Researchers Grow Tiny Human Brain In Lab

schwit1 writes: A team of researchers from Ohio State University claim to have grown a human brain in their lab that approximates the brain of a five-week-old fetus. They say the tiny brain is not conscious, but it could be used to test drugs and study diseases, but scientific peers urge caution. "The brain, which is about the size of a pencil eraser, is engineered from adult human skin cells and is the most complete human brain model yet developed, [the researchers say]. ... Anand and his colleagues claim to have reproduced 99% of the brain’s diverse cell types and genes. They say their brain also contains a spinal cord, signalling circuitry and even a retina." The team's data has not yet been peer reviewed.

Comments

Shocking

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

When a reporter asked the tiny brain how it felt, it replied "Kiiiiiillll meeeee".

Re: Shocking

[jeffb (2.718)]

There is a lot of lab work that makes me squeamish. Come to think of it, there's even more stuff that happens outside a lab that makes me squeamish, but still produces important benefits for my life and many others.

I have kids myself, and I understand how having them can make you empathetic in new ways. This certainly isn't a bad thing.

But suppose your baby were diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease. Would you still reject research that relied on techniques like those described here? Would you reject a treatment or cure, with proven efficacy, because its development had relied on this sort of model? Would you subject your child to experimental therapies that had some chance of success, but some chance of horrible, painful failure, if you instead had the option of trying them first on a model like this grown from your own child's skin cells?

Like I said, some lab work makes me squeamish. I respect the importance of Institutional Review Boards to keep abuses in check. But, on balance, I'm glad that researchers continue to push into new avenues like this, and I expect that the research will eventually prevent a great deal of human suffering.

Re: Shocking

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

Where's the line between "a few cultured brain cells" and "a brain that has a consciousness"?

Re: Shocking

[Kkloe]

well here the abortion limit is set at 22 weeks, so the size of that would be a good limit

Re: Shocking

[Chris Johnson]

Where's the line between 'brain that has a consciousness' and 'Skynet, Elon Musk's worst nightmare'?

Google could easily afford to grow a brain the size of ten thousand human brains. Would there be network effects of some kind, or a transition akin to the way turbulent flow passes a threshold and goes into chaos from normal oscillation? At what point is a brain a super-brain and are humans near that threshold?

Interesting times we live in. Someone, somewhere, WILL try it.

Re: Shocking

[Dcnjoe60]

They should just perform this research on homeless people of all ages. They're not worth anything.

Or maybe Jews, or gays, or any other group that doesn't meet your approval. Personally, I think this type of research should be done on people who post as AC on /.

Re: Shocking

[Lexical_Scope]

You want to do *brain* research on ./ users? Have you really thought this through?

Re: Shocking

[mjm1231]

Define "Human brain activity". Please explain how it can be differentiated from "squirrel brain activity", "snake brain activity", etc. Otherwise, this is a completely meaningless phrase.

Re: Shocking

[ChrisMaple]

Hey moron, who are you going to blame for spontaneous abortions? Whose lives are you going to impoverish because they can't afford to support a child, especially if the child is going to have extreme defects requiring continuous connection to expensive medical equipment?

Most people claiming "all abortions are crimes" are basing their statements on their religious beliefs. Take your religion and shove it into that dark, moist place where your head already is.

Consciousness

[Anonymous Coward]

How do they know it's 'not conscious'? (Note: I am an atheist.)

Re:Consciousness

[Baloroth]

You mean apparently more sophisticated cognitive capabilities. They don't know what this tiny brain is capable of, because it's completely isolated from sensory input. And had no opportunity to develop mentally at all (since, again, it's had no exposure to the world at all). In fact, they argue that because there is no sensory stimulation, the brain can't be thinking. That... well, that's just a crock of shit, quite frankly.

Re:Consciousness

[angel'o'sphere]

What has being an atheist to do with knowing if an artificial grown brain is conscious?

We only know that at that stage of development the brain does not generate brain waves, so the scientists assume it has no consciousness yet.

Re:How did this pass an ethics review?

[Anonymous Coward]

By being perfectly ethical?

Cue the Kneejerk

[VorpalRodent]

I'm not sure how I feel about this research...and that's pretty much why I'm all for this. We don't understand enough to be able to say whether or not this should be happening, and this is the best way we know how to move forward. This is something that doesn't directly harm anyone, and we have no reason to believe that any sort of consciousness exists in it. This should be an obvious win-win that could potentially benefit everyone.

Certainly, this is going to trigger all kinds of knee-jerk responses from a lot of folks. I get that, but those are also the kinds of responses that are regularly made in the absence of any solid understanding of what's going on. That's why we had limited stem cell research for so long. This isn't mad scientist war crimes type stuff. This is the best way to study the human brain without actually stealing one from an unwilling donor.

I don't know how we reconcile the fact that some people have a religious objection to messing with the parts that we're made of and the fact that there's huge benefits to be gained, but we can't dicker around and make everyone happy. Sometimes we just need to get stuff done so that we can say "Just be happy with your cure for ALS."

Re:Cue the Kneejerk

[Mr D from 63]

I wonder if they can stimulate a knee-jerk response in this mini-brain.

Re:Cue the Kneejerk

[Mr D from 63]

OK. Ya got me on that. But then how do you explain knee jerk reactions from spineless cowards?

Re:Cue the Kneejerk

[meta-monkey]

I have similar concerns with the prospect of a strong AI. Not Chinese Room stuff like Watson, but if somebody actually did figure out a way to create an artificial consciousness, do you really think the first thing to pop out of the lab is going to be Mr. Data, all well-adjusted-ish and sane? No, the development process would be a series of failures. Insane, half-formed but thinking entities, terrified, trapped in a box, judged "not good enough" and deleted to make room for version 2.

It's horrific to think about.

Thought experiment: Assume God exists. Look at your life and the world. How much do you love your Creator?

Re:How did this pass an ethics review?

[damn_registrars]

It passed an ethics review because it started from cultured skin cells. Short of implanting them into unwilling participants or using them to attempt human cloning, there is very little that you are prohibited from doing with cultured skin cells. No lives were taken in the process of this experiment.

Just don't put these in front of keyboards

[damn_registrars]

We have enough small-brained comments on slashdot already. Unfortunately some people likely wouldn't be able to tell the difference around here.

I couldn't get the brain you wanted...

[tekrat]

I, uh, I dropped it.
Who's brain did you get?
Abby, Abby someone. Abby Normal I think.
You mean to tell me that I put an Abnormal brain into a 74 inch tall, 54 inch wide.... GORILLLA!!?

Depends...

[DrYak]

Human brain activity starts at ~12 weeks

And yet, some higher functionality, like the frontal lobe, only get fully developed and fully functional only *AFTER* birth.
(For some obvious space-saving reasons that got selected by evolution once we start to try walking upright).
That's why some toys are inappropriate for kids under 36 months old. The part of the brain that prevents them for choking on anything coming nearby their mouth isn't there yet.

The brain isn't a magical machine which a switch that suddenly get turned on at a set point in time.

It's a horrendously complicated machine that only gets to working very progressively and slowly over time, some parts finishing getting wired and myelinated (=electrically insulated) only after on the other side of the birth cannal, when size restrictions matter less.

At 12 weeks, even if a few neurons starts firing, you're far away from the complexity and awarerness of a full grown kids brain.
For fuck's sake, the baby won't have enough brain activity for such simple tasks as preventing itself to choke, and you expect a bunch of neural cells which have barely started to fire to be anything more intelligent than a cockroach ?!