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Neuroscience & Society Network

The Neuroscience & Society Network (NSN) was founded in 2000 to provide a multidisciplinary forum for engagement with the social, political and economic implications of developments in neuroscience, and to build links and dialogue between social scientists, neuroscientists, researchers, clinicians and policy makers.

From June 2007 to June 2012 it worked under the title of the European Neuroscience and Society Network (ENSN), funded by the European Science Foundation. Chaired by Professor Nikolas Rose, the ENSN was convened by researchers in the BIOS centre at the London School of Economics (LSE). The ENSN final report includes an overview of the network's activities and publications between 2007-2013

The NSN is now based within Global Health & Social Medicine at King's College London, and funded since 2013 by the European Science Foundation, the Economic and Social Research Council through the King's Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Centre (KISS DTC), the Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF), and the King’s Together Seed Fund.  

The aim of the network is to continue to bring together a global network of scholars, from the natural, life and social sciences and humanities, with policymakers, science journalists, and when appropriate, citizens to advance the interdisciplinary scholarship, policy application and communication of neuroscience and society research, which is rapidly forcing us to reassess the boundaries of nature and society, biology and culture, social environment and self. It has a special focus on supporting early career scholars and those who wish to work across disciplinary divides.

A series of workshops and conferences have been held in both Europe and North America, bringing together life scientists and social scientists, leading to the publication of books, edited volumes, and various articles and conference reports.

 

Members

Tara Mahfoud

Tara Mahfoud

Research Associate

Sam McLean

Sam McLean

Lecturer in Global Health

Nikolas Rose

Nikolas Rose

Professor of Sociology

James_Rucker_IoPPN

Symposium | 18 February 2019 Making Psilocybin into a Medicine: A Multidisciplinary Approach

A one-day symposium focusing on the development of psilocybin through the clinical trials process and the wider socio-political context surrounding the re-emergence of interest in the clinical utility of psychedelic drugs. Bringing patients, therapists, psychiatrists, scientists, lobbyists and the pharmaceutical industry together, a series of individual speakers set the scene for morning and afternoon plenary discussions surrounding the therapeutic model of psilocybin therapy and the regulatory and logistical challenges of ‘making psilocybin into a medicine’, as it was prior to 1970.

Making Psilocybin into a Medicine: A Multidisciplinary Approach Programme

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Workshop | 11-12 July 2018 The Mercurial Life of Drugs: Psychedelics as models, risk factors, and treatments for mental disorders

This workshop explored what makes psychedelic research unique, different and potent, and how do (or how might) researchers manage this. The workshop consisted of two parts. In Part 1, participants heard presentations from three speakers: 1) Nicolas Langlitz, an anthropologist from the New School for Social Research, discussed his ethnographic work with two neuroscience labs involved in the revival of psychedelic drugs research; 2) James Rucker, a clinical scientist at the IoPPN, discussed the psilocybin trials in the treatment of depression that he is conducting at King’s; and 3) Rosalind Watts, a clinical psychologist at Imperial College London, detailed the narrative accounts of patients following psilocybin treatment. In Part 2, participants divided into two working groups to discuss questions organised into three themes: Pathways, Policy, and Narratives. They came together for a plenary session to share ideas from the smaller group discussions and about possible research collaborations. In the wrap-up, we discussed these potential research ideas in more detail, as well as any interdisciplinary insights that emerged over the course of the workshop which might provide pathways forward.

The Mercurial Life of Drugs: Psychedelics as models, risk factors, and treatments for mental disorders Programme

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Workshop | 30 October 2017 Towards Neuro-Social Science: Exploring novel methods for multidisciplinary collaboration

In the first part of the event, we heard from Professor Nikolas Rose (Professor of Sociology at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, KCL), Sir Robin Murray (Professor of Psychiatric Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, KCL), Dr Daniel Glaser (Director, Science Gallery London, KCL) and Sir John Strang (Head of the Addictions Department at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, KCL). The panel reflected on experiences with multi- and interdisciplinary collaborations, and how collaborations between the social sciences, humanities, neurosciences and psychiatry can continue to develop. In the second part, with the help of a facilitator, we addressed the following questions: 1) What is the brain to you? 2) Neuroscience or neurosciences?

