I have a hypothetical question about brain surgery.?

Question

I know the moral implications on this, or the actual likelyhood it could ever happen, but...'IF' the brain could be transplanted, would you still be the person you were, or become the person whose brain you received, or become a new person altogeather? As cloning is already possible along with so many other kinds of transplants, one has to wonder about this. This is a curiosity of mine and serious replys/answers will get the condideration of the 10 points.

WOW and as an added bonus I find out there ARE intellegent people who frequent Answers!

Answer 1

The personality and experiences of the brain (i.e. those intangible traits that make each of us an individual) would persist from the "donor", as those things are primarily stored in the limbic system within the brain -- memories, learned attributes, acquired abilities, etc are all intimately related to the limbic system, and thus if brain transplants could occur, the "person" produced would be primarily the brain, as the body is more-or-less an apparatus directed by the brain.

However, I imagine that there would at least be some kind of adjustment period for dealing with a totally different body than the individual had before, somewhat analogous to how an amputee patient must learn to adjust to life with an altered or lost appendage. Such patients often report experiences of "phantom limbs", as the CNS has a great deal of trouble adapting to lost synapses and input that it once had. I suppose that a different body would produce "phantom experiences", in which certain stimuli or contextual cues could produce all kinds of distress and flashbacks to prior experiences within the past body.

It would probably be an emotional havoc for the individual, who would struggle terribly to adjust to a life so extremely foreign to everything that was once familiar. Lost in the experiential void of a different body, if you will.

Answer 2

I don't know about brain transplants but head transplants have been happening. This has been done on monkeys but not humans as far as I know.

In 1970 Dr Robert White transplanted the head of a Rhesus monkey. Apparently it was pretty successful. The monkey could follow people around the room with its eyes, it could eat but it did show heightened aggression once the anaesthesia wore off. I believe it died after 8 days. People are still doing this and the monkeys are usually put down after 8 to 10 days.

I think humans would be easier because surgeons are more used to dealing with human blood vessels and nerves and human muscular tissue is larger than that of a monkey.

I think it comes down to what makes a person a person. I think your personality, mind, memories etc are all stored in your brain, so if your brain was transplanted into another body then you would still be you, not the body it was transplanted into.

Answer 3

If you could do this: your brain would contain your memories and thoughts, your motives, dreams, fears, basically everything that makes you YOU. Mentally, not physically. So if you have your brain transplanted into another body, you will still be YOU mentally, with a different physical body. The brain is the engine of the body. Without brain function, you are nothing, you're dead...or a vegetable. I don't know why they would do brain transplants. If you die and want to get a different body, it would still be too late for your brain. Lack of oxygen and such. If you are a vegetable, your brain is gone already. Anyway, getting back to the question: You would definitely still be yourself mentally, not a new person.

Answer 4

Your brain is the exact personality of yourself and the eye to your soul. If your brain were transplanted into another person's head, they would develop the same exact personality traits as you and vice versa.

As for cloning, the person or animal would have the exact likeness of each other, but can have separate thoughts. I also heard of twins telepathically telling each their thoughts.

Here's also another question?

If one clone were to be brain dead and have a good body and the others body was destroyed but the brain remained in good condition, there's a possibility that the brain dead one would receive the brain that's in good condition.

Now, the paradox is this.. Will the brain of the other clone know if he or she was dead or will they think they are the only one alive? That's the part that's so confusing.

Since science didn't think of this yet, you may be the first person who will ever discover if this theory works. But take my advise.

Don't try this at home. :o)

Answer 5

Actually this is a philosophy question. There is a whole branch of philosophy devoted to questions like this called Philosophy of Mind. Although there is some inevitable overlap with medicine as the definitve answers have never been formulated on the brain/mind/body question (although some think they have been but that's the nature of philosophy).

Answer 6

No. If (hypothetically) the brain could be "transplanted" you would die when you died, the brain somehow preserved and inserted into the new host could have functional thoughts of it's own only if it were alive. So, no, that is simply unmogliche.

Answer 7

i think he will be the old one, and will be learning everything newly from the owner of the body's perspective. pretty tough situation