Neurotechnological cognitive enhancement and human rights: a complex dynamic between empowerment and constraint

In recent decades, neurotechnological cognitive enhancers (NCEs), including neurofeedback systems and neurostimulation devices, have attracted increasing attention due to their potential to enhance human cognition. Developments in this field of technology raise significant ethical challenges that warrant careful reflection from a human rights perspective. Currently, human rights experts and international institutions are actively examining how neurotechnological interventions affecting mental states, capacities, and processes impact human rights and fundamental freedoms. Within these efforts, however, greater attention must be paid to the positive dimension of human rights, examining whether and to what extent human rights frameworks support individuals' freedom to use neurotechnologies to enhance their mental capacities. This article addresses that question by first outlining the concept of cognitive enhancement and assessing the current and anticipated development of NCEs. It then explores the tension between empowerment and constraint, analysing how human rights both support the use of NCEs and potentially justify limitations on that freedom. In doing so, it examines the existence and scope of a right to mental self-determination, the role of human dignity, and the conditions under which restrictions on NCE may be justified.