Neuroethics Research Unit, Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal, 110 avenue des Pins Ouest, Montréal, Québec H2W 1R7, Canada.
Soc Sci Med. 2010 Aug;71(4):725-33. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.05.017. Epub 2010 Jun 4.
Technological innovations in neuroscience have opened new windows to the understanding of brain function and the neuronal underpinnings of brain activity in neuropsychiatric disorders and social behavior. Public interest and support for neuroscience research through initiatives like the Decade of the Brain project and increasingly diverse brain-related initiatives have created new interfaces between neuroscience and society. Against this backdrop of dynamic innovation, we set out to examine how different features of neuroscience are depicted in print media. We used the 'guided news' function of the LexisNexis Academic database with keyword searches to find news articles published between 1995 and 2004 in major U.S. and U.K. English-language news sources. We performed searches on headlines, lead paragraphs, and body terms to maximize search yields. All articles were coded for overall tone of coverage, details on reported studies, presence of ethical, legal, and social discussion as well as the emerging interpretations of neuroscience - in the form of neuro-essentialism, neuro-realism, and neuro-policy. We found that print media coverage of the use of neurotechnology for diagnosis or therapy in neuropsychiatric disorders was generally optimistic. We also found that, even within articles that were identified as research reports, many did not provide details about research studies. We also gained additional insights into the previously identified phenomena of neuro-essentialism, neuro-realism, and neuro-policy showing some profound impacts of neuroscience on personal identity and policy-making. Our results highlight the implications of transfer of neuroscience knowledge to society given the substantial and authoritative weight ascribed to neuroscience knowledge in defining who we are. We also discuss the impact of these findings on neuroscience and on the respective contributions of the social sciences and the biological sciences in contemporary psychiatry and mental health policy.
神经科学领域的技术创新为理解大脑功能以及神经精神障碍和社会行为中的大脑活动的神经元基础开辟了新的途径。通过“大脑十年”计划和日益多样化的脑相关计划等举措，公众对神经科学研究的兴趣和支持为神经科学与社会之间创造了新的接口。在这种充满活力的创新背景下，我们着手研究不同的神经科学特征如何在印刷媒体中得到描绘。我们使用 LexisNexis Academic 数据库的“引导新闻”功能，通过关键词搜索，在美国和英国主要的英语新闻来源中查找了 1995 年至 2004 年间发表的新闻文章。我们在标题、导言和正文关键词上进行了搜索，以最大限度地提高搜索结果。我们对所有文章的报道基调、报道研究的细节、伦理、法律和社会讨论的存在以及神经科学的新兴解释（以神经本质主义、神经现实主义和神经政策的形式）进行了编码。我们发现，印刷媒体对神经技术在神经精神障碍的诊断或治疗中的应用的报道普遍持乐观态度。我们还发现，即使在被确定为研究报告的文章中，许多文章也没有提供关于研究的详细信息。我们还进一步了解了先前确定的神经本质主义、神经现实主义和神经政策现象，这些现象表明神经科学对个人身份和决策制定产生了深远的影响。我们的研究结果强调了鉴于神经科学知识在定义我们是谁方面的重要性和权威性，将神经科学知识向社会转移的意义。我们还讨论了这些发现对神经科学以及社会科学和生物科学在当代精神病学和精神卫生政策中的各自贡献的影响。
