- cross-posted to:
- science@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- science@lemmy.world
The human brain is not a single organ, but two separate systems that evolved independently before fusing together, according to groundbreaking new research. … Armed with the knowledge of how hindbrain cells uniquely form, the team has successfully turned human stem cells into becoming functional hindbrain motor neurons in a lab for the first time.
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Wait so we have two brains and yet our society hasn’t figured out how to use either of them?
Probably three brains if you consider the neural activity going on in the gut and how it interacts with our brain.
In a study published in 2023, the scientists found that long COVID is associated with a reduction in the body’s natural levels of serotonin, a signaling molecule that is produced the brain and the gut. In the brain, serotonin influences mood, sleep and memory. In the rest of the body, it plays a role in physiology, but Thaiss and Levy found that gut-produced serotonin can affect the brain as well.
…
Before these findings, scientists debated how SARS-CoV-2 could cause cognitive problems, as it is unclear if the virus breaches the blood-brain barrier. But the study by Thaiss and Levy suggests that the disease could have direct influence on the brain via the vagus nerve, regardless of whether the virus enters the brain.
…
The gut also contains the largest number of neurons outside the brain of any structure in the body — more than 100 million neurons line the human digestive tract, from the esophagus to the anus. These cells make up what is known as the enteric nervous system, which some scientists refer to as a “second brain.”
It never ceases to amaze me how complicated our bodies and our minds are.
Fuck this shit show. Its connected to the blood system and liver too. It becomes a rabbit hole. Don’t go down it.
esophagus to the anus. … the enteric nervous system, which some scientists refer to as a “second brain.””
Can I get an AI for that, I have a few questions about life here in the US, for AI that understands shit.
Wut
We’re pretty good at using the lizard brain, actually.
Looking at lizards, I think they’re ahead though.
Enjoy sun
Eat some bugs
Lizard lifeAlso the Lizard King writes badass lyrics
Jim Morrison from The Doors sometimes referred to himself as The Lizard King
I thought you were going to:
Enjoy sun
Eat some bugs
???
Lizard life
Enjoy sun
Eat some bugs
???
Lizard profit
Buy an island
Traffic some kids
Control some Governments
Lizard life
Until you spend most of your life in fight or flight. It’s good at reacting quickly, but it’s stupid and won’t let me think
We have lots of brains but we only use 10% of them
You miss 90% of the brains you don’t take
Pretty cool stuff. It’s been well understood for a while that lower brain function governs things like hunger sex and lower animal functions and the frontal cortex governs higher reasoning. Crazy they might have been separate organs at one point.
I don’t find that hard to believe… I have one brain, the brain that is me and I am now communicating with you.
I have a separate brain that makes me hate myself, it gives me anxiety at the highest level… It is why I never was popular in school, lost many friends and it is why I’m now why I’m a loud extrovert at 38 who just wants to help people and talk about how great I am.
I’ll bet that you are over two meters tall!
We barely know anything about the human brain and yet some proclaim that they’re making an artificial general intelligence based on a algorithm that purportedly mimics it.
Now all the people who believe in brain/body dualism are going to have to decide which brain is the cockpit for our homoucli. The good news is that cryogenics is going to get cheaper now that we only have to freeze half of the brain.
The meat does the thinking!
I was expecting this version.
Yeah that’s my second favorite. I have a love for Bob’s Burgers
That one goes way back … to the 90s, maybe even the 80s, I think I first saw it in Harper’s Magazine. Great stuff. I tend to forget about it for years until something (like this) reminds me of it and I find a copy online to read. Meat problems.
In all honesty I introduced my kids to this story the way some parents introduce religious stories. But this one has real insight.
Men always be thinking with the lower one, amirite?
/hi5
Maybe I’m too sleep deprived, but why does “built from two blueprints” equal “is two organs”? When the two base components fuse they become one self-contained unit.
It’s that the brain stem is made of different cells than the forebrain and midbrain. You can’t grow a full brain from one sample of cells. So, it’s considered 2 different organs.
To expand on what frongt said. An organ is a collection of specialized tissues that performs certain specific tasks. The stomach is an organ, the pancreus is an organ, and together they are part of a system. If the brain is more than one organ, we can target specific parts in the tissue differences for lab cell growth (as the article suggests), targeted medicine delivery (due to differences in autonomic braincell makup vs frontal and temporal processing tissues), and the next step in research will probably be how the two brain organs develop connections which could lead to nerve pathway repair (typically very hard to achieve).
They don’t fuse. They’re connected, yes, but so is everything in your body.
I mean so does the whole human body
This is my brain, there are many like it but this one is mine.
And people said either I’m bipolar or just a classic Gemini. Now I’m just going to tell them about this recent study and tell them that hearing two voice in my head is normal.
As long as one of them is only using lizard vocalizations it’s completely normal.
It is. But I still understand it.
Removed by mod
The human brain structure is believed to have once mirrored the nervous networks observed in jellyfish
It’s a shame that humans didn’t evolve more intelligence than our Jelly friends.
Since you only feel like one person which brain has your consciousness
Look up the split brain experiments. They’re incredibly interesting.
We seem to have at least two consciousness, but for most people one of them is almost entirely unable to communicate with the outside world, only the verbal consciousness.
At least, it can observe and respond; I don’t know it has a subjective experience.
that sounds very interesting. do you have an overview you can point me to? thanks.
Friendly video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfYbgdo8e-8
I don’t have links to research or summaries, tho.
The left half of my brain exploded!
Thanks, I’ll check it out.
