Material Identity and Material Continuity
Introducing the concept of constitutive predicates into logic brings another noteworthy consequence Unless we adopt it, there is for any P which is also Q always an identical Q which is also P. This is no longer the case if we bring constitutive predicates into play to avoid having all objects existing persisting eternally. Certainly, if we are faced with a constituted P that happens to be Q, we can still say that there's also a constituted Q which is, accidentally, P. However, on logical...
Die Legitimitt genuin medizinischer Verfahren
F r die erste Frage halten wir als Pr misse fest, dass der Begriff der Medizin zumindest in einer Hinsicht normativ zu verstehen ist Alle indizierten medizinischen Ma nahmen haben eine normative Eigenschaft gemeinsam, n mlich die, im jeweiligen Kontext legitim zu sein. Um diese Auffassung weiter zu erl utern, unterscheiden wir zwischen dem gesellschaftlichen in irgendeiner Weise ffentlich finanzierten Gesamtsystem Medizin einerseits und medizinischem Handeln als einer interpersonellen Praxis...
Elektrische Hirnstimulation bei psychiatrischen Strungen
Bei der elektrischen Hirnstimulation werden Elektroden in das Gehirn implantiert, um durch hochfrequenten elektrischen Strom die Symptome von Patienten mit Bewegungsst rungen wie z.B. beim Morbus Parkinson oder schweren psychiatrischen Erkrankungen, die sich nicht medikament s beherrschen lassen, zu verringern. W hrend fr her h ufig chirurgische Methoden zur lokalen Zerst rung von Nervengewebe in tief gelegenen Hirnregionen angewendet wurden, bevorzugen die meisten Neurochirurgen derzeit die...
Visual Implants
Although the first attempts to restore vision in blind patients date back to the same year as those for auditory implantation, clinical application of this technology is lagging somewhat behind. This may be partially due to the considerably higher complexity of the visual compared to the auditory system. While the auditory nerve of a young, healthy, normally-hearing individual contains approximately 30,000 nerve fibres originating from the same number of receptor cells, the visual pathway...
List of Authors
Dr. Gerard Boer, M.Sc. degree in biochemistry at the University of Amsterdam in 1970. Thereafter working at the Netherlands Central Institute for Brain Research in Amsterdam on a project investigating the role of the glial cells of the neural lobe in the hormone release process of the hypothalamo-neurohypophyseal neurosecretory system, which resulted in a Ph.D. degree in medicine at the University of Amsterdam in 1976. From 1976 onwards, the main basic research topics, first as investigator...
Current Limitations Possible Solutions and Enhancement Technologies
Linking the human nervous system and brain directly to a computer opens up innumerable possibilities, not only in the future world of medicine, but also as a potential way of technically evolving all humans. This, however, presents something of an ethical problem. Nevertheless, the only way to actually find out what is realistically possible and what is not is to carry out practical experimentation using implant technology and to witness the results. Implants have a general disadvantage over...
Focal High Frequency Electrical Brain Stimulation
During the past decades focal high frequency electrical stimulation of the human brain has been used in order to treat the symptoms of several neurological disorders, including Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, dystonia, epilepsy and Tourette's syndrome. In the human brain neuronal circuitries have been detected which are responsible for motor control, others enable reception of information from the different sense organs vision, hearing, sensation, taste, smell , still others are...
Psychological Criteria of Personal Identity I Memory
The reason why the brain was considered as pertinent to personal identity in the first place is that we correctly, in all probability assume that it embodies the psychic functions we are looking for cognitive abilities and character traits. Accordingly, our investigation so far shows that it is rather these abilities and traits themselves we have to consider, not their contingent physical implementation. We therefore continue by addressing ourselves to psychological criteria of personal...
Neuroprothetik des zentralen Nervensystems
Es ist in der Medizin bereits heute durchaus blich, direkte Verbindungen zwischen elektronischen Ger ten und dem zentralen Nervensystem herzustellen. Diese Technologie enth lt zugleich - Aussichten auf zuk nftige medizinische Anwendungen, - Potential im Hinblick auf das Enhancement menschlicher F higkeiten, - Raum f r eine Vielzahl blo er Spekulationen, die sich in Science-FictionRomanen und -Filmen niederschlagen. Sowohl f r die klare Unterscheidung dieser verschiedenen Aspekte als auch f r...
Chemical Restraint
In the treatment of children, and in a different way also in the treatment of mentally retarded people or people suffering from dementia, questions of patient choice will become increasingly important as already discussed in the example of atypical neuroleptics. Who can, and should, consent to treatment How important is the assent of the person who has to tolerate the treatment Can parents decide on preventative interventions or on enhancement in children whilst the children are still too young...
Direct and Indirect Gene Transfer in the Brain
Modification of the gene expression of cells in a living organ became possible with the development of viral vectors - genetically modified viruses that infect a cell, but cannot replicate nor evoke its disease effects - that can deliver a therapeutic gene in a target cell. This form of gene transfer aims to i restore protein expression in a hereditary failing molecular or cellular process, ii compensate for the loss of particular protein expression in degenerative diseases or iii over express...
Schizophrenia ICD10 F2x
Goes along with thought disturbances, delusions and affective impairment without intellectual disabilities. Symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, so-called negative symptoms such as affective flattening, alogia or avolition , formal thought disorder, feelings of thought control from outside and behavioural changes of the person often leading to social withdrawal. Symptoms have to be present for at least one month. Often a prodromal phase can be seen in adolescents before the onset of...
Psychological Criteria of Personal Identity II PersonalityCharacter
Now the crucial question is Is episodic memory continuity not only necessary, but also sufficient for personal identity over time 106 Instances of radical personality change, as most strikingly exemplified by the fictional character s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, render this doubtful In Stevenson's novel, episodic memory seems to remain unaffected through the back and forth transformations between Jekyll and Hyde. After all, Dr. Jekyll at least initially takes delight in living out his dark side,...
The Brain is Seat of the Human Mind
There is no doubt that the central nervous system CNS , and in particular the brain, is the seat of the biological processes that underlie human identity and personality, and thus a person's character and mental capacities. It is of central importance for our behaviour, perceptions, thoughts and feelings and regulates body functions such as heart rate, muscle responses and control of our immune system. It works in conjunction with both our bodies and the outside world. It is the organ of our...
Minimising Harm by Careful Study Design
Clinical research is subject to legislation in which informed consent see below 7.2.3 and the evaluation by a medical ethics committee play critical roles in establishing which procedures may be undertaken. This is no different for the new types of brain intervention that were reviewed in this study. However, the particular risk of them causing subtle mental side effects means that special care must be taken in designing studies. Not only should clinical trials not be performed when...