Dr Moreau is born again.
For those of you who did not read HG Wells’ The island of Dr Moreau, it turns out that the good doctor might have been on to something. In the book, Moreau uses surgery to create hybrid animals with some human characteristics. There are now various research efforts using pluripotent stem cells to create clumps of neurons called cortical organoids. These can be used to play the game of Pong (Brain games, Economist). But other efforts are placing them inside rats’ brains to study certain syndromes such as Timothy syndrome. The implanted organoids successfully connect up to the rat’s neurons. Moreau would have been jealous.
Link to article: https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2022/10/12/what-happens-when-human-brain-tissue-is-implanted-into-rats
You may also like to browse other neuroscience posts: https://www.thesentientrobot.com/category/neuroscience/
