Stimulating new growth / creating a superbrain

[ontherocks421]

Hey!

So say you've just finished brain surgery and are about to close up your patients skull.

Is there anything you can "throw in there" that's gonna stimulate massive new growth (like stem cells or something) that could very well create the smartest brain to ever walk the earth?

Herman Jackson

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[Darktide]

yeah... superbrain...


or a tumor...

 

[typhoonegator]

Hey!

So say you've just finished brain surgery and are about to close up your patients skull.

Is there anything you can "throw in there" that's gonna stimulate massive new growth (like stem cells or something) that could very well create the smartest brain to ever walk the earth?

Herman Jackson

If we had such things, don't you think you would have heard of it? We do use medication-impregnated disks for local tumor treatments, at least on a clinical trial basis. We do not, however, "throw them in there" at the end of surgery. We continue to search for ways to controllably stimulate neuronal and glial growth, but as yet have not been terribly successful. It turns out that randomly connecting new neurons to existing networks is not very effective in promoting recovery of function.