Towards Neuro-Social Science: Exploring novel methods for multidisciplinary collaboration Programme

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Workshop | 7-8 April 2016 Vital Brains: The Making and Use of Models in Neuroscience

Using models to understand the human brain is hardly new. The practice has been used widely in the natural and life sciences since the 1800s, and continues today. Yet very little study by social scientists has been dedicated to how the neurosciences develop and use models to better understand what the brain is and how it works, including the complex entanglements between brains and the social. The aim of the workshop was to understand the problems associated with modelling the brain by exploring the history and use of physical models of the brain, the development of digital models and simulations of the brain, and the development and use of animal models in neuroscience. The workshop tackled four key questions: 1) How are brain models created and used in teaching and research? 2) What are the conceptual benefits, and limits of abstracting the brain from its context? 3) What would a ‘vital’ model of the brain look like? and 4) What are the implications of brain modelling for the social?

Vital Brains: The Making and Use of Models in Neuroscience Programme

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Symposium | 11 December 2014 Towards Neuro-Social Science: The Politics and Pragmatics of Collaboration

Different forms of exchange between neuroscientists, social scientists, and humanities scholars have been emerging, and these have led to experimentation with concepts of nature and culture, biology and society, and affect and cognition, amongst others. There are, however, few accounts of how such collaborations can or have been done, or what it is like to experience them. The “Towards Neuro-Social Science” symposium invited researchers invested and engaged in these interdisciplinary exchanges to explore the ‘politics and pragmatics’ of collaboration between the social sciences, humanities and neurosciences.

Towards Neuro-Social Science: The Politices and Pragmatics of Collaboration Programme

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Workshop | 10 July 2014 Neuro-Social Innovation: Conditions and Impact

An interdisciplinary workshop with junior and senior researchers from across KCL Schools and Departments to discuss neuro-social innovation and its impact. The dialogue included plenary sessions and breakout groups. The plenary sessions included provocations from high-profile speakers – from the social sciences, neurosciences and public policy – each with a unique perspective on the future of neuro-social innovation, the value of creating it, and the challenge of translating it into practice. The provocations included reflections on the future of neuro-social innovation, with a focus on the conditions that need to be fostered for it to flourish and have impact beyond the academy. This included practical ‘how to’ training in neuro-social innovation. Drawing on their personal experience, the speakers applied their expertise, methods and concepts to a specific policy challenge to demonstrate what a neuro-social innovation could look like and how it can be done.

Neuro-Social Innovation: Conditions and impact programme

Books

Mahfoud, T., S. McLean, and N. Rose, eds. (2017). Vital Models: The Making and Use of Models in the Brain Science. Progress in Brain Research Vol 233, Elsevier. https://www.sciencedirect.com/bookseries/progress-in-brain-research/vol/233

 

Callard, F. and D. Fitzgerald (2015). Rethinking Interdisciplinarity across the Social Sciences and Neurosciences. Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137407955

 

Rose, N. and J.M. Abi-Rached (2013). Neuro: The New Brain Sciences and the Management of the Mind. Princeton University Press. https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691149615/neuro

 

Peer-Reviewed Articles

 

Fitzgerald, D., Littlefield, M. M., Knudsen, K. J., Tonks, J., & Dietz, M. J. (2014). “Ambivalence, equivocation and the politics of experimental knowledge: A transdisciplinary neuroscience encounter.” Social Studies of Science, 44(5), 701–721. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312714531473

 

Littlefield, M. M., Fitzgerald, D., Knudsen, K. J., Tonks, J., & Dietz, M. J. (2014). “Contextualizing neuro-collaborations: reflections on a transdisciplinary fMRI lie detection experiment.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8:149. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00149

 

Workshop Reports

 Pokorny J, De Meyer K, Haueis P, Mahfoud T, McLean S. The Mercurial Life of Drugs: Psychedelics as models, risk factors, and treatments for mental disorders. Somatosphere. 2018. http://somatosphere.net/2018/10/the-mercurial-life-of-drugs.html

 

Mahfoud T, McLean S. Towards Neuro-Social Science: The Politics and Pragmatics of Collaboration. Somatosphere. 2015. http://somatosphere.net/2015/06/towards-neuro-social-science-the-politics-and-pragmatics-of-collaboration.html

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