Chinese Medical Sciences Journal ›› 2024, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (2): 131-139.doi: 10.24920/004377

• Ethics of Medicine and Health • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Challenges and Suggestions of Ethical Review on Clinical Research Involving Brain-Computer Interfaces

Xue-Qin Wang1, Hong-Qiang Sun1, Jia-Yue Si2, Zi-Yan Lin3, Xiao-Mei Zhai4, Lin Lu1, 5, *()   

  1. 1Peking University Sixth Hospital, Peking University Institute of Mental Health, NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health (Peking University), National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Peking University Sixth Hospital), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Research Unit (No.2018RU006), Beijing 100191, China
    2Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis 95616, USA
    3Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto M5S 1A1, Canada
    4School of Population Medicine and Public Health, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China
    5Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking-Tsinghua Centre for Life Sciences and Peking University-International Development Group/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • Received:2024-05-15 Accepted:2024-06-03 Published:2024-06-30 Online:2024-06-12
  • Contact: * linlu@bjmu.edu.cn

Brain-computer interface (BCI) technology is rapidly advancing in medical research and application. As an emerging biomedical engineering technology, it has garnered significant attention in the clinical research of brain disease diagnosis and treatment, neurological rehabilitation, and mental health. However, BCI also raises several challenges and ethical concerns in clinical research. In this article, the authors investigate and discuss three aspects of BCI in medicine and healthcare: the state of international ethical governance, multidimensional ethical challenges pertaining to BCI in clinical research, and suggestive concerns for ethical review. Despite the great potential of frontier BCI research and development in the field of medical care, the ethical challenges induced by itself and the complexities of clinical research and brain function have put forward new special fields for ethics in BCI. To ensure "responsible innovation" in BCI research in healthcare and medicine, the creation of an ethical global governance framework and system, along with special guidelines for cutting-edge BCI research in medicine, is suggested.

Key words: brain-computer interface, clinical research, bioethics, ethical governance, ethical review

Funding:

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China (2021ZD0201900), Project 5 (2021ZD0201905).

Copyright © 2021 Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.  京公安备110402430088  京ICP备06002729号-1  Powered by Magtech.

Supervised by National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China

9 Dongdan Santiao, Dongcheng district, Beijing, 100730 China

Tel: 86-10-65105897  Fax:86-10-65133074 

E-mail: cmsj@cams.cn  www.cmsj.cams.cn

Copyright © 2018 Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences

All right reserved.

京公安备110402430088  京ICP备06002729号-1