Dual-Use Neurotechnology
Dual-use refers to neurotechnology developed for benign or therapeutic purposes that can also be applied to harmful ends — military, security, interrogation, coercive persuasion, or surveillance. Both reading tools (covert state detection, deception detection, attention monitoring) and writing tools (stimulation for performance modification or incapacitation) raise dual-use concerns, and much foundational research is funded by defense agencies.
The dilemma is that the same capability that restores communication or treats disease can degrade autonomy if repurposed without consent. Governance responses include export controls, research-ethics review that considers foreseeable misuse, professional norms against weaponization, and international dialogue — while recognizing that broad, generative technologies resist simple prohibition.
A recognition-based memory detector developed to assess awareness in unresponsive patients could be repurposed as an interrogation tool to probe whether a suspect recognizes a weapon or location — the same P300-based method, a very different use.
One recognition probe, two uses — clinical assessment or coercive interrogation.
Dual-use overlaps with neurosecurity (defense against attacks) but is broader: it concerns the intended repurposing of neurotech itself, not just adversarial exploitation of a device.