Current ethical, legal and social frameworks are inadequate and unprepared to optimally deal with these issues which are rapidly being outpaced by the technological advances.