Isolated brain

An isolated brain is a

For methodological reasons, most research on isolated mammalian brains has been done with guinea pigs. These animals have a significantly larger basilar artery (a major artery of the brain) compared to rats and mice, which makes cannulation (to supply CSF) much easier.

History

• 1812 – César Julien Jean Legallois (a.k.a. Legallois) put forth the original idea for resuscitating severed heads through the use of blood transfusion.^[3]
• 1818 – Mary Shelley published Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus.
• 1836 – Astley Cooper showed in rabbits that compression of the carotid and vertebral arteries leads to death of an animal; such deaths can be prevented if the circulation of oxygenated blood to the brain is rapidly restored.^[4]
• 1857 – Charles Brown-Sequard decapitated a dog, waited ten minutes, attached four rubber tubes to the arterial trunks of the head, and injected blood containing oxygen by means of a syringe. Two or three minutes later voluntary movements of the eyes and muscles of the muzzle resumed. After cessation of oxygenated blood transfusion movements stopped.^[5]
• 1884 – Jean Baptiste Vincent Laborde made what appears to be first recorded attempt to revive the heads of executed criminals by connecting the carotid artery of the severed human head to the carotid artery of a large dog. According to Laborde's account, in isolated experiments a partial restoration of brain function was attained.^[6]
• 1912 – Corneille Heymans maintained life in an isolated dog's head by connecting the carotid artery and jugular vein of the severed head to the carotid artery and jugular vein of another dog. Partial functioning in the severed head was maintained for a few hours.^[7]
• 1928 –
  Sergey Bryukhonenko showed life could be maintained in the severed head of a dog by connecting the carotid artery and jugular vein to an artificial circulation machine.^[8][9][10]
• 1963 – Robert J. White isolated the brain from one monkey and attached it to the circulatory system of another animal.^[11]
• 1993 – Rodolfo Llinás captured the whole brain of a guinea-pig in a fluidic profusion system in vitro which survived for around 8 hours and indicates that field potentials were very similar to those described in vivo.^[12]

• 2023 – In a study focused on maintaining pig brain function, a group of researchers from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center succeeded in an experiment related to brain isolation in vivo, researchers developed an extracorporeal pulsatile circulatory control (EPCC) system. This system allowed for the independent regulation of cerebral hemodynamics, distinct from the body's systemic circulation. By surgically altering blood flow to the pig's head and employing a computer algorithm, the experiment aimed to replicate natural blood pressure, flow, and pulsatility. Results showed that under EPCC, brain activity, cerebral oxygenation, pressure, temperature, and microscopic structure remained largely unchanged or minimally perturbed, as compared to the normal circulation state. This outcome highlights the feasibility of studying neural activity and its circulatory manipulation in isolation from the rest of the organism.^[13]

In philosophy

In philosophy, the brain in a vat is any of a variety of thought experiments intended to draw out certain features of our ideas about knowledge, reality, truth, mind, and meaning. A contemporary version of the argument originally given by Descartes in Meditations on First Philosophy (i.e., that he could not trust his perceptions on the grounds that an evil demon might, conceivably, be controlling his every experience), the brain in a vat is the idea that a brain can be fooled into anything when fed appropriate stimuli.

The inherently philosophical idea has also become a staple of many

In 2004 Thomas DeMarse and Karl Dockendorf made an "adaptive flight control with living neuronal networks on microelectrode arrays".[14]^[15]

Teams at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Reading have created neurological entities integrated with a robot body. The brain receives input from sensors on the robot body and the resultant output from the brain provides the robot's only motor signals.^[16][17]

In fiction

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Isolated brain" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The concept of a brain in a jar (or brain in a vat) is a common theme in science fiction.

