Neuroethics, Neurorights, Agency & Governance

Mental Integrity

Mental integrity is the right to protect the mind from unauthorized, harmful alteration of its contents or processes. Where mental privacy governs reading, mental integrity governs writing — non-consensual or malicious modification of neural function, whether by stimulation, neurofeedback, closed-loop devices, or manipulation of a decoder.

It has a legal foothold: Article 3 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights protects the right to physical and mental integrity. In neurotechnology the concern sharpens because bidirectional devices (for example closed-loop DBS or cortical microstimulation) can directly change perception, mood, or behavior, and because a compromised or biased algorithm can alter what the user experiences without any overt physical intrusion.

A closed-loop stimulator that adjusts its output from a decoded biomarker could, if mis-tuned or maliciously altered, shift a patient's affect or impulse control — a violation of mental integrity even though no tissue is damaged.

Harm on the write side need not be physical to count as a breach of integrity.

Also called
right to mental integritypsychological integrity心理完整性