The possibility of brain transplants and its impacts
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Hmmm... brain transplants seem very unnecessarily gory and difficult. It would be messy disconnecting a brain from a body, especially parts from places that are supposedly responsible for personality and memories, I'm studying Biological Psychology in a class right now and we just don't know what accounts for certain functions.
For example, you take out the entire prefrontal cortex, plus the hippocampus. First one is personality and thinking, second is memory I think and learning. BUT you need your personal cerebellum at the back of your head too since that's where your piano playing or your ability to dance is. And what if the part that processes your libido is off? All sorts of interesting "personality changes" could happen there. I'm sure we've all seen those helpless big-breasted beauties succumb to the opposite gender's pheromones or to some sort of aphrodisiac. This would be like an internal aphrodisiac that won't turn off or perhaps a far lower one.
And don't get me started on where we think our memories are stored (rather than processed and sent to storage which is what the hippocampus does). We have NO IDEA. Ask any Alzheimer's researcher, and they'll just tear up. I believe most experts lean towards memory actually being stored in the cerebral cortex, which is like, the entire outer layer of your brain.
Stem cells I agree with, it's like a smart app that repairs a computer. Better than tinkering with the hard drive itself.
For example, you take out the entire prefrontal cortex, plus the hippocampus. First one is personality and thinking, second is memory I think and learning. BUT you need your personal cerebellum at the back of your head too since that's where your piano playing or your ability to dance is. And what if the part that processes your libido is off? All sorts of interesting "personality changes" could happen there. I'm sure we've all seen those helpless big-breasted beauties succumb to the opposite gender's pheromones or to some sort of aphrodisiac. This would be like an internal aphrodisiac that won't turn off or perhaps a far lower one.
And don't get me started on where we think our memories are stored (rather than processed and sent to storage which is what the hippocampus does). We have NO IDEA. Ask any Alzheimer's researcher, and they'll just tear up. I believe most experts lean towards memory actually being stored in the cerebral cortex, which is like, the entire outer layer of your brain.
Stem cells I agree with, it's like a smart app that repairs a computer. Better than tinkering with the hard drive itself.
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Flaser wrote...
Very... very unlikely for the foreseeable, close future. Transplanting the brain would induce massive trauma on the organ, so the procedure would lead to even further brain damage. We're a long way away from cloning even organs, so a full body replacement is even further away.The closest thing that has a chance is stem cell therapy. Stem cells are quite similar to the state the cells of a fetus are in, i.e. they can turn into various different *kinds* of cells depending on their environment. How stem cells differentiate and turn into muscle, skin or cells of organs is not yet perfectly understood, but we're getting there.
There have already been some successful, experimental therapies with stem cells. If you want your relative to get better, support stem cell research.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/3485752/First-woman-to-have-stem-cell-organ-transplant-Exclusive-interview.html
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Flaser
OCD Hentai Collector
Anesthetize wrote...
Flaser wrote...
Very... very unlikely for the foreseeable, close future. Transplanting the brain would induce massive trauma on the organ, so the procedure would lead to even further brain damage. We're a long way away from cloning even organs, so a full body replacement is even further away.The closest thing that has a chance is stem cell therapy. Stem cells are quite similar to the state the cells of a fetus are in, i.e. they can turn into various different *kinds* of cells depending on their environment. How stem cells differentiate and turn into muscle, skin or cells of organs is not yet perfectly understood, but we're getting there.
There have already been some successful, experimental therapies with stem cells. If you want your relative to get better, support stem cell research.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/3485752/First-woman-to-have-stem-cell-organ-transplant-Exclusive-interview.html
It was a windpipe, not a lung, liver or heart. It wasn't neural tissue either.
http://boingboing.net/2012/01/02/spare-parts-for-humans-tissue.html
...we *are* getting there. However it's going to be years until these techniques can be used in humans to replace entire organs (in the conventional sense of the name).
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Flaser wrote...
Anesthetize wrote...
Flaser wrote...
Very... very unlikely for the foreseeable, close future. Transplanting the brain would induce massive trauma on the organ, so the procedure would lead to even further brain damage. We're a long way away from cloning even organs, so a full body replacement is even further away.The closest thing that has a chance is stem cell therapy. Stem cells are quite similar to the state the cells of a fetus are in, i.e. they can turn into various different *kinds* of cells depending on their environment. How stem cells differentiate and turn into muscle, skin or cells of organs is not yet perfectly understood, but we're getting there.
There have already been some successful, experimental therapies with stem cells. If you want your relative to get better, support stem cell research.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/3485752/First-woman-to-have-stem-cell-organ-transplant-Exclusive-interview.html
It was a windpipe, not a lung, liver or heart. It wasn't neural tissue either.
http://boingboing.net/2012/01/02/spare-parts-for-humans-tissue.html
...we *are* getting there. However it's going to be years until these techniques can be used in humans to replace entire organs (in the conventional sense of the name).
As fast as biological medical science is progressing i wouldn't be surprised if we had this ability in the next decade to be honest. To when it would be actually affordable to be of commercial use is another issue.
For example in 2008 three scientists won a nobel prize for taking a fluorescent gene from a jellyfish and implanting it into other organisms. In 2011, there are school communities you can find who order the needed parts online and teach you how to do it in less than an hour.
As for manipulating the human brain condition, watch this video and skip to 52:20, you might be surprised how far technology actually is right now.
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Wolfwood8 wrote...
you have roughly eight minutes, before the brain begins to die from lack of oxygen and blood. If you're talking about taking the entire thing, yeah not gonna happen.
You have to cut through your spinal cord, cut through 3 layers protecting the brain, remove it entirely all the while keeping it oxygenated and blood-fed. No to mention that the psyche of your cousin will be different. Even if she knows about being in a different body the shock from the operation will still be tremendous. Probably enough to actual shatter her psyche fully.
Then to place the brain into what body you're moving it to and hope to god that somehow you're able to reconnect the spinal cord, place the brain back within a new Blood-Brain-Barrier, and then make sure no infections occur during the recovery phase. In this day and age it physically impossible.
Edit: the only possible for your cousin is stem cells. They probably have to start in the pluripotent stage and be injected to the damaged area. Even then, there's no guarantee.
More like 3.5 before all communication stops and 5 before loss of ability of eventual resuscitation. And nope, even pluripotent cells won't be able to differentiate correctly. Chemical alteration of multipotent cells sounds good to me though.