Plasticity in parental care: Interspecific competitor cues shape biparental cooperation in a burying beetle.

Neurotechnology innovation is creating promising opportunities to alleviate the global burden of neurological and psychiatric diseases []. Annually, billions of dollars in private investment and public funding are being poured into the development of novel devices for treating these conditions []. This study focuses on implantable neural devices: a family of complex, specialised, multi-component medical devices mostly used to treat intractable and debilitating manifestations of disease. These devices function by modulating, monitoring and/or decoding the activity of the central or peripheral nervous system. Paradigmatic implantable neural devices include deep brain stimulation (DBS) for treating movement disorders (e.g., Parkinson’s disease) and severe psychiatric conditions [, ]; and brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that enable direct communication between the brain and an external device by recording, decoding, or stimulating neural activity. Investigational BCI systems have been shown to restore movement and enable limited pixelated vision in blind individuals [], as well as provide new means of communication and interacting with the world [–]. Clinical investigations of implantable neural devices often have study designs that include inpatient hospital stays for device-related surgeries and several years of outpatient follow-up for device monitoring [–]. One underaddressed ethical consideration that arises from the nature of how these trials are designed is whether, and to what extent, participants enrolled in clinical trials should be supported to continue using implantable devices after the trial has ended (whether planned or prematurely). Commentators agree on a few key points. For example, there is general agreement that research participants – who accept considerable risks and burdens to participate in trials of implantable systems – must be informed about what arrangements for post-trial support will be in place, and must not be discharged from the trials without some follow up support [–].