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Neurological conditions—which include dementia, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, and traumatic brain injury—affect as many as one billion people globally. Neuroscience has begun to make important breakthroughs, but we still understand less about our brains than about any other part of our bodies.

President Obama’s Brain (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative will expand our knowledge, which ultimately may enable us to cure major brain disorders. Success at this important task calls for probing the neural networks that normally create—or, in their diseased states, destroy—our cognitive and emotional capacities to function as human beings. Because research on our brains strikes at the very core of who we are, the ethical stakes of interventions could not be higher.

The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, which I chair, released a report on Wednesday calling for the integration of ethics early and throughout the course of neuroscience research. This integration is essential to enable researchers, policy makers, and the public to address the important implications of neuroscience research and its applications for our personal and professional lives. We...