Literature

• Louis Ulbach's story "Le Prince Bonifacio" (1860) features scenes about a disembodied brain.^[18][19]
• In Dick Donovan's story "Some Experiments with a Head" (1889), the head of a guillotined man is reanimated by electricity.^[20]
• In Carl Grunert's story "Mr. Vivacius Style" (1908), the severed head of a journalist is revived in a laboratory.^[21]
• In Raymond Roussel's novel Locus Solus (1914), the tissues of Georges Danton's head reproduce the speeches he had uttered before his execution.^[22]
• In E. F. Benson' story "And the Dead Spake..." (1922), the brain of a housekipper is conected to a gramophone.^[23]
• An isolated brain gets psychic powers in the short story "The Brain in the Jar" (1924), by Norman Elwood Hammerstrom and Richard F. Searight.^[24]
• In
  Alexander Beliaev's novel Professor Dowell's Head (1925), Professor Dowell discovers a way of keeping heads of dead people alive and even to give them new bodies. After his death Dowell himself becomes a subject of such an experiment.^[25]
• In Guy Dent's novel Emperor of the If (1926), a isolated brain (formerly belonging to a greengrocer) have a power of create alternate realities.^[26]
• The
  Mi-go aliens in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft, first appearing in the story "The Whisperer in Darkness" (1931), can transport humans from Earth to Pluto
  (and beyond) and back again by removing the subject's brain and placing it into a "brain cylinder", which can be attached to external devices to allow it to see, hear, and speak.
• In Edmond Hamilton's Captain Future novels series (1940), the character Prof. Simon Wright is a human brain living in a transparent case.
• In Donovan's Brain (see term), the 1942 science fiction novel by Curt Siodmak (filmed three times in different versions: 1944, 1953 and 1962), the brain of a ruthless millionaire is kept alive in a tank where it grows to monstrous proportions and powers.
• The final novel in
  Space Trilogy", That Hideous Strength
  (1945), uses the isolated brain of Francois Alcasan, an Algerian radiologist guillotined for murder, as a plot device. At some point in the novel, it is revealed that Alcasan's artificially-perfused head is used to allow evil intelligence to communicate with humans directly.
• In Roald Dahl's short story "William and Mary" (1960), after William's death his brain is kept alive on an artificial heart.^[27]
• In Madeleine L'Engle's novel A Wrinkle in Time (1963), the character IT is a disembodied telepathic brain that dominates the planet of Camazotz.
• In Cordwainer Smith's short novel The Boy Who Bought Old Earth (1963, also published as The Planet Buyer, and later included in the longer novel Norstrilia in 1975), the protagonist Rod McBan is "scunned": his head is pickled, his body dehydrated and freeze-dried, and all reconstituted at his destination, for transit via interstellar economy class.
• In
  Destination Void
  (1966), a spaceship is controlled by disembodied human brain called an Organic Mental Core.
• The
  Vagrant or Voice, who has somehow developed self-consciousness and later rebelled against the Ruinators. Due to the Vagrant's fervent desire for a life of those embodied, the Brain has been surgically put into a dragon's body, whose inherent brain was destroyed in a recent battle. Vagrant enjoyed a sentient dragon's life for a few decades after that, until the body grew too senile, and on the threshold of the dragon's death the brain was removed again to assume control over a starship.^[27]
• In the novel Gray Matters (1971) by William Hjortsberg, the protagonist and his acquaintances are all disembodied brains, preserved underground after a nuclear war.
• In P. C. Jersild's novel A Living Soul (1980) a human brain is living in an aquarium, and is a subject of medical experiments
• In
  cymeks
  are disembodied brains that wear robotic bodies.

Television

• The Outer Limits episode "The Brain of Colonel Barham" details the story of a dying astronaut, Colonel Barham. It is decided to separate his brain from his body and keep it alive, with neural implants connecting it to visual and audio input/output for the mission. But without a body, the brain becomes extremely powerful and megalomaniacal.
• Isolated brains also appear in The Wild Wild West. In the episode "The Night of the Druid's Blood", one of James West's old tutors is killed and West discovers that it is Dr Tristam who has removed the brains from the bodies and is forcing them to work for him. Finally West manages to communicate to the isolated brains that if they all work together they can destroy Dr Tristam and have peace.
• Isolated brains also appeared in Star Trek. In the episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion", the Providers are disembodied brains that kidnap individuals in order to force them to fight against each other. Later, in the episode "Spock's Brain", Mr. Spock's brain is removed by a native of the Sigma Draconis system in order to serve as the Eymorg Controller. Due to Vulcan physiology, Spock's body remains alive. The crew of the Enterprise follow an ion trail to Sigma Draconis VI where, using the knowledge of the Eymorg, Dr. Leonard McCoy is able to restore Spock's brain to his body.
• In the 1970s
  Lady Cassandra
  is an isolated brain attached to a canvas of skin with a face.
• The Wonder Woman episode "Gault's Brain" features the classic "brain in a vat".
• Observer from Mystery Science Theater 3000 carries his brain in a Petri dish
  .
• The
  LEXX
  includes a robot head containing human brain tissue. Also whenever the current Divine Shadow body dies his brain is removed and placed in a device that allows him to speak and kept with rest of the Divine Predecessors.
• In the animated series Futurama, numerous technological advances have been made by the 31st century. The ability to keep heads alive in jars was invented by Ron Popeil (who has a guest cameo in "A Big Piece of Garbage") and also apparently Dick Clark of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve fame still doing the countdown in the year 2999, has resulted in many political figures and celebrities being active; this became the writers' excuse to feature and poke fun at celebrities in the show. In "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid" the Big Brain, an isolated brain and leader of the Brainspawn, is outwitted by Fry. The brain's disciples have been attempting to dumb down every lifeform they meet to enable them to steal all the universe's data and hoard it in the infosphere.^[27]
• In the animated series Evil Con Carne, the main character Hector Con Carne was reduced to a brain and a stomach in two jars. Both of them are able to move and talk, even without jars. Hector's brain sometimes controls the bear Boskov while Hector's stomach digests parts of Boskov's food.
• The 2011 web series The Mercury Men features a brain in a jar^[28] ("The Battery") that can communicate telepathically and over a walkie-talkie-like devices and is revealed to control the "mercury men" for a catastrophic plan to destroy Earth.^[29][30]

