forum What do you guys think about brain transplant?

Started February 07, 2018 by @GG

tune

Currently I am writing about a sci-fi brain transplant story and wanna know your guys' thoughts

also how do they transplant organs to patients and how do you let the hospital know you would like to give your organs to someone after you die

So I don't know a lot about how they decide whether or not to donate, but to transport organs, they have a special box that they handcuff to a person who's transporting it. Surgery is also not my forte, but the patient must take pills for the rest of their life to help the body not reject the new organ, and this can actually make the person more susceptible to other illnesses.

@p3ncil thank you! I have a lot of research to do, but sometimes it is hard to know exactly what to look up.

"Brain transplant."
Believe it or not, one of those are actually happening soon. A "surgeon" named Sergio Canavero plans to do one, but he keeps pushing the due date.

"How do you let the hospital know you would like to give your organs?"
Usually, when a person signs up to be an organ donor, they're given a thing called a donor card. This card is usually carried around in a wallet, which, when any doctors find it, will notify them that you're an organ donor.

Here are some links that might help you in your research:
http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/immune-disorders/biology-of-the-immune-system/overview-of-the-immune-system
https://unos.org/

@Chronicle thank you so much. That's interesting I know someone was going to try to do a head transplant but the guy who was going to have the operation done backed out

Sergio Canavero is not necessarily a great example, especially since he is doing a head, rather than a brain transplant, and that involves more complicated procedures like connecting the spinal cord.
If you're interested in head transplants as well, since they're an alternative to brain transplants and have been slightly successful attempts with animals, then look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_transplant

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It might be useful to think about the philosophical questions that brain transplants bring up, since the brain effectively creates consciousness. If someone receives a donor's brain, will they then have that donor's personality? Will they still be the same person as before? Who will really be getting another life, the donor or the receiver?
Just some questions to think about that could help you build your story.

thats frikin cool

@Vexillologist I have thought about those things and was wondering if you could disconnect the different parts of the brain such as the amygdala carries the persons emotions and instincts. In my book the donor committed suicide even though her parents don't know why. The brain is given to a 46 year old man who has been pretty content his whole life.The doctors forget to replace the amygdala with his own and he begins to be super depressed but he doesn't know why. I was either going to give him split personality or depression. I think the doctors just piece together a new brain for him using parts from his old brain ( the hippo campus and some of the cortex) and parts of her brain.

i feel so stupid cause you all are like being smart and stuff and im just over here being really naive and stupid

@cgc.who.locked334 haha "smart" honestly Wikipedia and diagrams of the brain.

So I read that they tried head transplants on animals before, but you should find specific instances of a brain transplant in animals and see how successful it was. I'd guess that before the transplant, they trained the donor to do certain tricks or play with certain toys and other things for months, not training the receiver any of it. And then after the transplant (if the animal lived), they could check if the receiver knew those tricks. I doubt anyone has gotten that far before the animal died… The only things I'm coming up with through Google search is what everyone was already talking about, with the head transplant guy.

They tried it on monkeys which worked slightly not really because the monkey died 9 days after

GG
still though, wikipedia articles are weirdly hard to read for me
i made it through a summary of dear evan hansen though soooo

@cgc.who.locked334

I recommend Simple English Wikipedia. It simplifies the articles in the normal Wikipedia pages and it's designed for people learning English or a new subject, so I've found it really helpful sometimes. You can find it in the languages section in the sidebar.

The head and brain transplant pages don't have simple English versions but here's a comparison between normal English and simple English for the brain:
Normal

Simple

thanks but its not really the content
its the format
it's kind of weird

I'm gonna agree with Vexillologist. Transplanting an entire head would be vastly more difficult than a brain transplant.

When I read "head transplant," my brain immediately jumped to "brain transplant."

@cgc.who.locked334 OMG I love Dear Evan Hansen

@Chronicle It's all pretty weird and difficult since we don't know if we could piece together parts of ppl's brains

GG
i was in the car this morning and had a craving to scream
I LEARNED TO SLAAAAAAAAAAM ON THE BRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAKE BEFORE I EVEN TURNED THE KEYYYYYYYYY BEFORE I MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE THE MISTAAAKE BEFORE I LEAVE WITH THE WORRRRRRST OF MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEe

@cgc.who.locked334
dudeee yasss I love the song Words Fail also actually naw just all the songs. The same lyricist for Dear Evan Hansen did The Greatest Showman.

whoa kewl

when the discussion changes from brain transplant to DEH lol

i know, i saw it and was like brain… transplant???
Ohhhhhh DEH i got it

Just thinking… if you could successfully do a brain transplant, maybe you could take the brains of the dead and make an artificial body with the organs and everything, and then put the brain in the body, then it would be like bringing the dead to life. You would probably have still have your personality and memories from the time you were alive.