title: More education, less administration: reflections of neuroimagers' attitudes to ethics through the qualitative looking glass.
abstract: In follow-up to a large-scale ethics survey of neuroscientists whose research involves neuroimaging, brain stimulation and imaging genetics, we conducted focus groups and interviews to explore their sense of responsibility about integrating ethics into neuroimaging and readiness to adopt new ethics strategies as part of their research. Safety, trust and virtue were key motivators for incorporating ethics into neuroimaging research. Managing incidental findings emerged as a predominant daily challenge for faculty, while student reports focused on the malleability of neuroimaging data and scientific integrity. The most frequently cited barrier was time and administrative burden associated with the ethics review process. Lack of scholarly training in ethics also emerged as a major barrier. Participants constructively offered remedies to these challenges: development and dissemination of best practices and standardized ethics review for minimally invasive neuroimaging protocols. Students in particular, urged changes to curricula to include early, focused training in ethics.
authors.affiliation: National Core for Neuroethics, Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, The University of British Columbia, 2211 Wesbrook Mall, Koerner S124, Vancouver, BC, V6T 2B5, Canada. angie.kehagia@gmail.com
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Kehagia
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tairyan
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Federico
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Glover
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Illes
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000941:ethics*; D003479:Curriculum; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000941:ethics*; D032984:Ethics, Research / Q000193:education; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D009042:Motivation; D009934:Organization and Administration