Neuroethics encompasses the ethical issues raised by neuroscience as it affects our understanding of the world & of ourselves in the world. e.g., if everything we do is physically caused by our brains, which are in turn a product of our genes & our life experiences, how can we be held responsible for our actions?

A crime in the US requires a "guilty act" & a "guilty mind". As neuropsychiatric evaluations have become more commonly used in the criminal justice system & neuroimaging technologies have given us a more direct way of viewing brain injuries, scholars have cautioned that this could lead to the inability to hold anyone criminally responsible for their actions. In this way, neuroimaging evidence could suggest that there is no free will & each action a person makes is simply the product of past actions & biological impulses that are out of our control.

The question of whether & how personal autonomy is compatible with neuroethics & the responsibility of neuroscientists to society & the state is a central one for neuroethics.

In late 2013 U.S. President Barack Obama made recommendations to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues as part of his $100 million Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative.