From the necessity of being human to the possibility of pursuing a good life: cognitive enhancement and the emergence of personhood

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/1677-2954.2021.e80030

Abstract

Throughout human history, cognition enhancement has not only been a constant, but also imperative for our species evolution and well-being. However, philosophical assumptions that enhancing cognition by biomedical means goes against some immutable human nature, combined with the lack of conclusive data about its use on healthy individuals and long-term effects, can sometimes result in prohibitive approaches. In this context, the authors seek to demonstrate that cognition enhancement, whether by “natural” or biotechnological means, is essential to the emergence of personhood, and to existence of an autonomous life that is guided by a person’s own conception of the good. In order to do so, the main possibilities of enhancing cognition through biotechnologies, along with its benefits and potentialities, as well as its risks and limitations, will be presented. Following Savulescu and Sandberg’s account on cognitive enhancement, it will be argued that it constitutes both a consumption good, being desirable and happiness-promoting to have well-functioning cognition, and a capital good that reduces risks, increases earning capacity, and forms a key part of human capital. Finally, having in mind that progress in the field of biotechnology aimed at cognition enhancement may improve a person’s (and society’s) well-being, the authors will argue that further research in the field is necessary, especially studies that takes into consideration dimensions such as dose, individual characteristics and task characteristics.

Author Biographies

Giovana Lopes, PhD candidate in Law, Science and Technology at the University of Bologna, Bologna

PhD candidate in Law, Science and Technology at the University of Bologna (Italy) and KU Leuven (Belgium) E-mail: giovanaplopes@gmail.com 

Brunello Stancioli, Associate professor of undergraduate and graduate law programs at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, M.G.

PhD from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), with a postdoctoral degree from the University of Oxford (Center for Practical Ethics at Uehiro). Associate professor of undergraduate and graduate law programs at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. E-mail: brunellostancioli@gmail.com

References

Baddeley, Alan. 2010. “Working memory”. Current Biology 20(4): 136–40.

Batty, G David, Ian Deary and Linda Gottfredson. 2007. “Premorbid (early life) IQ and later mortality risk: Systematic review”. Annals of Epidemiology 17(4): 278–88.

Bell, Stephanie, Brad Partridge, Jayne Lucke and Wayne Hall. 2013. “Australian University students’ attitudes towards the acceptability and regulation of pharmaceuticals to improve academic performance”. Neuroethics 6(1): 197–205.

Bostrom, Nick. 2005. “In Defense of Posthuman Dignity”. Bioethics 19(3): 202-14.

Bostrom, Nick. 2009. “The Wisdom of Nature: An evolutionary heuristic for human enhancement”. In Human Enhancement, edited by Julian Savulescu and Nick Bostrom, 375-416. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bostrom, Nick and Rebecca Roache. 2011. “Smart Policy: Cognitive Enhancement and the Public Interest”. In Enhancing Human Capacities, edited by Julian Savulescu, Ruud ter Meulen and Guy Kahane, 137-149. New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell.

Brunoni, Andre, Roberta Ferrucci, Felipe Fregni, Paulo Boggio and Alberto Prioli. 2012. “Transcranial direct current stimulation for the treatment of major depressive disorder: a summary of preclinical, clinical and translational findings”. Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry 39(1): 9–16.

Buchanan, Allen. 2011. Better than Human: The promise and perils of enhancing ourselves. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Buchanan, Allen. 2011. Beyond Humanity? The Ethics of Biomedical Enhancement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bunge, Mario. 2003. Emergence and Convergence: Qualitative Novelty and the Unity of Knowledge. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Cattaneo, Zaira, A Pisoni and C Papagno. 2011. “Transcranial direct current stimulation over Broca’s region improves phonemic and semantic fluency in healthy individuals”. Neuroscience 223:56-67.

Chrysikou, Evangelia, Roy Hamilton, H Branch Coslett, Abhishek Datta Marom Bikson and Sharon Thompson-Schill. 2013. “Noninvasive transcranial direct current stimulation over the left prefrontal cortex facilitates cognitive flexibility in tool use”. Cognitive Neuroscience 4(2): 81–9.

Chuah, Lisa, Delise Chong, and William Rekshan. 2008. “Cholinergic augmentation modulates visual task performance in sleep-deprived young adults”. Journal of Neuroscience 28: 11369–77.

Chuah, Lisa, Delise Chong, Annette Chen, William Rekshan, Jiat-Chow Tan, Hui Zheng, Michael Chee. 2009. “Donepezil improves episodic memory in young individuals vulnerable to the effects of sleep deprivation”. Sleep 32(8): 999-1010.

Clark, Andy. 2003. Natural-born Cyborgs: Minds, technologies, and the future of human intelligence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cohen Kadosh, Roi, Sonja Soskic, Teresa Iuculano, Royota Kanai and Vincent Walsh. 2010. “Modulating neuronal activity produces specific and long-lasting changes in numerical competence”. Current Biology 20(22): 2016–20.

Colzato, Lorenza and Fréderique Arntz. 2017. “Ritalin”. In Theory-driven approaches to cognitive enhancement, edited by Lorenza Colzato, 71-82. New York: Springer.

Colzato, Lorenza and Rebecca Mourits. 2017. “Modafinil”. In Theory-driven approaches to cognitive enhancement, edited by Lorenza Colzato, 83-94. New York: Springer.

Colzato, Lorenza. 2018. “Responsible Cognitive Enhancement”. Journal of Cognitive Enhancement 2(4): 331-4.

Dak. 2009. Gesundheitsreport 2009: Analyse der Arbeitsunfähigkeitsdaten. Schwerpunktthema Doping am Arbeitsplatz. Hamburg: DAK Forschung.

Daniels, Norman. 2000. “Normal Functioning and the Treatment-Enhancement Distinction”. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 9(3): 309–22.

Dockery, Colleen, Ruth Hueckel-Weng, Niels Birbaumer and Christian Plewnia. 2009. “Enhancement of planning ability by transcranial direct current stimulation”. Journal of Neuroscience 29(22): 7271–77.

Dresler, Martin, Sandberg, Anders, Kathrin Ohla, Christoph Bublitz, Carlos Trenado, Aleksandra Mroczko-Wasowicz, Simone Kühn and Dimitris Repantis. 2013. “Non-pharmacological cognitive enhancement”, Neuropharmacology 64: 529-43.

Edgar, Andrew. 2009. “The hermeneutic challenge of genetic engineering” Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 12(2):157–67.

Elliott, Carl. 2003. Better than well: American medicine meets the American dream. New York: Norton and Company.

Everitt, Barry, David Belin, Daina Economidou, Yann Pelloux, Jeffrey Dalley and Trevor Robbins. 2008. “Neural mechanisms underlying the vulnerability to develop compulsive drug-seeking habits and addiction”, Philososophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 363(1507): 3125–35.

Farah, Martha, Judy Illes, Robert Cook-Deegan, Howard Gardner, Eric Kandel, Patricia King, Eric Parens, Barbara Sahakian et al. 2004. “Neurocognitive enhancement: What can we do and what should we do?” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 5(5): 421-5.

Farah, Martha, M Elizabeth Smith, Irena Ilieva and Roy Hamilton. 2014. “Cognitive Enhancement”. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science 5(1): 95-103.

Fertonani, Anna, Sandra Rosini, Maria Cotelli, Paolo Rossini and Carlo Miniussi. 2010. “Naming facilitation induced by transcranial direct current stimulation”. Behavioural Brain Research 208(2): 311–8.

Filmer, Hannah, Jason Mattingley, and Paul E Dux. 2013. “Improved multitasking following prefrontal tDCS”. Cortex 49(1), pp. 2845–52.

FitzGerald, David, Gregory Crucian, Jeannine Mielke, Brian Shenal, David Burks, Kyle Womack, Georges Ghacibeh, Valeria Drago, Paul Foster, Edward Valenstein et al. 2008. “Effects of donepezil on verbal memory after semantic processing in healthy older adults”. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology 21(2):57–64.

Floridi, Luciano. 2011. “The informational nature of personal identity”. Minds and Machines 21: 549-66.

Forlini, Cynthia and Eric Racine. 2009. “Disagreements with implications: diverging discourses on the ethics of non-medical use of methylphenidate for performance enhancement”. BMC Medical Ethics 10(9).

Fregni, Felipe, Paulo Boggio, Michael Nitsche, Felix Bermpohl, Andrea Antal, Eva Feredoes, Marco Marcolin, Sergio Rigonatti, Maria Silva, Walter Paulus et al. 2005. “Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation of prefrontal cortex enhances working memory”. Experimental Brain Research 166(1): 23–30.

Fröding, Barbro. 2013. Virtue Ethics and Human Enhancement. New York: Springer.

Fukuyama, Francis. 2002. Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the biotechnology revolution. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

Gottfredson, Linda. 2004. “Life, Death, and Intelligence”. Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology 4(1): 23–46.

Gottfredson, Linda .2007. “Innovation, Fatal Accidents, and the Evolution of General Intelligence”. In Integrating the Mind: Domain general versus domain specific processes in higher cognition, edited by Maxwell Roberts, 387-425. Hove: Psychology Press.

