Slashdot Mirror
More Brains Needed
Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that more people need to donate their brains to medical research if cures for diseases like dementia are to be found and are urging healthy people as well as those with brain disorders to become donors. 'For autism, we only have maybe 15 or 20 brains that have been donated that we can do our research on. That is drastically awful,' said Dr Payam Rezaie of the Neuropathology Research Laboratory at the Open University. 'We would need at least 100 cases to get meaningful data. A lot of research is being hindered by this restriction.' Part of the problem, according to Professor Margaret Esiri at the University of Oxford, may be that people are reluctant to donate their brains because they see the organ as the basis of their identity. 'It used to be other parts of the body that we thought were important,' says Esin. 'But now people realize that their brain is the crucial thing that gives them their mind and their self.' Dr Kieran Breen, of the Parkinson's Disease Society, said over 90% of the brains in their bank at Imperial College London were from patients, with the remaining 10% of 'healthy' brains donated by friends or relatives of patients. 'Some people are under the impression that if they sign up for a donor card that will include donating their brain for research. But it won't,' says Breen. 'Donor cards are about donating organs for transplant, not for medical science.'"
You can have my brain when you pry it from my cold, dead...
Oh wait.
...I know I do. I've heard horror stories over and over again about how donating your body to science means racking up large bills for your family.
Offer me a 'cheaper than being buried' option, and I'd consider it.
welcome our future zombie overlords and have already donated my brain to them.. (Sorry science!)
ie, I bet they have all the adult brains they need. how about some child brains?
"think of the children"
come on, kids. some of you are not using yours. can't you help the good cause out?
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
It's not that I don't want to donate my brain, it's just that I've already promised other people that I would have my brain cryogenically frozen so that I can be resurrected at some point in the future, and I'd hate to let those people down.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
More Brains Needed! yah here too. desperately.
When you're dead, you're dead. It's not like your brain wont be rotting in the ground anyway.
Get over the fact that the universe doesn't care about you and help science!
'Some people are under the impression that if they sign up for a donor card that will include donating their brain for research. But it won't,' says Breen. 'Donor cards are about donating organs for transplant, not for medical science.'"
Well to be honest, I have always kinda hoped that having my donor card would mean they might transplant my brain...
The enemies of Democracy are
I'm told I have shit for brains, so I'm donating mine to local gardening enthusiasts.
The main problem I have with donating body parts for scientific research is that I don't want silly medical students using bits of me to play pranks on each other!
I just hope my brain will not end like this:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QzqmUTTjhgY/RoLDOb8CSWI/AAAAAAAAAiU/MYyX63ACIzM/s1600-h/abbynormal.jpg
They certainly are. Unfortunately, the trend seems to be the in the other direction. Especially among politicians.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Someone's been playing Left 4 Dead too much I think!
The medical students are practicing with dead bodies all the time. Why can't those brains?
Medical Researchers were zombies? ANYONE???
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
I'll only donote my brain if it's smashed up with a hammer first - or some L33t h4ck3r5 might steal my secrets and credit card numbers!
If you are going to donate a brain, there are recommended packing instructions.
And don't risk using UPS, since Sterling Courier Systems is the pathologist's preferred shipper.
That's not necessarily true. For example, I do a lot of thinking with another part of my anatomy. Ask anyone.
include $sig;
1;
What if I'm not quite certain which category I belong in?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Don't you watch late night TV? The real reason is that the donated brains are going to zombie research (trying to recreate zombie Jesus). There aren't enough brains left over to do non-zombie research.
Replace the removed brain with an electronic brain. A simple one would suffice. All it would have to do is say "What?" and "Where's the tea?"
I am officially gone from
My mom had completed the paperwork to donate her body to the local medical school before she found out she had a rare degenerative (untreatable and invariably fatal) neuromuscular disorder. in her consultations with the neurology team at the local school, they determined that the leading research team was at another major university, so they just added that school to the paperwork to receive her brain and spinal cord. other than completing the paperwork, signing it and advising her next of kin, the process was seamless. the funeral home guys picked her up after she died and we gave them the paperwork. the university guys took it from there.
easy. and very satisfying.
