Thread: lifespan of the brain itself

I can't find anything on this, does anyone know or know of any experiments on how long the brain itself can stay alive, not the usual lifespan of a person but for the brain itself, like a study to keep a brain by itself and give it oxygen/nutrients to stay alive, monitor brainwaves to prove it is alive etc...?

i would think that would be a pretty tough thing to do isolate a brain and somehow keep it alive im not really sure if we could do that right now

well we've done it to the head you can find out more in the documentary: Experiments in the Revival of Organisms. However this was a little different, they killed a dog then cut off it's head, then hooked it's head up to an artificial life support, and were able to keep the dogs head alive for several minutes. And that was in the 40's, in fact the discoveries made in that video were used to create the first heart transplant in russia, the film was made for viewing so some of it's flash for the camera but the experiments were done, wiki has more on this, you can also find the video for free download too if you want, just google it.

so if that's the case we shouldn't be too far off, right?

does sound pretty freakin tough to do though when you think about what it would involve, lol.

why not try and keep the whole central nervous system alive... it would probably be more fruitful of an experiment and maybe a hell of a lot easier.

well I suppose that would be the best idea, espessially in starting, but eventually working to the brain, well, hmm the whole cns, true it would also have a high capability to react to any stimuli witht the cni intact. you think the whole cns can last as long as the brain? I figured the brain b/c I'm pretter sure we're in there (were sure as heck not in our hand, foot etc...) the problem is everthing dies on us first usually. eventually, we may perfect the body and naturally find out when the brain starts to wear, then at that time learn to fix it, but I think if we did it now, it'd be nice to get a head start, plus see if it'll unlock any of the brains mysterious, see what kind of changes happen over time, think it'd be crazy. I mean if you think about it, the brain may even create it's own little world for itself, in itself, since it would have no connection to the outside world, just think it would be really interesting to find out more about.

i don't think there would be much to find out about the brain on it's own

we can study the effects of things directly on the brain, but that would only help us understand the tissue and how different parts of the brain are connected, we already can do this without seperating it from the rest of the body.


I don't think there is a world without rest of the nerves. I am pretty sure our mind is not located solely in our brain but is at least as big as our central nervous system, if not our entire nervous system.

Originally Posted by marcusclayman

i don't think there would be much to find out about the brain on it's own

we can study the effects of things directly on the brain, but that would only help us understand the tissue and how different parts of the brain are connected, we already can do this without seperating it from the rest of the body.


I don't think there is a world without rest of the nerves. I am pretty sure our mind is not located solely in our brain but is at least as big as our central nervous system, if not our entire nervous system.

you may not see much that can be learned but there is, for example as time continues, the lifespan of man grows, as our lifespan grows more problems arrise that creating death more often(example, stroke) now we have developed small instruments that we actually put inside peoples brains to prevent strokes from happening by preventing the blood from being block therefore allowing enough oxygen to continue to get to the brain, preventing the stroke. This is one of what may be many conditions that the brain will have to deal with as it's life is allowed to continue existing, also we can see how long it can live without having to worry about the rest of the body dying first, they say you only use 4% of your brain, what if this can force it to use more, who knows, we can monitor brain waves, mri's all that stuff.

Nobody knows of any experiments that have been done on this?

maybe ask Matt Groening

Dementia and the array of disorders related to it are essentially brain failure; it is the gradual loss of neurons.

The fact that the rate of dementia is rapidly rising suggests that we are approaching the natural age limitation of the brain in the older population. People who take care of their health enough to prevent cancer and cardiovascular disease often develop dementia.

Not necessarily. I don't think we had to take a brain out of a persons body and keep it alive to figure out how to prevent strokes, or anything else. The only thing we learn is how to keep a brain alive outside of the body.

It would be like keeping a thumb alive off of the hand. We wouldn't learn anything new about the thumb except how to keep it alive, off of the hand. Maybe we would, I don't know. It just reminds me of experiments they do on animals, and their justifications for doing them is to find treatments for humans, but most never have and probably never will, and is probably just an excuse to get grants and think your a useful scientist.

Matt Groaning is the premier authority on keeping heads alive indefinitely. :wink:

Dementia might be caused by something outside of the brain, for example, weakening of the blood vessels that go to the brain. Lack of oxygen, poor diet, self destructive thought patterns and/or lack of stimulation.

All of these things effect older people, you cannot say it is because they are old, just because they are. That is too easy. There is a reason all of these things happen, a build up of toxins, a life of poor habits, etc. And generally being tired of life, so they seek less enjoyment, less stimulation. Also, social alienation might have something to do with it.

It is too easy to say it is due to their age, because a lot of seemingly unrelated problems most often go hand and hand. They may be related, one stemming from the other, or they may both be effects of a common cause, such as age, but there is no reason to assume one or the other. Not that I know of anyway. I am no expert on the fields of old age, neurophysiology or neurology.

Do you mean an American brain or a European brain?

Originally Posted by Megabrain

Do you mean an American brain or a European brain?

is there a big difference or something?

either.

Originally Posted by austing6

maybe ask Matt Groening

I already did, he said to ask you guys -jk

Originally Posted by deadcat

well we've done it to the head you can find out more in the documentary: Experiments in the Revival of Organisms. However this was a little different, they killed a dog then cut off it's head, then hooked it's head up to an artificial life support, and were able to keep the dogs head alive for several minutes. And that was in the 40's, in fact the discoveries made in that video were used to create the first heart transplant in russia, the film was made for viewing so some of it's flash for the camera but the experiments were done, wiki has more on this, you can also find the video for free download too if you want, just google it.

I'm pretty sure that was a hoax.

austing6 wrote:
maybe ask Matt Groening

I already did, he said to ask you guys -jk Laughing

Just so we're clear, Matt Groening did Futurama, where they had all the 20th century celebrity cameos as heads in jars. See google.

Not sure if you knew that or not. Just wanted to make sure everyone got the joke so we can all move on

Originally Posted by Numsgil

I'm pretty sure that was a hoax.

it's not, the video was reproduced with special effects (of that time) but the experiments were actually done, in fact the information found from these experiments was used in the very first heart transplant in russia (1957) by Dr. Vishnevsky. they wanted it to look appropriate for the people in high position this film was presented to, there's more on it here,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experim..._or_fiction.3F

(however I agree with you in saying that there may be certain parts of the video that may be fake, but the actual experiments were done)

Originally Posted by deadcat

Originally Posted by Megabrain

Do you mean an American brain or a European brain?

is there a big difference or something?

either.

Yes, an American brain will last many times longer.

Originally Posted by Megabrain

Originally Posted by deadcat

Originally Posted by Megabrain

Do you mean an American brain or a European brain?

is there a big difference or something?

either.

Yes, an American brain will last many times longer.

wow, that's really interesting. Do you know why this is?

Yes, you can afford better life support systems than we can :wink:

Originally Posted by Megabrain

Yes, you can afford better life support systems than we can :wink:

lol oh, technology wise. didn't know that by the way, I thought you guys had more money for that stuff over here.