Isolated brain
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Isolated brain refers to keeping a brain alive in-vitro. This is done either by perfusion by a blood substitute, often an oxygenated solution of various salts, or by submerging the brain in oxygenated artificial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) (Bohlen, Halbach). It is the biological counterpart of brain in a vat. A related concept, attaching the brain or head to the circulatory system of another organism, is called a head transplant. An isolated brain however is more typically attached to an artificial perfusion device rather than a biological body.
The brains of many different organisms have been kept alive in-vitro for hours, or in some cases days. The central nervous system of invertebrate animals is often easily maintained as they need less oxygen and to a larger extent get their oxygen from CSF, for this reason their brains are more easily maintained without perfusion (Luksch, Walkowiak). Mammalian brains on the other hand have a much lesser degree of survival without perfusion and an artificial blood perfusate is usually used.
Most research on isolating mammalian brains has been done on guinea pigs, since they have larger cerebral arteries compared to rats or mice, which makes cannulation for supplying artificial blood easier.
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History
- 1812 - Julien Jean César Le Gallois (a.k.a. Legallois) put forth the original idea for resuscitating decapitated heads through the use of blood transfusion.
- 1818 - Mary Shelley published Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus
- 1836 - Astley Cooper showed in rabbits that compression of the carotid and vertebral arteries leads to death of an animal; such deaths can be prevented if the circulation of oxygenated blood to the brain is rapidly restored.
- 1857 - Charles Brown-Sequard decapitated a dog, waited ten minutes, attached four rubber tubes to the arterial trunks of the head, and injected blood containing oxygen by means of a syringe. Two or three minutes later voluntary movements of the eyes and muscles of the muzzle resumed. After cessation of oxygenated blood transfusion movements stopped.
- 1887 - Jean Baptiste Vincent Laborde made what appears to be first recorded attempt to revive the heads of executed criminals by connecting the carotid artery of the severed human head to the carotid artery of a large dog. According to Laborde's account, in isolated experiments a partial restoration of brain function was attained.
- 1912 - Corneille Heymans maintained life in an isolated dog's head by connecting the carotid artery and jugular vein of the severed head to the carotid artery and jugular vein of another dog. Partial functioning in the severed head was maintained for a few hours.
- 1928 - Sergey Bryukhonenko showed life could be maintained in the severed head of a dog by connecting the carotid artery and jugular vein to an artificial circulation machine.
- 1963 - Robert J. White isolated the brain from one monkey and attached it to the circulatory system of another animal.
Isolated brains in fiction
The concept of a brain in a jar (or brain in a vat) is a common theme in science fiction.
Many people in the Ghost in the Shell manga and anime franchise possess cyberbrains, which can sustain a modified human brain within a cybernetic body indefinitely.
In the Fallout series of games, isolated brains are used to control robots.
The Mi-go aliens in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft, first appearing in the story "The Whisperer in Darkness" (1931), can transport humans from Earth to Pluto (and beyond) and back again by removing the subject's brain and placing it into a "brain cylinder", which can be attached to external devices to allow it to see, hear, and speak.
In Alexander Beliaev's novel Head of Prof. Dowell (1925), Professor Dowell discovers a way of keeping heads of dead people alive and even to give them new bodies. After his death Dowell himself becomes a subject of such an experiment
In Donovan's Brain (see term), the 1942 science fiction novel by Curt Siodmak (filmed three times in different versions: 1942, 1953 and 1962), the brain of a ruthless millionaire is kept alive in a tank where it grows to monstrous proportions and powers.
In Roald Dahl's short story "William and Mary" (1960), after William's death his brain is kept alive on an artificial heart.
In the 1970s Doctor Who serial The Brain of Morbius, Solon, an authority on micro-surgical techniques, transplants Morbius's brain into an artificial translucent brain cylinder casing. Additionally, in the modern Doctor Who series (2005–present), the recurring antagonists known as the Cybermen are presented as human brains (in one instance, an entire human head) encased in mechanical exoskeletons, connected by an artificial nervous system; this is ostensibly done as an "upgrade" from the comparatively fragile human body to a far more durable and longer-lasting shell. Another group of modern Who foes, the Toclafane, were revealed to be human heads encased in flying, weaponized spheres, the final forms of humans from the far future who turned to desperate measures in order to survive the conditions of the impending heat death of the universe.
In the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy to the novel Dune, Cymeks are disembodied brains that wear robotic bodies.
The mad scientist in the French movie The City of Lost Children has a "brain in a vat" for a companion.
The B'omarr Monks, of the Star Wars Universe, would surgically remove their brains from their bodies and continue their existence as a brain in a jar. They believe that cutting themselves off from civilization and all corporeal distractions leads to enlightenment. These monks are easily identified in Return of the Jedi as the spider like creature that walks past C-3PO as he enters Jabba’s Palace.
Observer from Mystery Science Theater 3000 carries his brain in a Petri dish.
In the animated series Futurama, numerous technological advances have been made by the 31st century. The ability to keep heads alive in jars was invented by Ron Popeil (who has a guest cameo in "A Big Piece of Garbage"), and has resulted in many political figures and celebrities being active; this became the writers' excuse to feature and poke fun at celebrities in the show.
A brainship is a fictional concept of an interstellar starship. A brainship is made by inserting the disembodied brain and nervous system or malformed body of a human being into a life-support system, and connecting it surgically to a series of computers via delicate synaptic connections (a Brain–computer interface.) The brain "feels" the ship (or any other connected peripherals) as part of its own body. An example, The Ship Who Sang (1969) short story collection by science fiction author Anne McCaffrey is about the brainship Helva.
The video game Cortex Command revolves around the idea of brains being separated from physical bodies, and used to control units on a battlefield.
The science fantasy television series LEXX includes a robot head containing human brain tissue.
In the Doctor Who episodes "The end of the world" and "New Earth" Lady casandra is an isolated brain attaced to a canvas of skin with a face.
In philosophy
In philosophy, the brain in a vat is any of a variety of thought experiments intended to draw out certain features of our ideas about knowledge, reality, truth, mind, and meaning. A contemporary version of the argument originally given by Descartes in Meditations on First Philosophy (i.e., that he could not trust his perceptions on the grounds that an evil demon might, conceivably, be controlling his every experience), the brain in a vat is the idea that a brain can be fooled into anything when fed appropriate stimuli.
The inherently philosophical idea has also became a staple of many science fiction stories, with many such stories involving a mad scientist who might remove a person's brain from the body, suspend it in a vat of life-sustaining liquid, and connect its neurons by wires to a supercomputer which would provide it with electrical impulses identical to those the brain normally receives. According to such science fiction stories, the computer would then be simulating a virtual reality (including appropriate responses to the brain's own output) and the person with the "disembodied" brain would continue to have perfectly normal conscious experiences without these being related to objects or events in the real world.
Growing an isolated brain
Isolated biological "brains", grown from cultured neurons which were originally separated, have been developed. These are not the same thing as the brains of organisms, but they have been used to control some simple robotic systems.
In 2004 Thomas DeMarse and Karl Dockendorf make an adaptive flight control with living neuronal networks on microelectrode arrays.
Teams at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Reading have created neurological entities integrated with a robot body. The brain receives input from sensors on the robot body and the resultant output from the brain provides the robot's only motor signals.
See also
