Laura Cabrera

Laura Cabrera
Michigan State University | MSU · Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences

PhD

About

79
Publications
4,493
Reads
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734
Citations
Introduction
Dr. Cabrera is Assistant Professor of Neuroethics at the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences. Her research focuses on the exploration of attitudes, perceptions and values of the general public toward neurotechnologies, as well as the normative implications of using neurotechnologies for medical and non-medical purposes. Her career goal is to pursue interdisciplinary neuroethics scholarship, provide active leadership, and train and mentor future leaders in the field.
Additional affiliations
January 2014 - June 2015
University of British Columbia
Position
  • PostDoc Position
September 2011 - December 2013
University of Basel
Position
  • PostDoc Position
August 2008 - May 2011
Charles Sturt University
Position
  • PhD Student

Publications

Publications (79)
Article
The ambiguity regarding whether a given intervention is perceived as enhancement or as therapy might contribute to the angst that the public expresses with respect to endorsement of enhancement. We set out to develop empirical data that explored this. We used Amazon Mechanical Turk to recruit participants (N = 2776) from Canada and the United State...
Article
The debate over the propriety of cognitive enhancement evokes both enthusiasm and worry. To gain further insight into the reasons that people may have for endorsing or eschewing pharmacological enhancement (PE), we used empirical tools to explore public attitudes towards PE of twelve cognitive, affective, and social (CAS) domains (e.g., attention,...
Chapter
The past decade has seen a rise in the use of different technologies aimed at enhancing cognition of normal healthy individuals. While values have been acknowledged to be an important aspect of cognitive enhancement practices, the discussion has predominantly focused on just a few values, such as safety, peer pressure, and authenticity. How are val...
Article
Full-text available
In recent years, non-pharmacologic approaches to modifying human neural activity have gained increasing attention. One of these approaches is brain stimulation, which involves either the direct application of electrical current to structures in the nervous system or the indirect application of current by means of electromagnetic induction. Interven...
Article
Our technologies have enabled us to change both the world and our perceptions of the world, as well as to change ourselves and to find new ways to fulfil the human desire for improvement and for having new capacities. The debate around using technology for human enhancement has already raised many ethical concerns, however little research has been...
Article
Full-text available
Psychiatric electroceutical interventions (PEIs) use electrical or magnetic stimulation to treat psychiatric conditions. For depression therapy, PEIs include both approved treatment modalities, such as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), and experimental neurotechnologies, such as deep brain stim...
Article
Abstract Objectives Neurostimulation interventions often face heightened barriers limiting patient access. The objective of this study is to examine different stakeholders' perceived barriers to using different neurostimulation interventions for depression. Methods We administered national surveys with an embedded experiment to 4 nationwide samp...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Psychiatric electroceutical interventions (PEIs) use electrical or magnetic stimulation to treat mental disorders and may raise different ethical concerns than other therapies such as medications or talk therapy. Yet little is known about stakeholders' perceptions of, and ethical concerns related to, these interventions. We aimed to be...
Article
Full-text available
Stakeholders’ perceptions of barriers to and other ethical concerns about using psychiatric electroceutical interventions (PEIs), interventions that use electrical or magnetic stimuli to treat psychiatric conditions like treatment-resistant depression (TRD), may influence the uptake of these interventions. This study examined such perceptions among...
Article
Full-text available
Amid a renewed interest in alternatives to psychotherapy and medication to treat depression, there is limited data as to how different stakeholders perceive of the risks and benefits of psychiatric electroceutical interventions (PEIs), including electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and deep brain stimulation (DBS). To address this gap, we conducted 48 s...
Article
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Responding to reports of cases of personality change following deep brain stimulation, neuroethicists have debated the nature and ethical implications of these changes. Recently, this literature has been challenged as being overblown and therefore potentially an impediment to patients accessing needed treatment. We interviewed 16 psychiatrists, 16...
Article
Full-text available
Gilbert et al. argue that discussions of self-related changes in patients undergoing DBS are overblown. They show that there is little evidence that these changes occur frequently and make recommendations for further research. We point out that their framing of the issue, their methodology, and their recommendations do not attend to other important...
Article
Full-text available
Psychiatrists play an important role in providing access to psychiatric electrical interventions (PEIs) such as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). As such, their views on these procedures likely influence whether they refer or provide these types of treatments for their clinically depressed patients. Despit...
Article
Full-text available
Psychiatric neurosurgery has resurfaced over the past two decades for the treatment of severe mental health disorders, with improved precision and safety over older interventions alongside the development of novel ones. Little is known, however, about current public opinions, expectations, hopes, and concerns over this evolution in neurotechnology,...