Is anybody else here thinking of Jonathan Coulton's Re: Your Brains?
Heya, Tom' its Bob from the office down the hall
Good to see you, buddy; howve you been?
Thing have been OK for me except that Im a zombie now
I really wish youd let us in
I think I speak for all of us when I say I understand
Why you folks might hesitate to submit to our demand
But heres an FYI: youre all gonna die, screaming
(chorus)
(zombies) "All we want to do is eat your brains!"
Were not unreasonable; I mean, no ones gonna eat your eyes
All we want to do is eat your brains
Were at an impasse here; maybe we should compromise:
If you open up the doors
Well all come inside and eat your brains!
I dont want to nitpick, Tom, but is this really your plan?
To spend your whole life locked inside a mall?
Maybe thats OK for now but someday youll be out of food and guns
And then youll have to make the call
Im not surprised to see you havent thought it through enough
You never had the head for all that bigger picture stuff
But, Tom, thats what I do, and I plan on eating you, slowly
(chorus)
(zombies) "All we want to do is eat your brains!"
Were not unreasonable; I mean, no ones gonna eat your eyes
All we want to do is eat your brains
Were at an impasse here; maybe we should compromise:
If you open up the doors
Well all come inside and eat your brains!
Id like to help you, Tom, in any way I can
I sure appreciate the way youre working with me
Im not a monster, Tom...well, technically, I am
I guess I am
Ive got another meeting, Tom; maybe we could wrap it up
I know well get to common ground somehow
Meanwhile Ill report back to my colleagues who were chewing on the doors
I guess well table this for now
Im glad to see you take constructive criticism well
Thank you for your time; I know were all busy as hell
And well put this thing to bed
When I bash your head open
(chorus)
(zombies)"All we want to do is eat your brains!"
Were not unreasonable; I mean, no ones gonna eat your eyes
All we want to do is eat your brains
Were at an impasse here; maybe we should compromise:
If you open up the doors
Well all come inside and eat your brains!
"99 dead duelists of Dios on the wall. 99 dead duelists of Dios! Take one's ring, pass it around..."
Hey, I resemble that remark!
We need more like the ones from this gal named Abby Normal.
They seem to be missing.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
IANANeuroscientist (yet?, wish me luck), so I don't really know how science experiments on brains. Is it simple observation of brain physiology, or do they actually "zap" it a little and see what neural pathways are activated?
If it gets zapped, an interesting philosophical question arises. If consciousness is an emergent property of a neural network, then would activating a small network bring some small fraction of consciousness to a brain? I realize that if this was the case, it would be on a very low level, maybe not even comparable to the lowest vertebrates. I also realize perception is immeasurable, but if, while alive, I can retrieve a memory and re-experience a stimulus, could a dead brain "remember" things that had been stored to memory while living? Could new memories be created?
Trying to cure Autism is like trying to cure innate stupiditity, I have serious doubts you'll be able to change the neurological wiring with any efficacy.
Certain learning techniques can be used to improve synaptic formation in those with a lower amount of total neurons, thus increasing their mental capacity somewhat, which works for some of those individuals born with below-average intelligence. But how do you fix someone with "too many"?
Of course, currently, most Psychologists/Psychiatrists work on the concept of treatment with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and/or drug treatment:
"Now Jimmy, if people are WRONG, just go along with it and pretend they aren't, and here, have some SSRIs, we dont' know if these will fuck you up for life, but it's easier on everyone else if we give you pills".
How about we just lobotomize them all instead? Sound good?!
The sentance above is an example of hostile sarcasm.
Anyway, I'm more than happy to donate any bits of me that Medical Research can use!
Disclaimer: I'm not a Neurologist/Neurosurgeon/Neuropsychiatrist - happy for anyone else to correct me if I'm incorrect somewhere and they've got the knowledge.
