Mental Augmentation: A New Frontier for Human Rights


The Neurorights Foundation, the NeuroTechnology Center at Columbia University, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation are pleased to invite you to a forthcoming symposium on the future of mental augmentation and human rights. ‎

Date: Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Time: 11:00 am – 3:45 pm EST / 17:00 – 21:45 CET
Location: Online (Zoom Webinar)

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Neurotechnologies are rapidly advancing in technical capacity and market availability. These advances bring significant promise of improvements to mental and physical functioning, with growing ability to both restore neurological deficiencies and enhance cognitive capacities beyond innate human limits. However, this same progress raises profound human rights concerns, particularly with regard to mental augmentation.  

Mental augmentation is a fast-emerging field that lacks formal boundaries and consensus regarding definitions and scope. For example, scholars debate whether restoring lost cognitive functions constitutes enhancement or medical treatment. For the purposes of this symposium, mental augmentation refers broadly to efforts aimed at improving human cognition and behavior through direct recording and manipulation of neural processes. Utilizing neurotechnologies, mental augmentation increasingly involves interventions aimed at enhancing cognitive and emotional functioning such as memory, attention, sensation, and problem-solving beyond innate capabilities. 

This symposium considers the potential and perils of technologies that are capable of enhancing human cognition and behavior, focusing on international human rights frameworks. As the lines between therapeutic medical applications and consumer-driven cognitive enhancements increasingly blur in response to growing investment and expanding market applications, it is urgently necessary to interrogate the implications of mental augmentation on human rights and the ways in which the international human rights system can address the unique challenges posed by technologies capable of enhancing the human brain.

Following opening remarks by Rafael Yuste (Director, NeuroTechnology Center, Columbia University; Chair, Neurorights Foundation), our distinguished speakers of leading neuroscientists, tech developers, policymakers, and human rights experts will explore the implications of mental augmentation across various domains:

Panel 1: Health Applications of Neurotechnologies (11:15 – 12:15 pm EST)
Neurotechnologies have long been used in medical settings to improve patient care and pioneer scientific breakthroughs related to neural functioning and neurological disorders. The health-based applications of neurotechnology are expansive, encompassing both research tools designed to increase understanding of brain functioning as well as clinical tools of treatment and rehabilitation. Mental augmentation in the medical context has already shown great promise, including treating seizure disorders, investigating brain plasticity, and assisting stroke survivors and people with degenerative diseases to regain mobility or communicate through brain-computer interfaces after losing the ability to speak. Meanwhile, companies like Neuralink and Synchron are developing implantable technologies designed for the consumer market, while a host of smaller companies have wellness related products available for purchase. What implications does the growing ability to restore neurological deficiencies and enhance cognitive capacities beyond natural human limits have on human rights, including the rights to health and science? How do neural interventions aimed at maintaining or restoring health complicate questions of consent, privacy, fairness, dignity, full development, and access? Which human rights risks and opportunities does mental augmentation pose to patients and healthcare providers?

Speakers: Michelle Hampson (Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale School of Medicine), Alvaro Pascual-Leone (Professor of Neurology and Director of the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, Harvard Medical School), Dainius Pūras (Fmr. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health)

Moderator: Sean Pauzauskie (Neurologist, University of Colorado Health; Medical Director, Neurorights Foundation)

Panel 2: Consumer Neurotechnologies (12:25 – 1:25 pm EST)
No longer confined to medical settings, neurotechnologies are rapidly expanding into the consumer sphere, with a range of wearable products available for purchase. While many of these products are designed to gather information about brain functioning, others are designed to enhance cognitive functions, with the goal of augmenting the human nervous system. The advent of consumer neurotechnology, combined with the growing interest in neural augmentation by industry actors, highlights a changing landscape of innovation, privacy, and agency that will have enormous implications on both consumers and the neurotechnology market broadly. In which ways do technologies capable of influencing brain activity demand urgent action? What role do different stakeholders, from regulators to industry to consumers themselves, have in safeguarding this space and ensuring the responsible development of augmentative technologies? How can existing best practices and deficiencies in the consumer neurotechnology space inform a future of mental augmentation that is grounded in human rights protection?

Speakers: Josh Becker (California State Senator; Author, The California Neurorights Act), Tim Engelhardt (Senior Legal Advisor, Digital Technology Team, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights), Ana Maiques (Co-founder & CEO, Neuroelectrics)

Moderator: Stephen Damianos (Executive Director, Neurorights Foundation)

Panel 3: National Security Applications of Neurotechnologies (1:25 – 2:25 pm EST)
The applications of neurotechnology are not limited to healthcare settings or the consumer market. Governments and militaries around the world are investing significant resources into researching and developing neurotechnologies, with the aim of understanding both the relevance and risks of neurotechnology to national security. The question of mental augmentation is particularly pertinent to military settings, with brain-computer interfaces offering the potential to, among other things, monitor soldiers’ physical and mental states in real time, enhance alertness and minimize the need for sleep, increase awareness and performance in combat settings, link brains to weapons and prosthetics, operate autonomous weapons systems, and access or intercept data. At the same time, nefarious actors may deploy neurotechnologies for purposes of repression, terrorism, and neurowarfare. How will forms of mental augmentation change the national security landscape, and the ability of citizens and soldiers to protect themselves from human rights violations? What are the most pressing legal and human rights issues raised by the development and deployment of dual-use neurotechnologies? What role do regulators, governments, militaries, and members of industry have in ensuring that augmentative technologies are deployed in a safe and rights-respecting manner?

Speakers: Bill Hannas (Lead Analyst, Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Georgetown University), Claude Heller (Chairperson, UN Committee Against Torture), Douglas Weber (Akhtar and Bhutta Professor, Neuroscience Institute and Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University)

Additional Speaker to Be Announced

Moderator: Jared Genser (Senior Tech Fellow, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard University; General Counsel, Neurorights Foundation)

Panel 4: Access to Mental Augmentation (2:35 – 3:35 pm EST)
The growing technical capacity and market availability of neurotechnologies brings promise of improvements to mental and physical functioning. This will benefit a range of consumers, but it will unlikely benefit them equally: differences in race, socioeconomic status, and geography, among other factors, will splinter the ability of all people to share in the benefits of augmentative technologies. At the same time, access to mental augmentation may lead to different social, professional, educational, and economic outcomes, meaning that augmentative technologies will shape differential outcomes and widen gaps between different people or communities. How can the international community promote equitable access to advances in neuroscience and technological innovation? Which steps can be taken to ensure that mental augmentation promotes rather than threatens human rights, dignity, and diversity? Which policies and practices would allow for augmentative technologies to meaningfully advance without widening pre-existing inequalities or eroding diversity?

Speakers: Milena Costas Trascasas (Member, UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee), Miyeon Kim (Member and Fmr. Vice-Chair, UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities), Mikel Mancisidor (Fmr. Vice-Chair, UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights)

Moderator: Łukasz Szoszkiewicz (Fulbright Visiting Scholar, NeuroTechnology Center, Columbia University; Director of European Affairs, Neurorights Foundation)

We look forward to sharing more details in the coming weeks, including additional speakers. In the meantime, please save the date and pass along this invitation to any colleagues or collaborators who might be interested in joining! We hope to see you in March.

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Mental Augmentation: A New Frontier for Human Rights

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