The neuroscience of disorders of consciousness: from laboratory to clinics
The instrumental investigation and assessment of consciousness have witnessed an astonishing progress over the last years. The result of this progress is the passage from a monolithic way of looking at severe brain damages to a more graded nosology based on a quantitative assessment of consciousness and on functional neuroimaging technologies.
The so-called "neuro-technologies", especially the application of technology to the assessment and investigation of consciousness, lead to relevant and unpredicted results with important theoretical and practical consequences.
Aims
Working within the framework of the European Human Brain Project, the project aims at:
- Reviewing the recent development in the scientific explanations and description of consciousness, particularly focusing on disorders of consciousness (DOCs).
- Setting the scientific stage, that is the potential and actual clinical application of neuro-imaging for diagnosing and assessing DOCs
- Describing the theoretical and technical premises of the application of neurotechnologies (i.e., "mind-reading" and "externalization of mind") for communicating with patients with DOCs
- Analyzing the ethical issues emerging from the clinical application of neuroimaging technologies
- Assessing the issue of the role of uncertainty in neuroscience, particularly in neuroscientific investigation of DOCs
- Assessing the issues of pain, suffering and pleasure in DOCs both from a scientific and ethical point of view
- Outlining the high rate of misdiagnosis of DOCs emerging from the behavioral assessment of consciousness
- Setting prospects and limitations of the instrumental diagnosis of DOCs
- Analyzing the ethical issues arising from the misdiagnosis of DOCs
- Suggesting improvements strategy for diagnosing DOCs
Publications
Farisco M, Laureys S, Evers K, Externalization of Consciousness. Scientific Possibilities and Clinical Implications, in: Geyer M, Ellenbroek B, Marsden C (eds), Current Topics in Behavioural Neurosciences, 2014, doi: 10.1007/7854_2014_338
Funding
European Union Flagship: The Human Brain Project
Time table
2013-
PhD Student
Michele Farisco, PhD Ethics & Anthropology, Associate Professor of Moral Philosophy, PhD Student
Supervisors
- Kathinka Evers, Professor of Philosophy
- Stephen Laureys, MD, PhD, leader of the Coma Science Group at the Cyclotron Research Center and Department of Neurology, Sart Tilman Liège University Hospital .
Neuroetik och neurofilosofi

När vi försöker förstå hur hjärnan fungerar dyker det också upp etiska, sociala och filosofiska frågor.
Human Brain Project

Human Brain Project är ett av EU:s flaggskeppsprojekt och involverar mer än 100 forskargrupper. Kathinka Evers leder den filosofiska forskningen i projektet.
Hur det är att inte vara vid medvetande

Hur är det att vara medvetslös? Karl Sallin studerar apatiska barn.
Neuroetik och medvetandefilosofi
Vår forskning kring neuroetik och neurofilosofi är mångvetenskaplig. Vi närmar oss frågorna från teoretiska, filosofiska, sociala, bio-politiska och kliniska perspektiv. Forskningen sker i nära samarbete med neurovetenskapen så att vi kan förstå de etiska och filosofiska frågorna som forskarna behöver hantera. I den här rapporten hittar du alla våra publikationer på området med abstracts. Rapporten uppdaterades i november 2016.