Greely, Henry, Barbara Sahakian, John Harris, Ronald Kessler, Michael Gazzaniga, Philip Campbell and Martha Farah. 2008. “Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy”. Nature 456: 702-5.

Greene, Joshua and Jonathan Haidt. 2002. “How (and Where) does Moral Judgment Work?”. Trends in Cognite Science (12): 517–23.

Haidt, Jonathan. 2001. “The Emotional Dog and its Rational Tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment”. Psychology Review 108(4): 814-34.

Harris, John. 2007. Enhancing Evolution: The ethical case for making better people. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Heinz, Aandreas and Sabine Müller. 2017. “Exaggerating the benefits and downplaying the risks in the bioethical debate on cognitive neuroenhancement”. In Rethinking Cognitive Enhancement, edited by Ruud Ter Meulen, Ahmed Mohamed and Wayne Hall, 69-86. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hornung, Orla, Francesca Regen, Heidi Danker-Hopfe, Michael Schredl and Isabella Heuser. 2007. “The relationship between REM sleep and memory consolidation in old age and effects of cholinergic medication”. Biological Psychiatry 61(6): 750–7.

Hutchison, C W; P J Nathan, L Mrazek and C Stough. 2001. “Cholinergic modulation of speed of early information processing: the effect of donepezil on inspection time”. Psychopharmacology 155: 440–2.

Ilieva, Irena, Joseph Boland and Martha Farah. 2013. “Objective and subjective cognitive enhancing effects of mixed amphetamine salts in healthy people”. Neuropharmacology 64: 496–505.

Ingold, Tim. 2011. The Perception of the Environment: Essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill. London: Routledge.

Iyer, M B, U Mattu, J Grafman et al. 2005. “Safety and cognitive effect of frontal DC brain polarization in healthy individuals”. Neurology 64(5): 872-5.

de Jongh, Reinoud, Ineke Bolt, Maartje Schermer, and Berend Olivier. 2008. “Botox for the brain: Enhancement of cognition, mood and pro-social behavior and blunting of unwanted memories”. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 32(4): 760–76.

De Jongh, Reinoud. 2017. “Overclocking the brain? The potential and limitations of cognition-enhancing drugs” In Rethinking Cognitive Enhancement, edited by Ruud Ter Meulen, Ahmed Mohamed and Wayne Hall, 37-56. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kahneman, Daniel. 2011. Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Kessler, Sudha, Peter Turkeltaub, Jennifer Benson and Roy Hamilton. 2012. “Differences in the experience of active and sham transcranial direct current stimulation”. Brain Stimulation 5(2): 155–62.

Karim, Ahmed, Markus Schneider, Martin Lotze, Ralf Veit, Paul Sauseng, Christoph Braun and Niels Birbaumer. 2010. “The truth about lying: inhibition of the anterior prefrontal cortex improves deceptive behavior”. Cerebral Cortex 20(1): 205–13.

Kass, Leon. 2000. “The Wisdom of Repugnance”. In The Human Cloning Debate, edited by Glenn MacGee, 68-106. Berkeley: Berkeley Hills Books.

Leite, Jorge, Sandra Carvalho, Felipe Fregni, and Oscar Goncalves. 2011. “Task-specific effects of tDCS-induced cortical excitability changes on cognitive and motor sequence set shifting performance”. PLoS One 6(9): e24140.

Levy, Neil. 2007. Neuroethics: Challenges for the 21st century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lin, Patrick and Francis Allhoff. 2008. “Untangling the Debate: The Ethics of Human Enhancement”. Nanoethics 2(3): 251–64.

De Luca, Maria Antonietta, Valentina Bassareo, A Bauer and Gaetano Di Chiara. 2007. “Caffeine and accumbens shell dopamine”. Journal of Neurochemistry 103(1): 157–63.

Marchesini, Roberto. 2009. Il Tramonto dell’Uomo: La prospettiva post-umanista. Bari: Edizione Dedalo.

Massi, Charles, Eric Yamga and Brendon Boot. 2017. “Neuroenhancement: a call for better evidence on safety and efficacy” In Rethinking Cognitive Enhancement, edited by Ruud Ter Meulen, Ahmed Mohamed A and Wayne Hall, 57-68. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

McKeown, Alex. 2017. “Enhancement and Therapy: Is it possible to draw a line?” In Rethinking Cognitive Enhancement, edited by Ruud ter Meulen, Ahmed Mohamed and Wayne Hall. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mehlman, Maxwell. 2004. “Cognition-enhancing drugs”. Milbank Quarterly 82(3): 483–506.

