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Is there such thing called transplanting a body? I thought it would be transplanting a brain because brain is part where memories etc live? Yea there are some p

Is there such thing called transplanting a body? I thought it would be transplanting a brain because brain is part where memories etc live? Yea there are some philosophical queries but you know ...

esperent 6y ago
> brain is part where memories etc live? As far as we know. But we really know so little and there's a lot of interesting work being done regarding the networks of nerves in other parts of the body. It's extremely likely that the brain is where most of the memories are stored, things like your name and age and so on. It could turn out that a lot of other types of memory, like muscle memory or emotional memory, are more distributed.
- vagrantJin 6y ago
  What do you mean by distributed? As in memories are not stored in the brain or are stored in the brain but in different pathways?
  - thendrill 6y ago
    Look at it from a computer perspective. Just because software runs from the cpu, doesn't mean you can move a cpu to another computer and expect the software to run. Pretty much the same with a hard disk. You can't take a copy of an exe file and run it on Unix just because you have the same hardware. I have a feeling that humans are not far off. Just because your brain has all the info when it is working, doesn't mean that the brain stores, loads and manipulates all of it there. For all we know the brain is just like Ram. And consciousness gets loaded ( initialized) from somewhere else... Maybe ur liver does some fancy pancy DNA unraveling and loading. Maybe it's your gut bacteria that loads your software.... We just don't know. Maybe more of it is distributed along the nerv system around ur body. Where does the brain end and nervous system begin?
- jillesvangurp 6y ago
  Actually, we know that removing limbs and organs doesn't change memories or personality. Happens all the time. Plenty of gruesome accidents and conditions that can cause that. People seem to survive that kind of trauma without side-effects on memory or personality (well, besides the impact of major trauma). We also know we can replace limbs and organs with replacements from donors and our brains remember how to use them. This has also been used to control artificial limbs even. Also, hand transplants have been performed already, for example. Finally, we pretty much know the layout of the brain pretty well and personality changes because of brain injuries are well documented. Also companies like Neuralink seem to be well on their way to repair and augment brains. Also, there have been cases of musicians undergoing brain surgery while playing their instrument so the doctors could see the direct impact of their actions and avoid unnecessary damage. All that suggests that if this distributed memory is a thing, it's a very minor thing that seems to survive transplants and amputations.
- the8472 6y ago
  > muscle memory That's in the cerebellum, part of your brain, not in your muscles. The state that your muscles remember is mostly the amount and composition of muscle fibers, i.e. how strong and fast they are due to exercise.
  - esperent 6y ago
    I didn't mean literally in the muscles, although I should have been clearer. I meant probably in the gut or another area with large nerve clusters. That said, it's unlikely - and for sure, the cerebellum is the likely candidate. But it's not simple and we don't understand it will enough to make any definite claims yet. We'll need to actually do the transplants to find out.
- TaupeRanger 6y ago
  > It could turn out that a lot of other types of memory, like muscle memory or emotional memory, are more distributed They aren't. We've removed almost every body part/organ we can and it doesn't seem to have any effect on your emotional memory. Muscle memory actually involves the nerves of the muscles, we already know that, but it's not the kind of conscious memory the rest of the comment refers to.
tsimionescu 6y ago
In general you think of transplant as taking an organ from a donor (who doesn't need it anymore, in some sense) and giving it to a living patient. But it doesn't make sense to say that you are taking someone's brain to help keep someone else alive: the patient who is saved is the one with the living brain, not the body. There are various discussions and complications around identity, but I don't think anyone doubts that the person who wakes up would go home to the house of the brain, not the house of the body (to reduce this to a very simplistic notion of identity).

Is there such thing called transplanting a body? I thought it would be transplanting a brain because brain is part where memories etc live? Yea there are some philosophical queries but you know ...

esperent 6y ago

> brain is part where memories etc live? As far as we know. But we really know so little and there's a lot of interesting work being done regarding the networks of nerves in other parts of the body. It's extremely likely that the brain is where most of the memories are stored, things like your name and age and so on. It could turn out that a lot of other types of memory, like muscle memory or emotional memory, are more distributed.

vagrantJin 6y ago
What do you mean by distributed? As in memories are not stored in the brain or are stored in the brain but in different pathways?
- thendrill 6y ago
  Look at it from a computer perspective. Just because software runs from the cpu, doesn't mean you can move a cpu to another computer and expect the software to run. Pretty much the same with a hard disk. You can't take a copy of an exe file and run it on Unix just because you have the same hardware. I have a feeling that humans are not far off. Just because your brain has all the info when it is working, doesn't mean that the brain stores, loads and manipulates all of it there. For all we know the brain is just like Ram. And consciousness gets loaded ( initialized) from somewhere else... Maybe ur liver does some fancy pancy DNA unraveling and loading. Maybe it's your gut bacteria that loads your software.... We just don't know. Maybe more of it is distributed along the nerv system around ur body. Where does the brain end and nervous system begin?
jillesvangurp 6y ago
Actually, we know that removing limbs and organs doesn't change memories or personality. Happens all the time. Plenty of gruesome accidents and conditions that can cause that. People seem to survive that kind of trauma without side-effects on memory or personality (well, besides the impact of major trauma). We also know we can replace limbs and organs with replacements from donors and our brains remember how to use them. This has also been used to control artificial limbs even. Also, hand transplants have been performed already, for example. Finally, we pretty much know the layout of the brain pretty well and personality changes because of brain injuries are well documented. Also companies like Neuralink seem to be well on their way to repair and augment brains. Also, there have been cases of musicians undergoing brain surgery while playing their instrument so the doctors could see the direct impact of their actions and avoid unnecessary damage. All that suggests that if this distributed memory is a thing, it's a very minor thing that seems to survive transplants and amputations.
the8472 6y ago
> muscle memory That's in the cerebellum, part of your brain, not in your muscles. The state that your muscles remember is mostly the amount and composition of muscle fibers, i.e. how strong and fast they are due to exercise.
- esperent 6y ago
  I didn't mean literally in the muscles, although I should have been clearer. I meant probably in the gut or another area with large nerve clusters. That said, it's unlikely - and for sure, the cerebellum is the likely candidate. But it's not simple and we don't understand it will enough to make any definite claims yet. We'll need to actually do the transplants to find out.
TaupeRanger 6y ago
> It could turn out that a lot of other types of memory, like muscle memory or emotional memory, are more distributed They aren't. We've removed almost every body part/organ we can and it doesn't seem to have any effect on your emotional memory. Muscle memory actually involves the nerves of the muscles, we already know that, but it's not the kind of conscious memory the rest of the comment refers to.

tsimionescu 6y ago

In general you think of transplant as taking an organ from a donor (who doesn't need it anymore, in some sense) and giving it to a living patient. But it doesn't make sense to say that you are taking someone's brain to help keep someone else alive: the patient who is saved is the one with the living brain, not the body. There are various discussions and complications around identity, but I don't think anyone doubts that the person who wakes up would go home to the house of the brain, not the house of the body (to reduce this to a very simplistic notion of identity).