A Man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties -- Albert Einstein
Well, If they can keep it alive outside your body, all the better it allow them in the future to put you in a robotic body with lasers and guns and you only malfunction when you start seeing your family.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I have known several nurses, and many more in the helping professions, and their advice has been universally the same to me: Never get an organ donor card. Never. This is for two reasons. The first is that there is a huge shortage of tissue across the board. The second is that most of the hospital staff knows this and they aren't going to work as hard to save your life if you've got one of those organ donor cards. My friends have actually overheard doctors talking and saying to the effect of -- "Well, he kinda screwed himself here, hitting that other car head on at 80 MPH. Damn drunk. We could spend $40k in surgery on a 1 in 7 chance that he'll survive, or we can take his organs now and be 85% sure it was the right choice to make. And the surgeon's already put fifteen hours in today! I don't want to be the one to tell him he's got another four hours before he can go home for this bonehead..."
These people make triage decisions every day. Don't take this personally, but you aren't a person laying on the table but a machine that's broken. You're just like a thousand other lumps of flesh that come through the doors every day. Don't think you're special. Do. Not. Real life is not like those campy medical/reality TV shows you laugh along with. There are no witty one liners, there is no epic drama where the doctor comes in and realizes it's some rare disease from bum fuck egypt with a cursory glance. There's just a lot of really tired people with a dark and dry sense of humor, who live on caffeine, try not to make any big mistakes, and hope their significant other will put up with the long hours and 4am emergency pages for just a few more years until they pay off their student loans.
That doesn't mean they don't care, or that they're ghoulish devils come to suck your precious organs. But it does mean-- don't put that sticker on your license. They don't know you. They don't care. There's a thousand other people behind you and a thousand more ahead of you and they have a job to do. No. I'm not lying. No this isn't an urban legend. No I didn't hear this from a friend of a friend, I heard this directly from the mouths of the people who can point out names and faces of the people who have said stuff like this--Just so we're clear. I'm not trying to scare you, I have no hidden agenda. If you really want to be an organ donor, tell your friends and family, have it in your will, tell them where it is, and make sure they're clear that it's what you really want and you'll come back and haunt their ass if they don't make your last requests. Just don't put it on your license.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
"...with the remaining 10% of 'healthy' brains donated by friends or relatives of patients."
Errm.. won't they need them for when they go visit?
' Part of the problem, according to Professor Margaret Esiri at the University of Oxford, may be that people are reluctant to donate their brains because they see the organ as the basis of their identity.
I would have thought that they only accepted brain donations from families of people who have already died. Certainly donating your brain while you are still alive would have an effect on your identity. I would hope this practice stops.
I need more people with brains at my job too.
I have donated my brain in Australia
http://www.braindonors.org/
I'm not gonna be needing it after the Aus Gov filter my internet... so why keep it ? :-P
"Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far
Even more despicable than trying to create fear, uncertainty and doubt of Open-Source, are people who try to do the same thing against those who would save lives... I hope you sleep well girlintraining.
A Man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties -- Albert Einstein
The Chinese execute most prisoners by a single rifle bullet to the back of the head. The brain would therefore be useless.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
for a desktop item picture, it'll make a great folder icon for say, Documents. But masked properly please, a black box border looks awful.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
I'm sure they could make an exception, like shooting at the gut. Sure, it's more painful and a slow way to die but if money is to be made then they should just suck it up for the greatness of their country.
Apparently they're just used by medical students for scalpel practise.
Alot (possibly the majority) of them are, however, would you rather a surgeon who's never practiced working on you while you're alive?
Take your FUD elsewhere.
A Man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties -- Albert Einstein
They're not just used for scalpel practice - they're used for anatomical studies so that when your surgeon is opening you up, they know what all your organs actually look like and don't spend half an hour playing "find the body part we want". In order to be successful in dissection and surgery, you need to have practice on real flesh, because it's never as neat as the plastic models of the body would make you think.
Amenacier
"Part of the problem, according to Professor Margaret Esiri at the University of Oxford, may be that people are reluctant to donate their brains because they see the organ as the basis of their identity."
Yeah, that's definitely the problem! I need my brain so that I have an identity! I'll not give it up willingly!
You'll have to pry it from my skull you zombies unless I shoot you in your dead head first!
If I remember correctly here in Canada, first it asks if you would like to donate all organs or just specifics, then there is another question asking if they cannot be used for transplant can they be used for medical research.
