Psychological Continuity & Personality Change
Psychological continuity — proposed by Ienca and Andorno as a neuroright — is the interest in preserving the coherence and continuity of one's personality, memories, and mental dispositions against unconsented disruption by neurotechnology. It provides the empirical and normative anchor for identity-and-authenticity concerns.
The paradigm case is personality change after neuromodulation. Case reports and qualitative studies of deep brain stimulation (for Parkinson's disease, OCD, or depression) describe altered mood, impulsivity, risk-taking, or sense of self; the evidence is heterogeneous and methodologically contested, with some patients reporting restored authenticity and others estrangement. Disentangling disease effects, medication changes, life adjustment, and direct stimulation effects is difficult, so strong causal claims should be made cautiously.
In qualitative DBS studies some patients say they feel restored to their 'old self,' while others report becoming a person their family no longer recognizes — the same intervention can be experienced as protecting or as breaching psychological continuity.
Continuity is judged from the patient's lived experience, not the direction of change.
'Personality change' is easily sensationalized; rigorous work uses validated measures, pre/post and on/off designs, and patient narratives together, and treats both positive and negative changes as ethically relevant.