Welcome to the Feinsinger Lab

The Feinsinger lab is located in the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles. Funded by the NIH BRAIN Initiative, our group pursues moral questions at the intersection of philosophy, ethics, and neuroscience. Our current projects focus on the ethics of neural device development and conducting basic neuroscience research with humans. We have particular interests where research and care overlap, including intraoperative research with deep brain stimulation patients, patients in the epilepsy monitoring unity, and brain computer interface research with disabled participants.

Our approach is interdisciplinary. We collaborate with neuroscientists, philosophers, behavioral decision-making scholars, and patient-participants to address both conceptual questions about trust and exploitation, as well as practical questions about engagement, consent, and participant-researcher relationships. To this end, we rely on both conceptual and empirical methodologies, including qualitative interviews, surveys, and philosophical analysis.

We are an ambitious and supportive team committed to providing an inclusive environment. We welcome students from multiple disciplinary backgrounds, who are fascinated by medicine, philosophy, and the brain.