Think she wants to do without the normal funeral?
So, no thanks. Now, if I could provide additional
support to my family by selling body parts in an
auction after my death, that's another matter.
With some of these transplant operations costing
over a million dollars, I damn well think my
family should get a cut. After all, they just lost
a loved one and even the breadwinner.
The "shortage" is a market distortion. Let the
market be free, and the problem goes away.
If it goes to a foundation for the study of the long term effects of marijuana.
I have this really funny quote that I like to put here. Unfortunately, there's this really annoying thing called a char
In traditional /. fashion, I didn't even bother to RTFA... but I can just envision the folks at Open U saying, "We know you aren't using your brain, so, please, donate your brain to medical research today!"
I know some people I'd like to volunteer for the program. That lemon who made the lane change across all six lanes of the expressway at the last possible second this afternoon, for example.
Or maybe the fact that he did it was evidence that he'd already donated his brain to medical research.
No. I'm not lying. No this isn't an urban legend. No I didn't hear this from a friend of a friend, I heard this directly from the mouths of the people who can point out names and faces of the people who have said stuff like this--Just so we're clear.
Yeah, that's what the urban legends always say.
If somebody actually did say that to you, they're putting you on.
Are you still going to believe them when they tell you about having sex with corpses?
You are all making jokes, but I'd be happy to donate my brain if it would provide even a little data. I'm not planning on dying soon, but if I do I'm really not going to need the brain anymore. So why let it go to waste?
I'd imagine it's important to set these things up before hand. To get any meaningful data, they're going to need to know a lot about my medical history, drug use, and who knows what else. They'll also want to be notified quickly after death, there are a lot of changes that take place in the brain immediately after death. I wonder how it all works.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
This article was automatically posted by a /. zombie process... ^Z^Z^Z^Z...
We now return you to normal service.
... and I'm not just referring to the incoming students. If you want to donate and live in the northeast, try the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center at McLean Hospital. They have forms you can fill out on the site, but only if you don't plan to use your brain permanently. (Disclaimer: I used to fix their computers.)
to get someone with dimensia to hand over their brains?
While I am all for organ donation and digging into defective brains.
I am completely against medical therapies which prematurely terminate the life of an individual
While I am completely aware that there is a medical case for declaring an individual as "dead".
So long as the individual's brain is intact and can be preserved, using technologies known to Alcor and/or other preservation organizations -- one is not "dead" -- i.e. the physicians pronouncement in the ER is WRONG.
I realize that I am promising potential future technologies. But you have to realize that the past can be broken. And more importantly that is the course that humanity has chosen.
We can hypothesize all we want about why people WOULDN'T donate their brains to science, but when a lot of people aren't aware of the process for doing so, well it seems like maybe we've found a good reason why people DON'T.
there are hundreds of things associated with autism which any individual has a sampling of.
Wait, you mean, I could randomly say... because someone is very interested in something "uncommon" and spends time doing it, and also mistypes the occasional letter, or uses uncommon language, that they have Autism/Aspergers???
;)
Oh, and that typically these tendancies are exhibited mostly in males? (and sometimes sound alot like savantism?)
Do the Psychiatric community know this?!?!?!
A Man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties -- Albert Einstein
I'm guessing most of the planet would be curious to know just how this jackass managed to cause so much suffering to so many. It'd be a service to world peace (yeah I know, bare with me) to prevent history repeating itself. Perhaps the answer lies in the brain. I'm sure there'd be plenty of concerned citizens around the globe who'd happily speed up the donation if they got the chance. Perhaps letting Dubya retire to Baghdad to revel in his successful war to restore democracy to Iraq would work, he'd need to pay for his own security of course, the deficit he's left behind can't stretch to excesses like protecting him from his own mistakes.
Dubya has to be a fascinating study, how an imbecile managed to do so much damage. Logic and common sense has no answers to this. Maybe a vaccine can be discovered and fed into the air supplies of government buildings the world over.
"I'll say."
dot-sig.
