And on that last note, I also find the idea of brains being transplanted into fully synthetic bodies pretty interesting . I think it will definitely happen at some point and could be a route towards, effectively, immortality.

God now THAT is scary. We would be robots but with actual I instead of AI :laugh:

Have there been any studies on how long a brain can work without illnesses/body and such? By this..have they ever tried to keep a brain alive after the body is gone? I expect not as that sounds horrid but thats the way we would have to go I think if this ever was spoken about...

That's true but young-ish brains adapt those pathways pretty quickly... IIRC eye transplants / synthetic eyes are becoming science fact. Over the course of months / years the brain will rewire to the new perceptions.

The older you get the more fixed the pathways are though. This is why children can often recover to seemingly completely "normal" from a brain injury that would leave an adult disabled.

There are loads of questions there too. Like would it be a dead cert for dementia to set in over 100? How much is that linked to body condition? What are the time limits on human memory?

To answer the basics though, no its not possible yet to remove a brain without damaging it beyond repair.

Bu this guy reckons he will be able to do it by next year? Hmm...

That would be an interesting test.The limit on memory.If a 300 year old could remember anything from childhood or even their 20's.Although most peoples 20's are abit of a blur.

...he predicts a 90% success for the transplant, that's pretty darn high...surely that's a lot higher than some fairly standard by comparison surgeries and I don't understand how that could be predicted with something that's never been done before....

The whole head, not taking the brain out

I can't see how it would be too different? Granted I am not a scientist or anything but I would imagine the main issues with a brain transplant will be getting nerves and such to reattach to the correct places to make it work properly...there will still be this issue with a head transplant :S

I saw this yesterday,it kind of freaks me out.

well, the head is just a bit of covering at its most basic. People have had metal plates put in their heads for decades, i'm also pretty sure we have had a face transplant? Anyway, if you strip it down to constituent parts, considering it as a form of covering only, it may be possible, but my feelings are that its a bit further off than a year yet.

But this is head and brain?

no, i think its just head .... head and brain would involve disconnection from the spinal chord, which is really an extension of the brain in the first place... Brain transplants are in the realms of fiction at the moment.

It says this in the article

Would be no point a disabled guy offering himself up on the chance it may work and improve his quality of life if it was just the head. As putting his head on an able body would not be him, but his brain would be :S

ok, well, he may have made incredible steps forward in discovery and technique, in which case all credit to him, but call me a sceptic :laugh:

No it is the full head + brain... Basically putting some ones head from a "broken body" onto a working body. Like a limb transplant but with the full thing.

Spinal cord reattachment is possible in ideal circumstances, I guess it doesn't work very often after accidents because the cord has been randomly "torn" rather than surgically severed on purpose in just the right place? That would be my guess, anyway.

It's definitely an interesting one because if donor rejection which is linked to the immune system... But the immune system I think is within the body rather than the head so it would be the head that was rejected rather than the donor body. Having your immune system attacking your head and brain would probably be pretty unpleasant :umm2:.

Some researchers are saying that's a contributory factor in Alzheimer's i believe, so yes, wouldn't end well.

I'm all for medical advancement, I'm just a bit sceptical that this is so close to reality on a human, when I haven't even heard of it being successful on pigs for example .... may be i'm just ill informed :worry:

True, you would think they would have done it successfully with an animal long before they would be even talking about humans.

My God, i'm going to have nightmares after reading this thread :worry:

But arista's head on LT's body has always been your dream :think:

Omg I want.

Never

I am Very Fit

This is how they will do it.

I'd rather keep my own head, thanks :nono:

Do you wonder vanessa if it is possible,didn't people at one time think heart transplants could never take place,but the head seems different,proper creepy