Law, neuroscience, and authenticity by design: protecting users’ minds in the digital sphere

Contemporary digital technologies reshape human deliberation through micro-targeting, persuasive design, and algorithmic systems capable of anticipating and steering behaviour. Cognitive autonomy thus emerges as a central legal value. The analysis of the European normative framework, correlated with recent literature in neuroscience and behavioural economics, highlights the need to recognise mental integrity as an autonomous object of legal protection. Existing regulations structure data protection, digital competition, and commercial practices, while the dynamics of willformation call for distinct regulatory articulation. The article advances a transdisciplinary vision grounded in legal analysis, scientific knowledge, and technological design within a unified conceptual framework. The concept of Authenticity-by-Design is formulated as an operational model oriented toward cognitive impact assessments, standards of neutral design, and mechanisms of algorithmic transparency. Mental autonomy is conceptualised as an expression of dignity and a structural condition of freedom in an algorithmic society.