Article
Full-text available
The advancement of society has coincided with the development and use of technologies intended to improve cognitive function, which are collectively known as neuroenhancers. While several studies have assessed public perception towards the moral acceptability of pharmacological and device-based cognitive enhancers, just a few have compared percepti...
Article
Full-text available
A number of reports have suggested that patients who undergo deep brain stimulation (DBS) may experience changes to their personality or sense of self. These reports have attracted great philosophical interest. This paper surveys the philosophical literature on personal identity and DBS and draws on an emerging empirical literature on the experienc...
Article
Full-text available
While neuroenhancement has been widely debated in the bioethics and neuroethics literature, the Anglo-American perspective has dominated a majority of these discussions. Thus, little is known about the motives and attitudes towards neuroenhancement in other cultures. Cultural values and linguistic peculiarities likely shape distinct attitudes and p...
Article
Introduction: Surgical interventions such as stereotactic radiosurgery and magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound, and neuromodulatory interventions such as deep brain stimulation (DBS) and vagal nerve stimulation, are under investigation to remediate psychiatric conditions resistant to conventional therapies involving drugs and psychologica...
Article
Full-text available
Several studies indicate that Latinos are at higher risk of developing Alzheimer Disease (AD). While research has centered on African-American/White or Latino/non-Latino differences, there exists heterogeneity within those groups. Clustering Latinos under a single group in AD resources, neglects cultural, biological and environmental differences. T...
Article
The reporting of clinical trial data is necessary not only for doctors to determine treatment efficacy, but also to explore new questions without unnecessarily repeating trials, and to protect patients and the public from dangers when data are withheld. This issue is particularly salient in those trials involving invasive neurosurgical intervention...
Article
The development of implantable electrode arrays that broadly and seamlessly integrate with brain tissue will require innovation that responsibly considers clinically relevant neuroethical concerns.
Article
Background: In November 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) "of at least four years duration and with a recent onset of motor complications, or motor complications of longer-standing duration that are not adequately controlled with medica...
Article
Full-text available
Background Comments made by readers in response to news articles about current events can provide profound insights into public understanding of and perspectives on those events. Here, in follow up to a paper published last year in this journal, we examined reader comments to articles in newspapers and magazines about neurosurgical interventions fo...
Article
Background: Psychiatric interventions are a contested area in medicine, not only because of their history of abuses, but also because their therapeutic goal is to affect emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors that are regarded as pathological. Because psychiatric interventions affect characteristics that seem central to who we are, they raise...
Article
The field of biological psychiatry is controversial, with both academics and members of the public questioning the validity and the responsible use of psychiatric technological interventions. The field of neuroethics provides insight into these controversies by examining key themes that characterize specific topics, attitudes, and reasoning tools t...
Article
Full-text available
Deep brain stimulation (DBS), a surgical procedure involving the implantation of electrodes in the brain, has rekindled the medical community’s interest in psychosurgery. Whereas many researchers argue DBS is substantially different from psychosurgery, we argue psychiatric DBS—though a much more precise and refined treatment than its predecessors—i...
Article
OBJECTIVE The research required to establish that psychiatric treatments are effective often depends on collaboration between academic clinical researchers and industry. Some of the goals of clinical practice and those of commercial developers of psychiatric therapies overlap, such as developing safe and effective treatments. However, there might a...
Article
In November 2015, Medtronic announced the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy in people with Parkinson disease (PD) "of at least 4 years duration and with recent onset motor complications, or motor complications of longer-standing duration that are not adequately controlled with medicat...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Surgical approaches to treat psychiatric disorders have made a comeback. News media plays an essential role in exposing the public to trends in health care such as the re-emergence of therapeutic interventions in psychiatric neurosurgery that were set aside for decades, and in shaping attitudes and acceptance to them. Method: We cond...
Conference Paper
In light of the dark history of many surgical approaches to treat psychiatric disorders, understanding contemporary trends around the re-emergence of different methods to which patients and the public are exposed is essential to understanding their views and receptivity to them, both for healthcare and society. To achieve this goal, we conducted an...
Article
Full-text available
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia among individuals 65 or older. There are more than 5 million diagnosed cases in the US alone and this number is expected to triple by 2050. Therefore, AD has reached epidemic proportions with significant socioeconomic implications. While aging in general is the greatest risk factor for AD...
Article
