The Neuroscience of Human Brain Enhancement New

In this course, students will explore the rapidly developing science of brain augmentation, encompassing the use of behavioral, pharmacological, genetic, and technological approaches to alter or enhance brain function. We will begin with familiar ways of changing the brain, including sleep, exercise, diet, meditation, learning, and other everyday experiences, and progress toward emerging technologies such as noninvasive brain stimulation, brain-computer interfaces, neuroprosthetics, memory modification, and gene editing. 

Students will investigate how these approaches work at the level of neurons, circuits, and brain systems while learning to distinguish scientific evidence from speculation and commercial claims. We will examine original research, contemporary scientific debates, case studies, demonstrations, and emerging technologies. Topics may include cognitive-enhancing drugs, psychedelics and neuroplasticity, transcranial magnetic and electrical stimulation, sensory substitution, brain-computer interfaces, manipulation of memory engrams, and CRISPR.

Throughout the course, scientific questions will be paired with ethical ones. What counts as treatment, and what counts as enhancement? Should healthy people be able to technologically enhance their brains? Could brain enhancement increase inequality? Should there be limits on technologies that alter memory, emotion, or cognition? Students will be encouraged to develop and defend their own positions using scientific evidence.

The course will culminate in students imagining and evaluating a future brain-enhancement technology, integrating neuroscience, scientific evidence, technological feasibility, and ethical considerations.