Brain Transplant???

I was looking at an article concerning cloning, and I was wondering... Thearetically would it be possible to Transplant a Brain. If we were to make a clone say of me, and when I died hopefully I were in a hospital we knew I was going to die very soon, however the reason I was dieng was of lung cancer (just theoretically) If we were to hook my brain up to a artificial heart that would keep my brain functioning, (would I still think I existed)

Providing they could keep your brain alive, there would be no reason why you could not survive a transplant.

I think though, that if you kept the brain seperate from a body for a period, you would be concious but have no stimuli or sense to know what was going on.

You would still be able to think, but you would have no idea what was going on in the outside world. No sight, smell, hearing or touch, just you in your own thoughts.....

If you were to 'clone' yourself using todays techniques, you'd still die at the same age as the DNA has aged, and all you are doing is transferring old DNA, and you wouldn't 'live' any longer.

I think if you keep the brain provided with sufficient Oxygen and Blood Food supplies then you'd still be thinking...could take you eyes, ears, nose and tongue out if you want - wouldn't be awfully hard. Yes, if you had the lung cancer and did the 'transplant' it could work, however reattaching the cut spinal chord has got to be near impossible, so the body wouldn't funtion correctly (Kidneys, Liver etc) so the brain in a jar may be easier. Still not sure about the senses actaully, how much is the spinal chord required? (i dont think u cud blink or anything, i think this goes back to te spinal chord)

Stem cells would be the key...

and of course having a donor body close by, would be nice...
wouldn't neccessarily have to be a clone... just compatable...

so support stem cell research whenever and however possible...

I don't know a lot about physiology, but assuming you had every technique here discussed perfected to 100%, then even though the brain has been transplanted into a young body, the brain itself is still old. I would think that older brains are more susceptible to things like strokes, aneurysms (sp?) and any sort of cancers that might be able to develop in the brain.

As to whether you would still think you were alive, I don't see why not. You might feel quite a bit different, though, given that your entire body is different. It would be like jumping from childhood to adult by going through puberty in a day. Your coordination and movements would probably be quite unsteady at first. I would think that some sort of anaesthetic would be applied during such a procedure, so the brain would be asleep while it was transferred, so you would be unaware for that process.

Shakey: I have no idea how much of the spinal cord you would need, but if the body were a clone of yourself, couldn't you just use the spinal cord in the body? I guess it depends where the easiest point to reattach a brain would be, whether it would be easier to move the whole spinal cord or to use the new one. It's all theoretical discussion at this point anyway...

so support stem cell research whenever and however possible...

I support all research in all areas. It's the uses of some of that research that I'm opposed to. In this case, we are talking about improving the longevity of the human race, which is a good thing.

Well, it might not be too far off. In mid 2001 a scientist by the name Dr. Robert White preformed the first partially successful full head transplant, swapping the heads of two rhesus monkeys. Though technically the brain was not hooked up the nerves of the other body, the brain did survive the operation, and the doctor said the eyes were responsive and quite lucid.

This might be a minor achievement, but it prooves theres not much to the head lobbing part, the only major issue is attaching the nerves, which stem cellsshould be able to do.



news.bbc.co.uk...

Why do a brain transplant when you could just have all the information from your old brain downloaded, and then uploaded to your new body and brain? I wonder which technique will come first; brain transplants, or memory/information download/upload. Brain transplants just sound way too risky to me, not to mention very complicated.

While you might be able to perform a "brain transplant", the real issue would be that they can't attach the nerves and the spinal cord to the new body. While stem cell research holds some faint promise, once that spinal cord has been injured (and no it can't be pulled out and put into another body) or a large nerve has been severed, it won't grow back.

Originally posted by Byrd
While you might be able to perform a "brain transplant", the real issue would be that they can't attach the nerves and the spinal cord to the new body. While stem cell research holds some faint promise, once that spinal cord has been injured (and no it can't be pulled out and put into another body) or a large nerve has been severed, it won't grow back.

Thats true, but you know, if you put that brain in a cyborg body, you dont have to worry about them nerves.

Originally posted by Byrd
While stem cell research holds some faint promise, once that spinal cord has been injured (and no it can't be pulled out and put into another body) or a large nerve has been severed, it won't grow back.

and up until a few years ago... the mainstream medical profession thought brain cells didn't grow back after damage also...

Doctors know alot, but even they are still learning, especially about the brain, and nervous system...

Thanks Byrd, that answers one of my questions; I wasn't sure about whether reattaching the brain to the spinal cord was reasonable or not.

I like 2manyquestions idea of 'downloading' information to the brain. I have no idea when/if this is possible, but it would be the most powerful human invention to date if it were done. (I know kung fu...! )

The only thing about that is, if I understood inspiringyouth's original post, I think he/she is looking more at the longevity aspect of transplanting an old brain into a young body (maybe over and over, to live centuries?) rather than the idea of downloading more info into your head. Personally, I want to be able to do both...

I think we might have a better chance of implanting a human brain in a machine (cyborg) then in another human body in the near future. Like Byrd mentioned once that spinal cord is cut theres no more connecting it at present. Your brain wont be able to send signal to any part of the body below the cut. Maybe some day with research into stem cell but thats still a big maybe.

Its wouldnt be impossible IMO to keep the human brain alive with the right machines in the future and theres already been some interesting work were machines are "controled" with the power of the mind.

It would be far off but not impossible IMO

Just like in robocop 2, that would be awesome but why even go this direction. Would be better off trying to create some type of drug that would keep you young forever instead of just growing new bodys and transplanting. Or like in that one movie..i forgot its about a race car driver and his name is Alex and he ends up in the future where some rich dude is trying to put his consciouness into his body because hes in a computer and he dies earlier in the movie i forgot why.

[edit on 13-3-2006 by drex4ever]

Originally posted by drex4ever
Or like in that one movie..i forgot its about a race car driver and his name is Alex and he ends up in the future where some rich dude is trying to put his consciouness into his body because hes in a computer and he dies earlier in the movie i forgot why.

Ah that was the movie "FreeJack" Mick Jagger was even in that movie. Im not really sure how the transplant of his mind was suppose to take place in that movie it was already some how converted into a digital state then it was going to be transplanted.

Keeping yourself young forever would be the ideal way I think and has been the dream of man since atleast the First Emperor of China. There does seem to be a genetic switch you can turn off concerning aging. This happens in your 90s I believe naturally now. If you could figure a way to switch that off in say the 30s you might vastly increase a life spand