Meinzer, Marcus, Sophia Jahnigen, David Copland, Robert Darkow, Ulrike Grittner, Keren Avirame, Amy Rodriguez, Robert Lindenberg and Agnes Floel. 2014. “Transcranial direct current stimulation over multiple days improves learning and maintenance of a novel vocabulary”. Cortex 50: 137–47.

Miniussi, Carlo, Justin Harris and Manuela Ruzzoli. 2013. “Modelling non-invasive brain stimulation in cognitive neuroscience”. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 37(8): 1702–12.

Mohamed, Ahmed. 2017. “Does modafinil improve cognitive functioning in healthy individuals?” In Rethinking Cognitive Enhancement, edited by Ruud Ter Meulen, Ahmed Mohamed and Wayne Hall, 107-24. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mohamed, Ahmed. 2017. “Does modafinil improve cognitive functioning in healthy individuals?” In Rethinking Cognitive Enhancement, edited by Ruud Ter Meulen, Ahmed Mohamed and Wayne Hall, 87-106. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Müller, Ulrich, Nikolai Steffenhagen, Ralf Regenthal and Peter Bublak. 2004. “Effects of modafinil on working memory processes in humans”. Psychopharmacology 177(1): 161–9.

Müller, Ulf, Jurgen Voges, Johann Steiner, Imke Galazky, Hans-Jochen Heinze, Michaela Möller, Jared Pisapia, Casey Halpern, Arthur Caplan, Bernard Bogerts et al. 2013. “Deep brain stimulation of the nucleus accumbens for the treatment of addiction”. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1282: 119–28.

Mumenthaler, Martin, Jerome Yesavage, Joy Taylor, Ruth O’Hara, Leah Friedman, Hana Lee and Helena Kraemer. 2003. “Psychoactive drugs and pilot performance: a comparison of nicotine, donepezil, and alcohol effects”. Neuropsychopharmacology 28: 1366–73.

Naam, Ramez. 2005). More than human: embracing the promise of biological enhancement. New York: Random House Broadway Books.

Nathan, Pradeep, Allison Baker, Elaine Carr, Jemima Earle, Maeghan Jones, Michelle Nieciecki, Chris Hutchison and Con Stough. 2001. “Cholinergic modulation of cognitive function in healthy subjects: acute effects of donepezil, a cholinesterase inhibitor”. Human Psychopharmacology 16(6): 481–3.

Nielsen, Lisbeth. 2011. “The Concept of Nature and the Enhancement Technologies Debate”. In Enhancing Human Capacities, edited by Julian Savulescu, Ruud ter Meulen and Guy, 19-33.New Jersey: Wiley- Blackwell.

Ohn, Suk, Chang-Il Park, Woo-Kyoung Yoo, Myoung-Hwan Ko, Kyung Choi, Gyeong-Moon Kim, Yong Lee and Yun-Hee Kim. 2008. “Time-dependent effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on the enhancement of working memory”. Neuroreport 19(1): 43–7.

Parens, Eric. 1998. Enhancing Human Traits: Ethical and social implications. Washington: Georgetown University Press.

Parfit, Derek. 1984. Reasons and Persons. Oxford: Oxford University Publishing.

Prochazkova Luisa, Dominique Lippelt, Lorenza Colzato, Martin Kuchar, Zsuzsika Sjoerds and Bernhard Hommel. 2018. “Exploring the effect of microdosing psychedelics on creativity in an open-label natural setting”. Psychopharmacology 235(12): 3401-13.

Ragan, Ian, Imre Bard and Illina Singh. 2013. “What should we do about student use of cognitive enhancers? An analysis of current evidence”. Neuropharmacology 64: 588–95.

Randall, Delia, Fay Cafferty, John Shneerson, Ian Smith, Meirion Llewelyn and Sandra File. 2005. “Chronic treatment with modafinil may not be beneficial in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome”. Journal of Psychopharmacology 19(6): 647–60.

Reis, Janine, Heidi Schambra, Leonardo Cohen, Ethan Buch, rita Fitsch, Eric Zarahn, Pablo Celnik and John Krakauer. 2009. “Noninvasive cortical stimulation enhances motor skill acquisition over multiple days through an effect on consolidation”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 106(5): 1590–5.

Repantis, Dimitris, Oona Laisney and Isabella Heuser. 2010. “Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and memantine for neuroenhancement in healthy individuals: a systematic review”. Pharmacological Research 61(6): 473–81.