Film

• In the
  neurosurgeon, falls in love with a disembodied brain that was able to communicate with him telepathically
  .
• In the movie Blood Diner, two cannibal brothers bring their uncle's (isolated) brain back to life to help them in their quest to restore life to the five-million-year-old goddess Shitaar. Their uncle's brain instructs them to collect the required parts to resurrecting Shitaar – virgins, assorted body parts, and the ingredients for a "blood buffet".
• In RoboCop 2, the brain, eyes, and much of the nervous system of the Detroit drug lord Cain is harvested by OCP officials to use in their plans for an upgraded "RoboCop 2" cyborg. These systems are stored in a vat shortly after the surgery, where the disembodied Cain can still see the remains of his former body being discarded before being placed into the fitted robotic skeleton.
• The mad scientist in the French film The City of Lost Children has a "brain in a vat" for a companion.
• In the movie Crank: High Voltage, Ricky Verona's head is kept alive in a tank so that he can watch his brother kill their enemy.
• The movie Pacific Rim Uprising has a brain kept alive through artificial means as a way for new Jaeger pilots to practice drifting.

Comics

• More Fun Comics #62 (Dec. 1940) had the Spectre battle a human brain in a vat that had developed enormous powers and become mobile and sprouted an arm.
• Word-Bringer
  .

Anime and manga

• Many people in the Ghost in the Shell manga and anime franchise possess cyberbrains, which can sustain a modified human brain within a cybernetic body indefinitely.
• One of the main antagonists in the anime series Psycho-Pass, the Sibyl System, is a secret organization of former criminals who, upon joining the group, had their brains surgically removed from their bodies and placed inside glass containers in an underground complex, from where they were able to surveil the country's citizens.

Video games

• In the Fallout series of games, isolated brains are used to control robots called "Robobrains".^[27] In the Old World Blues downloadable content for the video game Fallout: New Vegas a group of scientists, dubbed the "Think Tank", have a more advanced version of the technology.
• The video game Cortex Command revolves around the idea of brains being separated from physical bodies, and used to control units on a battlefield.
• The Mother Brain from the game Metroid.^[27]
• In Streets of Rage 3, Mr. X is now a brain in a jar that fights by controlling a robot named Robot Y, known as Neo X in the Japanese version.
• In The Evil Within, the brain of Ruvik, the antagonist of the game, is removed and placed in vitro suspension in order to operate STEM.

Other

• A brainship is a fictional concept of an interstellar starship. A brainship is made by inserting the disembodied brain and nervous system or malformed body of a human being into a life-support system, and connecting it surgically to a series of computers via delicate synaptic connections (a brain–computer interface). The brain "feels" the ship (or any other connected peripherals) as part of its own body. An example, The Ship Who Sang (1969) short story collection by science fiction author Anne McCaffrey is about the brainship Helva. "Mr. Spaceship" (1959) is an earlier story by Philip K. Dick about a brainship.
• The B'omarr Monks, of the
  Jabba's Palace.^[31]
• Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.^[27]
• The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game supplement Monstrous Compendium MC15: Ravenloft Appendix II: Children of the Night (1993) features Rudolph Von Aubrecker, a living brain and villain character. The idea was republished as brain in a jar in the third edition Libris Mortis (2004)^[32] and fourth edition in Open Grave (2009) D&D books. Tyler Linn of Cracked.com identified the brain-in-a-jar as one of "15 Idiotic Dungeons and Dragons Monsters" in 2009, humorously stating: "...It's a brain in a jar. Fuck, just kick it over, who's going to know?"^[33] The elder brains, directing force of the illithid race in the game, are also gigantic disembodied brains with powerful psionic powers floating in a tank.^[34]

