Science is often claimed to benefit the society that pays for it, but individual researchers' enthusiasm for this ideal varies widely. Some scientists consider the potential practical benefits of their work only when it comes time to write grant applications, while others are driven by a passion to have a direct influence on the world outside the laboratory. This special supplement grew out of our curiosity about how neuroscience has contributed to improving the quality of people's lives.
The core of the issue is fifteen review articles that discuss recent progress toward a variety of practical goals, along with the remaining scientific and technical challenges that will need to be met to achieve them. We have tried to define 'benefits' as broadly as possible. Many of the reviews concentrate on fields with the explicit aim of ameliorating or curing major neurological problems (neurodegenerative diseases, spinal cord injury, chronic pain) or behavioral disorders (addiction, depression, sleep problems, dyslexia). It can be difficult to draw the line between treating dysfunction and the potential for improving normal function, for instance in the areas of memory enhancement, brain–computer interfaces and the biotechnology of taste and smell. Such efforts raise important ethical issues about the appropriate limits of intervention in basically healthy people, which have received relatively little attention among neuroscientists to date. We were also interested in how basic research can lead to serendipitous benefits like improved technology, and so this volume also contains articles on virtual reality and face recognition software.
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