brain transplant?

[exmike]

Hello, is it possible to perform a brain transplant operation? if so, have any of you done one? if not, why not? are you working on this issue, like in dogs?
thanks.

probably not in time for you to take step 1 and match into NS

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[Imaged Prostate]

I UNDERWENT A BRAIN,, TRANSPANT,, WHEN I WAS 13, EVERYTHING WENT WELL EXCEPT, NOW I TYPE IN mostly CAPS, And I, USE COMMAS TOO Much,,,

 

[NeuroFP]

This seems quite odd, when I think of this.. I tend to think of it through the following analogy...

If you take the hard drive (the brain in this example) of your computer in it's current state, properly install it on another computer with different specifications (different motherboard, video card, etc.), there would be a lot of confusion with the "brain" (the hard drive in this case) of the computer.

If a brain transplant were theoretically possible, that is to implant a brain into another body, wouldn't the brain simply malfunction because it is now controlling the processes of a body it is completely unfamiliar with?

Now I know it is very very very unlikely for brain transplants to ever occur, it's sorta entertaining/intriguing to simply think about it.

Excluding all major ventricles, veins, and arteries that would need a reestablished connection, wouldn't the brain just adapt to it? Maybe I'm wrong and it's just the visual cortex that has extreme plasticity, but an experiment was conducted to record data on people's visual cortex plasticity. The people (who were not blind) were blind folded for approximately 3 weeks, and then their cortex adapted to other senses. When they took the blind folds off, they could see again, and yes, they were confused at first, but then they readapted their eyes to their home base in the visual cortex.

Either way, I understand your point about the brain being confused.

-muscles different
-skin different
-different required nutrients

 

[ladynice]

It certainly is not impossible if we could make computer-controlled micro-neurosurgeons in great numbers. Imagine 1000000000 robots connecting the brain to the spinal coord.

 

[cooldreams]

It certainly is not impossible if we could make computer-controlled micro-neurosurgeons in great numbers. Imagine 1000000000 robots connecting the brain to the spinal coord.

luckily, in reality, we do not have to live with close minded people telling us the earth is flat.

in actuality, stem cells are being used for this. no need for your brute force attack of a trillion robots.

 

[Debridement]

This thread wins the award for the most *****ic dicussion ever by a group of pseudo-intellectuals.

 

[cooldreams]

This thread wins the award for the most *****ic dicussion ever by a group of pseudo-intellectuals.

ah. thank you for contributing.

 

[brewmeistervi]

ah. thank you for contributing.

I'm enjoying this

 

[Blake]

I UNDERWENT A BRAIN,, TRANSPANT,, WHEN I WAS 13, EVERYTHING WENT WELL EXCEPT, NOW I TYPE IN mostly CAPS, And I, USE COMMAS TOO Much,,,

 

[MossPoh]

I love the scattered posts over a 2 year span.

I'd hate to wake up to a brain transplant. Wake up in some random person's body..that'd be interesting. The gender swap would be specially rough I'd imagine.

 

[Bonkerboots]

I just watched fringe and they transplanted some of one guys brain into another person but they said that they gave him immunosuppressants. Do you need immunosuppressants for brain transplants (if they were possible) because the blood brain barrier doesn't allow for immune cells in anyway. Right???

 

[JackADeli]

I just watched fringe and they transplanted some of one guys brain into another person but they said that they gave him immunosuppressants. Do you need immunosuppressants for brain transplants (if they were possible) because the blood brain barrier doesn't allow for immune cells in anyway. Right???

Blood brain barrier is not as impermeable as one may like to think.... even if it was, you violate its integrity once you open it to extract the old and implant the ~new.

 

[Excelsius]

was a Russian transplant surgeon who transplanted a dog's head to the neck of a recipient dog. There's a picture of it in N.L. Tilney's book "Transplant: from myth to reality."

...I wonder what the cold ischemia time is for a dog head...

According to him, the transplanted head survived for several days and even tried to bite and drink milk. When I brought this up in one of my discussions, some people in NS (bench) were disgusted and said that there is no need for such experiments anymore. I disagree. While there is no need to do them on dogs, I think the concept should be researched. Yes, a brain transplant might not be as feasible (only for now), but perhaps a head transplant can serve as an initial step - you don't have to worry about fit and can restore some circulation to the head pretty quickly extending the out of body survival time exponentially. The way I see it is step #1 is to be able to have a surviving head out of body for as long as possible. The blood will need to have all the nutrients necessary. What is the purpose of the body anyway? It mainly serves the purpose of keeping the brain perfused. Once we get here, head transplant experiments can start. But there is a philosophical question here: if a head can survive without the body, the very need for a transplant ceases unless we are able to connect the brain to the spinal cord and restore at least minimal control of the limbs. Yet, that might be unnecessary if we use robotics where an arm (like the mouse cursor today) can be controlled by simply activating certain areas of the brain - thought. If our civilization survives long enough, eventually the brain could be the last carbon based organ in our lives.

I think this is a valid discussion and it will be coming in the future. If you're closed minded, it doesn't make this discussion any less interesting or unintelligent. Some of the comments are, but the topic isn't. I am sure that someone somewhere has tried some similar experiments on humans - many countries have a large number of prisoners on death row. I would imagine some experiments will be done behind the closed doors. After all, everyone wants the perfect soldier. That is certainly better than the *****s at CIA doing their "covert," deadly experiments on unsuspecting civilians, like in the last century.

 

[RiskyFugu]

Hello, is it possible to perform a brain transplant operation? if so, have any of you done one? if not, why not? are you working on this issue, like in dogs?
thanks.

I’m gonna take a stab at this, even though the question was most likely asked in jest.


I’d say the answer is “no”, for the following reasons (and not in order of importance).


First, because the brain is such an energy-demanding organ, I don’t think it could survive being without its blood/oxygen supply for the duration of the removal process and the transplantation process, even if chilled.


Two, because there are millions of neurons whose axons must be reconnected. Sever a peripheral nerve and immediately perform a neuroraphe, and you just might regain 50% of the nerve’s function. The spinal cord is basically a big, complicated axon with some cell bodies mixed in.


Size discrepancies: can you imagine having to line up the various tracts of the donor brainstem with the recipient spinal cord? It’s not like you can push the lateral corticospinal tract in the donor medulla to (after it pyramidal decussation) one way or another to make it meet the recipient corticospinal tract.


How would you attach the donor to the recipient?


There are countless other logistic problems that would prevent this kind of a procedure for at least another 300 years!


If peripheral nerves undergoing axonotmetic injuries have difficulty