See also

• Simulated reality
• Locked-in syndrome

References

1. S2CID 84209376
   .
2. S2CID 14604807
   .
3. ^ Google Scholar:("Le Gallois" OR Legallois) 1812
4. PMID 14402794
   .
5. ^ Brown-Sequard C (1858). "Recherches expérimentales sur les propriétés physiologique et les usages du sang rouge et du sang noir et de leurs principaux éléments gazeux, l'oxygène et l'acide carbonique". Journal de la Physiologie l'Homme et des Animaux. 1: 95–122. 353–367, 729–735.
6. doi:10.17711/MyC.2683-3018.2022.002
   .
7. ^ Heymans' biography
8. ^ "Sergej Sergejewitsch Brychonenko". Archived from the original on 2007-01-21. Retrieved 2010-12-14.
9. ^ "Museum of Cardiovascular Surgery". Archived from the original on 2006-02-08. Retrieved 2006-03-06.
10. ^ "Карта сайта". Archived from the original on 2007-01-29. Retrieved 2011-08-25.
11. ^ Pace, Eric (November 25, 1998). "Vladimir P. Demikhov, 82, Pioneer in Transplants, Dies". New York Times.
12. S2CID 2097145
    .
13. ^ Muhammed Shariff; Aksharkumar Dobariya; Obada Albaghdadi; Jacob Awkal; Hadi Moussa; Gabriel Reyes; Mansur Syed; Robert Hart; Cameron Longfellow; Debra Douglass; Tarek Y. El Ahmadieh; Levi B. Good; Vikram Jakkamsetti; Gauri Kathote; Gus Angulo; Qian Ma; Ronnie Brown; Misha Dunbar; John M. Shelton; Bret M. Evers; Sourav Patnaik; Ulrike Hoffmann; Amy E. Hackmann; Bruce Mickey; Matthias Peltz; Michael E. Jessen; Juan M. Pascual (2023). "Maintenance of pig brain function under extracorporeal pulsatile circulatory control (EPCC)". Scientific Reports. 13: 13942.
14. ^ "Thomas DeMarse, Karl Dockendorf, Adaptive flight control with living neuronal networks on microelectrode arrays" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2009-11-08.
15. ^ Brain in a dish acts as autopilot, living computer, Science Daily. 22 October 2004.
16. ISBN 978-3-540-78315-2
    .
17. ^ "Rise of the rat-brained robots", New Scientist. 13 August 2008.
18. ^ "SFE: Ulbach, Louis". sf-encyclopedia.com.
19. ^ Halper, Nick (30 June 2020). "Brain Computer Interfaces: The essential role of science fiction". The Startup.
20. ^ Haining, Peter, ed. (1995). The Frankenstein Omnibus. Orion. p. 263.
21. PMID 19442924
    .
22. doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2004.03.009
    .
23. ISBN 978-0-87338-416-2
    .
24. ISBN 978-0-87338-416-2
    .
25. ISBN 978-0-87338-416-2
    .
26. ISBN 978-0-87338-416-2
    .
27. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "The Top 5 Fictional Characters That Are Literally Just Brains". 2015-06-12. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
28. ^ Weprin, Alex (21 January 2011). "Syfy Picks Up Original Web Series 'The Mercury Men'". Retrieved 16 July 2015.
29. ^ "The Mercury Men Are Here". needcoffee.com. 2011-09-12. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
30. ^ Hall, Randy (2012-02-03). "The Mercury Men". fanfilmfollies.com. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
31. ^ "THE 7 CREEPIEST, FREAKIEST DENIZENS OF JABBA'S PALACE". 2015-07-23. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
32. ^ Collins, Andy and Bruce R Cordell. (Wizards of the Coast, 2004)
33. ^ Linn, Tyler (October 28, 2017). "The 15 Most Idiotic Monsters In Dungeons & Dragons History". Cracked.com. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
34. ^ Baird, Scott (May 20, 2018). "Dungeons & Dragons: 10 Most Powerful (And 10 Weakest) Monsters, Ranked". Screen Rant. Retrieved February 14, 2022.

Further reading

• Fleming, Chet (February 1988).
  ISBN 978-0-942287-02-8
  .
• Librizzi L; Janigro D; De Biasi S; de Curtis M (Oct 2001). "Blood–brain barrier preservation in the in vitro isolated guinea pig brain preparation". J Neurosci Res. 66 (2): 289–97.
  S2CID 30194806
  .
• Mazzetti S; Librizzi L; Frigerio S; de Curtis M; Vitellaro-Zuccarello L (Feb 2004). "Molecular anatomy of the cerebral microvessels in the isolated guinea-pig brain". Brain Res. 999 (1): 81–90.
  S2CID 9746606
  .
• Mühlethaler M; de Curtis M; Walton K; Llinás R (Jul 1993). "The isolated and perfused brain of the guinea-pig in vitro". Eur J Neurosci. 5 (7): 915–26.
  S2CID 2097145
  .
• Kerkut GA (1989). "Studying the isolated central nervous system; a report on 35 years: more inquisitive than acquisitive". Comp Biochem Physiol A. 93 (1): 9–24.
  PMID 2472918
  .
• Llinás R; Yarom Y; Sugimori M (Jun 1981). "Isolated mammalian brain in vitro: new technique for analysis of electrical activity of neuronal circuit function". Fed Proc. 40 (8): 2240–5.
  PMID 7238908
  .
• Blair-St Giles, B. A.; Hillman, H. (August 1983). "Dying and death, with special reference to brain death. A bibliography".
  PMID 6316444
  .