For those of us willing to have our former bodies used for any good purpose, the existing system is frustrating because there is no coordination among multiple uses. Your body can be put to three different uses after death: (a) organ donation; (b) medical research; (c) medical training. Organ donation and medical research are in principle compatible - whatever organs aren't need for transplantation are available for research. However, neither of these uses is compatible with medical training: medical schools want the whole body for use in anatomy classes, not whatever is left after bits have been removed for transplantation or research. Furthermore, at least here in British Columbia, and as far as I know, everywhere else, there are three separate systems for the three uses. What I would prefer is to be able to sign up in one place to donate my body for whatever is the best use at the time. If an organ is critically needed, give it to someone, and use the remainder for research. If no organs are needed for transplantation, use it for research or anatomy class, wherever the need is greater.
In my Dad's Pre-Med (post WWII, 1940's) class there were all guys and one girl. During the cadaver dissection period, someone cut the penis off one of the cadavers and put it in the lab coat pocket of the girl. My Dad still laughs, remembering the look on her face when she accidentally discovered it, Mom laughs right along..
They sure knew how to have fun in Days of Yore!
While I'm sure there are some surprising uses for corpses, I can assure you testing fire suits is not one of them.
They are tested using sophisticated bipedal structures of gelatin and/or elastopolymers that resemble the human body in rigidity and thermal decomposition properties. Those mannequins have hundreds or thousands of pressure and temperature sensors over them to determine how much protection fabrics can provide and where they are ineffective.
You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
More Brains!
Oh, and check out the zombie pinup calendar for 2009.
O lord, bless this thy holy hand grenade, that with it thou mayest blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.
In computers, it would be pointless to relentlessly study the physics of semiconductors or arrangements of NAND gates if your interest was object oriented and functional programming. Equally, such an understanding (physics and logic circuits) would not help find most software bugs (especially a case of the wrong algorithm being used.) In such cases, the meaning occurs on a higher level of abstraction.
Why do the many researchers into the human brain think that this sort of thing won't happen with the brain and the mind, i.e. why do they think understanding the brain will give an understanding of mental dysfunction?
If there are universality phenomena at work (analogous to Turing completeness), then many of the workings of the mind will not be specific to the implementation details (i.e. the specifics of brain under study.) Such things need theoretical and mathematical insight, and not the cutting up of more brains.
Just my 0.02 euros...
John_Chalisque
I'd have to think twice before donating any part of my body to a Dr. Breen.
Is anybody else here thinking of Jonathan Coulton's Re: Your Brains?
Yeah, samzenpus is.
I'm donating all my organs, but with a proviso that they use at least 70% and all to one recipient...
That way it's less of an organ donation, and more a hostile takeover...
Yors sEnsErily,
Zombees
http://www.tor.com/images/phocagallery/comic/Bieri/Bieri-Z12-01.jpg
Seriously.
Jokes are great, but I'm looking for information on HOW TO SIGN UP!
I WANT to donate my brain to science after I die, but I have no idea what paper work I have to fill out to do this in my province/country. (Ontario, Canada)
Anyone have the necessary information? Please post.
Zombie Research!
Scientist1: "Braaains..."
Scientist2: "Braaains!"
Scientist3: "Braaains?"
Scientist2: "Braains!"
Can people with dementia donate their brain? I thought you had to be sound mentally to make such a decision. If they can't donate their brain due to their mental state, can someone else do it for them? Or do they need to donate when they are young and vibrant and maybe the scientist will get a good mix.
We would need at least 100 cases to get meaningful data.
How many brains come in a case?
(Obvious answers, to preclude some of you smart-alecks out there:
)
Any sufficiently simple magic can be passed off as mere advanced technology.
Well, for a hostile takeover, just donate your brain, but for transplant, not for research.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
I wondered why rush hour in the Twin Cities seemed worse than normal this morning. Now I know why. Some folks found out about this and donated early.
No "5, Funny" zombie-related post yet?
Oh, come on...
I believe we employ a few in management.
How do I encrypt my pr0n and social so nobody steals my identity?
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
Everybody in the outgoing Bush Administration.
Oh, wait, they don't have any to donate...
Never mind.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
they're not unreasonable. i mean, no one's gonna eat your eyes.