Researchers 'reboot' pig brains hours after animals died

I guess we all knew this would happen sooner or later...

brains from 32 pigs that had been killed in a slaughterhouse. Four hours after their deaths the arteries of the pig brains were hooked up to a sophisticated system dubbed BrainEx, which pumped an oxygenated synthetic blood through the organ. This fluid contained a host of nutrients as well as other substances to tackle processes that lead to cell death, and the circulation was continued for six hours.

At that point, the team found the circulating fluid successfully flowed through blood vessels in the brain, including tiny capillaries, and that the blood vessels were able to dilate in response to a drug, while the brain as a whole consumed oxygen and glucose from the fluid and released carbon dioxide back into it at similar rates to an intact brain.

the cells showed certain functions, including the release of various immune-response substances when triggered.After tissueswere removed from the brains and flushed of the BrainEx fluid the researchers found individual neurons were still able to function.

the process of cell death is a gradual, stepwise process and that some of those processes can be either postponed, preserved or even reversed,” 

the research opened up ethical conundrums – not least whether consciousness would have been recorded if the BrainEx fluid had not contained substances to block brain cell activity, and whether other methods were needed to assess consciousness. 

Researchers 'reboot' pig brains hours after animals died


Oh joy, this should pave the way for people's brains being read out after their deaths and plenty other nefarious scenarios. Yes, I am sure there are also advantages but this is a huge and very scary Pandoras box!


Combine for example with this article from October 2017:

Affordable cryonic head preservation 'within a decade'

a reply to: MindBodySpiritComplex


I'm all for trans-humanism, living is fun and when you're dead, you're dead for a long time.

a reply to: MindBodySpiritComplex
Right away, I thought of the heads mounted in a glass jar on the TV show 'Futurama'.

Man, the zombie apocalypse looks like it will manifest itself in one form or another soon lol.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: MindBodySpiritComplex


I'm all for trans-humanism, living is fun and when you're dead, you're dead for a long time.

In a freezer... somewhere...

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Pffft. Im going to the planet of virginous in the erogenousphere.

a reply to: lakenheath24


I'd end up going elsewhere which is why it's critical that I don't die.

Ever.

Still, the drastic damages that already occurred won't ever be healable. What, stem cells to regrow brain tissue? Give me a break. I don't think the technology will ever be readily available for the richest man in the world to get a BrainEx fluid cerebral circulation moments after death to preserve the brain, still irreversably damaged, only to restore the 80-100 year old brain to good form with stem cells sitting on top of a wrinkly bag of bones.

Then the heart goes. Heart bypass surgery, four of them, like Bill Clinton. Maybe he'd be a good candidate for this stuff, have a room installed with the BrainEx system ready to administer so that time isn't lost getting them to the hospital. For purposes of sustaining life as we experience it, the time it would take for the paramedics to arrive and transport you would be too long for this technology to have much purpose.

They could restore some reptillian functions to brain dead vegetable patients, enough to not be able to euthanize them but they'd still be stuck in bed for the rest of their lives with permanent damages aleady having occurred. Stem cells though. One day, we'll be able to regenerate brains and bodies together indefinitely if you're a billionaire, otherwise sorry for your loss.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: MindBodySpiritComplex


I'm all for trans-humanism, living is fun and when you're dead, you're dead for a long time.

Yeah, that is kind of the idea. Life is precious because it is so short. Transhumanism is sheer narcissism in its most hideous form. You're supposed to be born, live and then die so that you get out of the way so that new life can experience this world and existence. Death is life's dear old friend. Without death, there is no life.

And the whole myth about creating a better world through transhumanism by raising everyone to a new intellectual plane and consciousness is hot garbage as well. Just look at how bonkers the internet has made us all. Increase that a million fold or whatever and you have yourself an abomination.

I don't know how many exceptionally intelligent people you know, but I happen to have a few of them in my family -- and I'm extremely glad that curse skipped over me. Yes, elite intellectuals do amazing things for human progress and society, but they are also a lot of times tortured souls that suffer severe mental problems at the cost of that brilliance. Imagine a whole society of those kind of people -- it wouldn't last a century before they destroyed themselves.

Ever hear of too much too soon? Progress is meant to unfurl slowly and naturally over time. It is how it has universally worked since the beginning of time.

originally posted by: sooth
And the whole myth about creating a better world through transhumanism by raising everyone to a new intellectual plane and consciousness is hot garbage as well.

Thankfully I'm not that person, I just want to continue my hedonistic lifestyle, either on this planet or on another.

a reply to: MindBodySpiritComplex

I see basic biological function...but what about neural activity? Did they test for that at all?

I can't click the link here at work.

Brains are useless without neurons activity.

Resident Evil anyone?

Hopefully this knowledge will not fall in the wrong hands, Id be toast-the last time I killed a zombie I had to press start to play.

Can they perform this procedure on me yet? I freakin need rejuvenated.

I cant see any problem



It is what science is all about, as a species we may only be at the begining of our potential, it might be a breakthrough like this that is able to set all our minds to being nice to each other

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: MindBodySpiritComplex


I'm all for trans-humanism, living is fun and when you're dead, you're dead for a long time.

Or maybe just 4 hours. Is this regenerates dead things, I wonder if they can do a transfusion with an elderly person and revitalize their cells, organs, tissue, muscles, etc.

a reply to: MindBodySpiritComplex

It really was a case of the light's being on but nobody being home as though they were able to get some of the cell's to live again the brain's showed no brainwaves as would be found in a living brain, hence no one was home.
To quote the BBC article there were no signal's from the brain to indicate awareness or consciousness and only some connections within the cadaver brain were restored.

a reply to: MindBodySpiritComplex

originally posted by: LSU2018
Is this regenerates dead things, I wonder if they can do a transfusion with an elderly person...

As long as it doesn't work on interns.

So they got what looked like basic cell function, but could the pigs still play Mozart? That's what matters.