Objectives: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a well-established treatment for the management of severe motor fluctuations in advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). Until recently, device regulation, medical, and insurance practices limited DBS to patients with advanced stages of PD. In February 2016 this changed, however, when the US Food and Drug Admi...
Article
The dominant understandings on human enhancement, such as those based on the therapy–enhancement distinction or transhumanist views, have been focused on high technological interventions directly changing biological and physical features of individuals. The individual-based orientation and reductionist approach that dominant views of human enhancem...
Article
Between-subject design surveys are a powerful means of gauging public opinion, but critics rightly charge that closed-ended questions only provide slices of insight into issues that are considerably more complex. Qualitative research enables richer accounts but inevitably includes coder bias and subjective interpretations. To mitigate these issues,...
Article
In order to be made aware of bioethical issues related to their disciplines, undergraduate students in biology and pharmaceutical sciences at the University of XXX are required to enroll in the bioethics course “Introduction to Bioethics”. This paper describes the chances and challenges faced when teaching a large number of undergraduate biology an...
Article
Full-text available
The ways in which humans affect and are affected by their environments have been studied from many different perspectives over the past decades. However, it was not until the 1970s that the discussion of the ethical relationship between humankind and the environment formalized as an academic discipline with the emergence of environmental ethics. A...
Article
In recent years, discussion around memory modification interventions has gained attention. However, discussion around the use of memory interventions in the criminal justice system has been mostly absent. In this paper we start by highlighting the importance memory has for human well-being and personal identity, as well as its role within the crimi...
Article
Full-text available
Objectives: In 2007, a novel pathogenic genetic mutation associated with early onset familial Alzheimer disease was identified in a large First Nation family living in communities across British Columbia, Canada. Building on a community-based participatory study with members of the Nation, we sought to explore the impact and interplay of medicaliza...
Book
This book provides an overview of the new and emergent technologies that are and will continue to play a central role in the future of human enhancement. These technologies - including nanotechnology, neurotechnology, information technology, robotics and artificial intelligence - not only have unique capabilities, but have also instantiated separat...
Article
Full-text available
In order to gain insight into the public’s perspective on using the minimally invasive technique transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as an enhancement tool, we analyzed and compared online comments in key popular press articles from two different periods (pre-commercialization and post-commercialization). The main conclusion drawn from t...
Article
In order to gain insight into the public’s perspective on using the minimally invasive technique transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as an enhancement tool, we analyzed and compared online comments in key popular press articles from two different periods (pre-commercialization and post-commercialization). The main conclusion drawn from t...
Article
According to some technology enthusiasts our technological developments appear to be accelerating at an exponential rate. A common vision of such enthusiasts is that the accelerating pace of science and technology development will enable us to transform the world in more profound and significant ways than at any other time in our history. More impo...
Article
Full-text available
Research with human-animal chimera raises a number of ethical concerns, especially when neural stem cells are transplanted into the brains of non-human primates (NHPs). Besides animal welfare concerns and ethical issues associated with the use of embryonic stem cells, the research is also regarded as controversial from the standpoint of NHPs develo...
Article
The discussion about human enhancement has been dominated by two main and somehow extreme views. One is the biomedical view, still the dominant view, which sees enhancement as interventions going beyond therapeutic goals. The other is what I refer to as the transhumanist view, which sees enhancement as interventions that promote atypical features i...
Chapter
Reprinted from article in International Journal of Technoethics (2010)
Article
Human implants are among the technology applications that deserve to be carefully assessed as they have the potential to help us treating many devastating human conditions, but also to assist us reaching a stage beyond current human capacities and abilities. Such a development would introduce many challenges for society, governments, and the indivi...
Conference Paper
This paper presents a system for recognition of voiced segments in Spanish esophageal speech. It exposes different algorithms for the feature extraction of speech segment like formant analysis, linear prediction coefficients (LPC) and mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC), as well as, the recognition stage through the hidden Markov models. Sim...
Article
This paper presents a system for analysis and recognition of voiced segments in Spanish esophageal speech. It exposes the mathematical fundaments for the voiced speech segments analysis algorithm, based in the formant extraction method as well as the recognition stage through the artificial neural networks. Simulation results are presented for norm...
Article
This work presents the design and implementation of an esophageal speech analysis system, suitable for voiced speech segments extraction. This paper provides the mathematical fundaments of the voiced speech segments analysis algorithms based on the formant extraction method. Simulation results are provided together with the implementation of the sy...

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