If you got a your brain transplanted into another body would you still be yourself just in another body?

Question

or would you be that different person

Answer 1

Interesting question ... but this is not really a biology question (as the concept of a brain transplant is so far from a medical reality it is barely worth considering). This is more a question of philosophy.

But basically, most people would say that what "you" are is the sum total of your memories. If it were possible to transplant a brain without killing it, then the memories would presumably be intact (as these are preserved in the brain, nowhere else). So yes you would still be yourself in another body.

However, even if (as long as we're just speculating wildly) we were able to wire up the brain to the new body ... there would still be a lot of skills that were not transferable. For example, if you were a great musician, you would (presumably) still have the ability to read music, but the muscle coordination of the new body might not be as well developed and you might find yourself frustrated when you sat down at the piano, that your fingers would be unable to play what your mind *knows* it could play. Or if you were a great athelete, imagine finding your brain in an out-of-shape body (the movie Heaven Can Wait, with Warren Beatty explores this question).

Answer 2

It would really depend on how much emphasis you put on your appearance.
It might also depend how drastic the difference was.
For instance, if you were a buff, 165 pound 25 year old man, and you brain got transplanted into the body of a 450 pound 65 year old woman, yeah there might be some issues there. Or if you were in great health, and your bran got transplanted into someone who was terminal (or vise versa) there might be some issues.
OR the whole transplant might blow your mind so completely that you would never be the same.
So I guess the short answer is no.

Answer 3

People would react to you differently. All your friends would treat you slightly differently, as they would assume things about you based upon your appearance. "You can never set foot in the same river twice." When you think about it, you actually are not really the same person from day to day. You are changed by your environment.

Imagine you are captured in some war zone and tortured in prison for several years. You would become quite different than you would be if you won a lottery and partied all the money away in Bermuda.

So yes, you would become a little bit different. It might also take you time to learn how to use your new body and become accustomed to it. If you have ever gotten a new pair of glasses after doing without all your life, you might feel like the ground was suddenly right up under your nose. You might feel much shorter. You could recognize people from a long way away, and realize that before, when you were half blind, they probably thought you were snubbing them for not recognizing them. I know I did, and that was just a new pair of glasses.

Answer 4

I suspect the trauma would be so great you wouldn't know who or what you were.

There is so much more to the brain than what is inside your head. All of the nerves in the spine, all of the muscles developed (or not) by "who you are/were", all of the shoes that wouldn't fit, all of your acquaintances thinking you are the person whose body you are wearing, different levels of hormones produced by your new body.

I think you would end up not being "yourself".

Answer 5

i have heard stories of people who have had hand transplants being completely unable to accept the new hand as part of their "self". something that we have seen everyday for our entire life suddenly becomming so different and foreign really taxes the mind's ability to comprehend and accept. i absolutely cannot imagine what it would be like to have to look in a mirror everyday and see a completely different physical self looking back at me. i agree with the above poster that your memories define the "you" inside your brain, but i also think that in this case the physical aspect would simply be too overwhelming to maintain that self.

Answer 6

i ask this question but in a differant way what if you kept replacing parts of other brains with your brain and kept going would you still be you