Big Brain Data: On the Responsible Use of Brain Data from Clinical and Consumer-Directed Neurotechnological Devices
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Big Brain Data: On the Responsible Use of Brain Data from Clinical and Consumer-Directed Neurotechnological Devices Philipp Kellmeyer
Received: 5 February 2018 / Accepted: 11 May 2018 # The Author(s) 2018
Abstract The focus of this paper are the ethical, legal and social challenges for ensuring the responsible use of Bbig brain data^—the recording, collection and analysis of individuals’ brain data on a large scale with clinical and consumer-directed neurotechnological devices. First, I highlight the benefits of big data and machine learning analytics in neuroscience for basic and translational research. Then, I describe some of the technological, social and psychological barriers for securing brain data from unwarranted access. In this context, I then examine ways in which safeguards at the hardware and software level, as well as increasing Bdata literacy^ in society, may enhance the security of neurotechnological devices and protect the privacy of personal brain data. Regarding ethical and legal ramifications of big brain data, I first discuss effects on the autonomy, the sense of agency and authenticity, as well as the self that may result from the interaction between users and intelligent, particularly closed-loop, neurotechnological devices. I then discuss the impact of the Bdatafication^ in basic
P. Kellmeyer (*) Department of Neurosurgery, Epilepsy Center, University of Freiburg – Medical Center, Engelbergerstr. 21, D-79106 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany e-mail: [email protected] P. Kellmeyer Cluster of Excellence BrainLinks-BrainTools, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany P. Kellmeyer Institute for Biomedical Ethics and the History of Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
and clinical neuroscience research on the just distribution of resources and access to these transformative technologies. In the legal realm, I examine possible legal consequences that arises from the increasing abilities to decode brain states and their corresponding subjective phenomenological experiences on the hitherto inaccessible privacy of these information. Finally, I discuss the implications of big brain data for national and international regulatory policies and models of good data governance. Keywords Brain data . Neurotechnology . Big data . Privacy . Security . Machine learning
Introduction We currently witness converging technological macrotrends—big data, advanced machine learning, and consumer-directed neurotechnological devices— that will likely lead to the collection, storage, and analysis of personal brain data on a large scale. In basic and applied neuroscience, this impending age of BBig Brain Data^ may lead to important breakthroughs, particularly for our understanding of the brain’s structure and function, for identifying new biomarkers of brain pathology, as well as for improving the performance of neurotechnological devices (such as brain-computer interfaces, BCIs). But the same technology, when applied in consumer-directed neurotechnological
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