A few days ago, I heard that scientists resurrected the dead pig brain? Brain death has been judged to be irreversible. Is this true or false? Let's have a look.
In 2018, the team of Yale neuroscientists Setan successfully revived the brains of dead pigs recovered from slaughterhouses, and the pig brains returned to a state with 'life' characteristics for 36 hours.
American scientists have reported a system that can restore the brain circulation and some cell functions of pigs several hours after brain death, but there is no evidence that there are whole brain electrical activities related to consciousness, cognition or other higher-order brain functions. This achievement is considered to have set off an ethical controversy in the field. Medical ethicists at Oxford University believe that people usually die when they are declared brain dead. But in the future, if it is possible to restore some brain functions and recover their mind after death, it will have a significant impact on how to define 'death'.
Mammalian brain is extremely sensitive to the decline of oxygen supply level. Short-term interruption of blood flow can cause rapid consumption of oxygen and energy storage, which is believed to cause neuronal death and irreparable brain damage. Some studies have raised questions: is this damage cascade inevitable in a short time after blood flow interruption?
This time, the Yale School of medicine team assumed that even after a few hours of death, specific cell functions might be partially restored. To test this, they developed the brainex system, which simulates pulsatile blood flow (perfusion) at normal body temperature (37 ℃). In the study, 32 pig brains from food processing plants were connected to the brainex system hours after death. The team found that during the 6-hour perfusion period, cell death decreased and some cell functions (including synaptic activity) were restored. However, no evidence of whole brain network activity or whole brain function was found during the experiment.
This indicates that the cell recovery function of the brain is stronger than previously expected, and the degradation of cell function after blood flow interruption may be a slow process. However, it is still unknown whether it is possible to restore all normal brain functions with the help of brainex system.
Extended reading
Damasio: a human brain without a body can be worse than death
Philosopher and neuroscientist Antonio & middot; Damasio pointed out that in ordinary humans, the brain and body interact constantly. Every muscle, nerve, joint and organ is connected to the brain, and a large number of chemical and electrical signals are transmitted back and forth between them every second. Without the continuous' feedback cycle 'between the brain and the body, ordinary experience and thought cannot be realized at all.
Although no one knows what a brain without body will look like, that feeling must be no better. Experts have warned that people with the world's first head transplant may face a terrible fate. His brain will be swallowed up by strange chemical and electrical signals from his new body, which will drive him crazy. A brain without a body may react similarly, but it cannot show its pain or do anything to end its pain. Therefore, eventually becoming a human brain without body is likely to encounter a worse fate than death.
Netizen's brain hole is wide open