Ethics

Call for Papers: Special Issue on Addiction Neuroethics

By Neil Levy

?Addiction Neuroethics?

Special Issue of Neuroethics (Springer)

Guest Editors:
Wayne Hall
School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Australia

Craig Fry
Centre for Applied Philosophy & Public Ethics, University of Melbourne, Australia

Adrian Carter
School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Australia

Background
Innovations in neuroscience and related fields are increasingly being applied to reveal the role of the brain in drug addiction, and the impact of drug use upon brain function, human decisions about drug use and behaviour related to drug use. Advances in this area potentially have widespread implications for public policy and the treatment of people who use drugs. Addiction neuroscience also raises fundamental questions about free will, self-control, responsibility, identity and self-understanding which are crucial for the practical translation of this new science.

Several major international reviews have been undertaken in this area since 2004 (e.g. World Health Organisation, UK Foresight Project, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, UK Academy of Medical Sciences, and Australian Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy). Interdisciplinary approaches to the conduct and application of addiction neuroscience are developing rapidly in the North America and Europe. Important work is also emerging in Australia and the wider Asia-Pacific region.

Addiction neuroscience is a rapidly developing field. Neuroethics is also a burgeoning specialty within this field that examines the ethical and social implications of addiction neuroscience. It is time to map the issues and examine the progress made to date in these exciting areas.

Purpose & Focus
The purpose of this Addiction Neuroethics theme issue is to bring together the work and opinions of leading philosophers, neuroscientists, social scientists and other scholars. Our aim is to take stock of the current science and thinking in this area. We hope to facilitate an interdisciplinary discussion of the implications of addiction neuroscience for treatment, social policy, questions of legal responsibility, self-understanding, and our understanding of free agency and self-control.

We are seeking contributions from people from a range of disciplines and settings including but not limited to: neuroscience; psychology; philosophy; mental health; law; social science; public health; addiction; community/consumer; government. We are especially interested in contributions co-authored by people from different disciplines and with different professional perspectives.

Examples of the topics this special issue of Neuroethics might include are:
?    Neurocognitive dysfunction and drug dependence
?    Public perceptions and ?patient? self understanding of addiction neuroscience
?    Self control, addiction and implications for policy and treatment
?    Theories of the 'good life' in addiction neuroscience research and clinical practice
?    Cognitive styles and decision making in addiction
?    Models of habits and personality in understanding addiction
?    Ethics of addiction neuroscience and neuroscience of ethics
?    Policy and treatment implications of addiction neuroscience
?    Interdisciplinary understandings of addiction neuroscience

Contributions may focus on alcohol, tobacco or illicit drugs. We take a broad view of ?addiction? (i.e. taking it to include gambling, eating and other putative ?consumptive? disorders), providing that there is a link to the potential contribution of neuroscience to understanding and responding to the problem of addiction.

Format & Process
The Guest Editors of this theme issue will consider proposals for original papers not previously published or under consideration elsewhere. Proposals will be accepted for both empirical and review papers and brief communications. Editorial and Commentary pieces responding to select papers may also be invited.

A brief outline of the proposed paper, including contributing authors and affiliations, should be submitted directly to the Guest Editors by the deadline of 31 July 2009. Proposals should be a maximum of 300 words.

The Guest Editors? decisions on submitted proposals will be communicated to all prospective authors by 31 August 2009. An invitation to submit a full paper does not guarantee acceptance and publication in the theme issue. All full papers submitted will be independently peer reviewed, and Guest Editor decisions made on the basis of peer assessments.

Invited full manuscripts for the Addiction Neuroethics theme issue will be due by 30 November 2009. These will need to be formatted according to Neuroethics author guidelines, and submitted using the journal?s online manuscript submission system (see http://www.editorialmanager.com/NERO). Publication of this theme issue will be in 2010.

About the Journal ? Neuroethics

http://www.springer.com/philosophy/ethics/journal/12152

Neuroethics is a forum for interdisciplinary studies in neuroethics and related issues in the sciences of the mind. The focus is on ethical issues posed by new technologies developed via neuroscience, such as psycho-pharmaceuticals and other ways of intervening in the mind; the practice of neuroscience itself, including problems posed by incidental findings in imaging work on research subjects; regulation of neuroscientific technologies, and ways in which the sciences of the mind illuminate traditional moral and philosophical problems, such as the nature of free will and moral responsibility, self-deception, weakness of the will and the nature of personhood.

This important publication covers the dual areas of neuroethics: the ethics of neuroscience and the neuroscience of ethics. It offers comprehensive bibliographies, reviews of significant literature, information on activities including partial proceedings of selected meetings, and an opinions section for reader commentaries.

Queries about the Special Issue
Prof Wayne Hall, University of Queensland, Australia w.hall@sph.uq.edu.au
Dr Craig Fry, University of Melbourne, Australia craig.fry@mcri.edu.au

Full post as published by Neuroethics and Law on June 10, 2009 (boomark / email).