Could some of you look up Brain Transplant ??

Question

I posed a question last night, and I'd like a few more thoughts on the subject. Could some of you reading now, go to the Brain Transplant question and give it a shot? Thanks!

Answer 1

It's already been shown that recipients of other transplanted organs take on beliefs, yearnings, desire or thoughts of the dead donor. I don't think it would be any different with the brain. Just like other organs contain the donors dna, consciousness is more than "matter" yet it is intimately connected with the body. The pineal gland and the venticles of the brain are recognised in ancient spiritual traditions as being the means to unite matter and spirit. Perhaps one could facilitate their spiritual enlightenment through a brain tranplant?

Answer 2

Treat your question like you would your computer hard drive. Generaly, if i take your harddrive out and put it in another person's tower the end result is your hard drive remains your hard drive while their motherboard remains their mother board. The question is how was your hard drive hooked up. It can be hooked up as the main drive in which case it becomes the dominant system in the computer. It could also be a slave drive in which case the computer is run by the other hard drive and your hard drive becomes an after thought, maybe only used for storage. But let's face it that doesn't sound anything like a brain transplant, at least not the way it works theoretically. Theoretically, take all the programs out of your hard drive and down load them in another hard drive and then put it back in your tower and that is what would be considerd a brain transplant. The question you are asking is where does the other hard drive come from? With computers you can pick up an empty hard drive any where and format it to fit your needs. With brains that is not posible. It may not even be possible clear a brain. Electro shock therapy comes to mind. You could shock the brain and wipe the brain's memory but the question is which lobes do you mess with and which lobes do you leave alone. Assuming you can erase only the lobes that remind you who you are and not the lobes that keep the brain functioning . Then the question becomes how do you get the information you want into the brain in a hurry. No clue there but assuming you can upload the information you want into the brain you should be in the same position as the person who does a destuctive format on a harddrive. The confusing part is the buffers, could they contain your identity. With computers they do. With brains who knows. This is that whole nature versus nurture argument. Where does your identity come from? Writers have thought about cloning people to create suitable brains to use for brain transplants but there is no certainty that the information in the donor will transfer to the recipient, and nobody wants to wait fifty years to upload a fifty year olds memeory into a brain. There has to be a way to speed up the process of learning. Any way, that is some thoughts on the subject so have fun with your quandry.

Answer 3

Yes I answered (or failed to come to a conclusive answer!) about your question last night! It was very thought-provoking. I told my boyfriend about it today. He disagreed with me. I thought the brain would retain much of the donor's memories, personality etc as though they were wired in there or would remain as ghosts or residue of the energy. He said the brain is just an organ just tissue & can't hold memories once it's out of the body. He said the recipient body would have to relearn everything with the brain & that they wouldn't be able to access the donor's memories.

But I remember hearing that each time you learn something new it creates a new wrinkle in your brain. So I guess wise people have very wrinkly brains! But anyway, that means the wrinkles would still be there so wouldn't the recipient have access to that knowledge somehow? What if the brain is like a computer hard drive & once it's configured and connections made wouldn't that stay in the machinery even if components are moved?

It's an unanswerable question until it has actually been done which may never happen. I'm curious to know what you think on the subject.

Excellent question! I know I'll lose sleep over it!

:)

Answer 4

A brain transplant is impossible because you would need to be dead before it could happen.

Answer 5

I believe we have memories emotions that carry on to our next life, I know some will be switching off with that comment.

Although keeping that in mind, when we die our bodies die too.
organs all start to wither and die.
Our spark of life, spirit some say carry our memories on to whatever the outcome is.
Our bodies are just a vessel we dwell in.

So no our memories don't carry over.