The Center for Neural Engineering hosted "Implanting Change: The Ethics of Neural Prosthetics" at the University Park campus on August 26-28, 2007. Center for Neural Engineering Director and conference organizer Dr. Steven Schiff notes "the conference was an opportunity for intensive dialogue among leading thinkers to discuss the rapidly evolving ethical dilemmas related to neural implants. The conference explored the most pressing ethical issues for clinicians, researchers, and recipients of neural prosthetics including new human subjects protections required for neural prosthetics research, evaluations of the risks and benefits for neural prosthetic therapies, enhancements which lie beyond the boundaries of medical care, and the legal, ethical, economic and social implications of neural prosthetics.

Leading experts in the fields of neuroscience and ethics speakers were Nicholas Schiff, Alim Louis Benabid, Melind Deoganokar, Martha Farah, Joseph Fins, Paul Ford, Hank Greely, Benjamin Greenberg, Jaimie Henderson, Kristen Hessler, Scott Kim, Jonathan H. Marks, Lisa Marshall, Helen Mayberg, Isaac Mwase, Imad Najm, Ken Curley, Leigh Hockberg and Steven Schiff.

Conference sponsors included NIH, Penn State University's Huck Institutes for the Life Sciences, Rock Ethics Institute, Social
Science Research Institute, College of Engineering, Department of Engineering Science & Mechanics, Department of Anthropology, Science Technology & Society Program, Eberly College of Science, Penn State College of Medicine, Department of Neural and Behavioral
Sciences, Department of Neurology, and Department of Neurosurgery.