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The Guardian is reporting that the first (almost) fully formed human brain has been grown in a lab. Note, no paper or data has yet been published, but...
An almost fully-formed human brain has been grown in a lab for the first time, claim scientists from Ohio State University. The team behind the feat hope the brain could transform our understanding of neurological disease.
Though not conscious the miniature brain, which resembles that of a five-week-old foetus, could potentially be useful for scientists who want to study the progression of developmental diseases. It could also be used to test drugs for conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, since the regions they affect are in place during an early stage of brain development.
Is it thinking?
The ethical concerns were non-existent, said Rene Anand of Ohio State University. "We don't have any sensory stimuli entering the brain. This brain is not thinking in any way."
Personally I'd like to see it hooked up to an fMRI just to check.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by meustrus on Thursday August 20 2015, @01:54PM
What do you think would happen to a brain after a year of no stimuli? Not a typical adult brain, mind you. A fetal brain, which has never had any stimuli at all. How would such a brain even grow a concept of "torment"? No stimuli forever would be a constant so peaceful you might better compare it to a cat sleeping 20 hours a day than to a human being trapped in a dark, silent room. Just replace the last 4 hours with more sleep.
No stimuli certainly means no pain, no sadness, no anger, probably no feeling of any sort. No joy or pleasure either, but hey. If the worst you can say is it might be profoundly depressed, I think the ethical concerns are overblown.
Though the existing suggestion of fMRI scans may be an interesting data point to compare against normal, stimulated human brains. And highly unusual stimulated human brains. I could very well be wrong, and we might find the scan mimics mental patients in padded cells. But that kind of stir-craziness comes from somewhere. The most likely state of mind would be profoundly peaceful, probably locked in a perpetual slumber with no ability to even *process* feelings of pain or distress.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?