Ruud ter Meulen. 2017. “The ethical debate on human enhancement and cognitive enhancement by way of biotechnologies”. In Rethinking Cognitive Enhancement, edited by Ruud ter Meulen, Ahmed Mohamed and Wayne Hall, 15-34. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sandberg, Andy. 2011. “Cognition Enhancement: Upgrading the Brain”. In Enhancing Human Capacities, edited by Julian Savulescu, Ruud ter Meulen and Guy Kahane, 71-91. New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell.

Sandberg, Andy and Julian Savulescu. 2011. “The Social and Economic Impacts of Cognitive Enhancement”. In Enhancing Human Capacities, edited by Julian Savulescu, Ruud ter Meulen and Guy Kahane, 92-112. New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell.

Sandel, Michael. 2007. The case against perfection. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Savulescu, Julian and Ingmar Persson. 2012. Unfit for the Future: The Need for Moral Enhancement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Savulescu, Julian and Nick Bostrom. 2009. Human Enhancement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Schermer, Maartje. 2012. Van genezen naar verbeteren. Inaugural lecture. Rotterdam: Erasmus Medical Centre.

Shah-Basak, Priyanka and Roy Hamilton. 2017. “Cognitive enhancement using noninvasive brain stimulation: weighing opportunity, feasibility, and risk”. In Rethinking Cognitive Enhancement, edited by Ruud Ter Meulen, Ahmed Mohamed and Wayne Hall, 125-49. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Singer, Peter. 2005. “Ethics and Intuition”. The Journal of Ethics 9(3): 331–52.

Silva, Denis. 2015. “Posthumanism and Equality”. In: Human Rights, Rule of Law and the Contemporary Social Challenges in Complex Societies: Proceedings of the XXVI World Congress of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy of the Internationale Vereinigunf für Rechtsund Sozialphilosophie, edited by Marcelo Galuppo, Mônica Lopes, Lucas Gontijo, Karine Salgado and Thomas Bustamente, 1942-54. Belo Horizonte: Initia Via.

Smith, Elizabeth and Martha. 2011. “Are prescription stimulants “smart pills”? The epidemiology and cognitive neuroscience of prescription stimulant use by normal healthy individuals”. Psychological Bulletin 137(5): 717–41.

Snyder, Peter, Martin Bednar, Jennifer Cromer and Paul. 2005. “Reversal of scopolamine-induced deficits with a single dose of donepezil, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor”. Alzheimers and Dementia 1(1): 126–35.

Sparing, Roland, Manuel Dafotakis, Ingo Meister, Nivethida Thirugnanasambandam and Gereon Fink. 2008. “Enhancing language performance with non-invasive brain stimulation: a transcranial direct current stimulation study in healthy humans”. Neuropsychologia 46(1): 261–8.

Stancioli, Brunello and Nara Carvalho. 2011. “Da Integridade Física ao Livre Uso do Corpo” In: Manual de Teoria Geral do Direito Civil, edited by Ana Carolina Brochado and Gustavo Leite, 265-85. Belo Horizonte: Del Rey.

Taylor, Charles. 1989. Sources of the Self: The making of modern the modern identity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Turner, Danielle, Trevor Robbins, Luke Clark, Adam Aron, Jonathan Dowson and Barbara Sahakian .2003. “Cognitive enhancing effects of modafinil in healthy volunteers”. Psychopharmacology 165(3): 260–9.

Volkow, Nora, Gene-Jack Wang, Joanna Fowler, Telang Frank, Laurence Maynard, Jean Logan, Samuel Gatley et al. 2004. “Evidence that methylphenidate enhances the saliency of a mathematical task by increasing dopamine in the human brain”. American Journal of Psychiatry 161(7): 1173–80.

Whalley, Lawrence and Ian Deary. 2001. “Longitudinal Cohort Study of Childhood IQ and Survival up to Age 76”. British Medical Journal 322(7290): 819–22.

Wilson, James. 2007. “Transhumanism and Moral Equality”. Bioethics 21(8): 419-25.

Zaehle, Tino, Pascale Sandmann, Jeremy Thorne, Lutz Jäncke and Christoph Hermann. 2011. “Transcranial direct current stimulation of the prefrontal cortex modulates working memory performance: combined behavioural and electrophysiological evidence”. BMC Neuroscience 12(2).

Zaninotto, Ana, Orlando Bueno, Márcia Pradella-Hallinan, Sérgio Tufik, Jenny Rusted, Con Stough and Sérgio Pompéia. 2009. “Acute cognitive effects of donepezil in young, healthy volunteers”. Human Psychopharmacology 24(6): 453–64.

Downloads

Published

2021-04-30