Wexler Lab
Principal Investigator: Anna Wexler
Institution: University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
Primary Subfield: Neuroscience
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
PROJECT SUMMARY Human subjects research with novel neural devices raises unique ethical issues, such as post-trial responsibilities, privacy of brain data, and atypical risks such as changes to personality. To manage the discrepancy between research practices and ethics oversight, in 2018 the NIH added a mandatory neuroethics section to a subset of neuroscience grants in addition to the standard protection of human subjects component. However, despite the unique nature of this requirement, to date there have been no systematic efforts to assess stakeholders’ experiences with and attitudes toward these mandates. This represents both a critical gap and opportunity. Without empirical research evaluating the impact of neuroethics mandates, we risk implementing ineffective requirements, lack the information needed to make useful modifications, and remain unaware of their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, given that there is no established pathway nor guidance for investigators to address neuroethics requirements, examining researchers’ experiences offers a valuable opportunity to understand how they devise neuroethics plans as well as barriers they might encounter when implementing…
Active NIH Awards
- 1R21MH141490-01: Assessing the Impact of Mandatory NIH Neuroethics Requirements (2026)
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