Can a dead human brain be restarted?

[Jayjay]

Just a simple question. If brain function ceases completely, but brain cells themselves are more or less intact, can such a brain be revived (with foreseeable future technology)? Or is an ongoing electro-chemical activity in our brain something that is a fundamental requirement for us being who we are?

In other words, is a static image of a brain sufficient to reproduce that brain, or do we need to also track every electronic signal in our neurons as well to fully describe it?

 

[Testy Calibrate]

Yes but only if they are mostly dead

 

[J842P]

Just a simple question. If brain function ceases completely, but brain cells themselves are more or less intact, can such a brain be revived (with foreseeable future technology)? Or is an ongoing electro-chemical activity in our brain something that is a fundamental requirement for us being who we are?

In other words, is a static image of a brain sufficient to reproduce that brain, or do we need to also track every electronic signal in our neurons as well to fully describe it?

That is barely an empirical question that we do not have empirical evidence for anyway. We are only beginning to scratch the surface of understanding complex, electrophysiological phenomena in the brain and how it relates to mental phenomena, let alone "who we are". Don't let the flashy articles based on fMRI fool you, we really know very little.

 

[steve_bank]

'brain dead' means no measurable brain activity.

If you get it to the laboratory in time during a lightning storm attach electrodes to the head and hoist up to get an electric charge.

People who drown in cold water who have been under for a while have been resuscitated. There is a sort of hibernation response

Once the brain is dead - dead I doubt it.

 

[Shadowy Man]

I think this was a plot to a Keiffer Sutherland movie...

 

[barbos]

Just a simple question. If brain function ceases completely, but brain cells themselves are more or less intact, can such a brain be revived (with foreseeable future technology)? Or is an ongoing electro-chemical activity in our brain something that is a fundamental requirement for us being who we are?

In other words, is a static image of a brain sufficient to reproduce that brain, or do we need to also track every electronic signal in our neurons as well to fully describe it?

I think evidence points toward Yes.
Long term human memory seems to be non-volatile. And cellular death due to lack of oxygen does not actually happens because of lack of oxygen, it happens after oxygen supply is resumed.

 

[DBT]

Considering those who have their whole bodies or heads cryogenically preserved, some folks are hoping that resurrection of mind and consciousness becomes possible.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

We do not yet know if the mind is separate from the electrical activity or not.

If it is separate then someday such restoration will probably be possible. If not, it's obviously impossible.

 

[DBT]

We do not yet know if the mind is separate from the electrical activity or not.

If it is separate then someday such restoration will probably be possible. If not, it's obviously impossible.

What is the function of a brain if not to animate the body and generate mind/consciousness?

 

[Bronzeage]

Just a simple question. If brain function ceases completely, but brain cells themselves are more or less intact, can such a brain be revived (with foreseeable future technology)? Or is an ongoing electro-chemical activity in our brain something that is a fundamental requirement for us being who we are?

In other words, is a static image of a brain sufficient to reproduce that brain, or do we need to also track every electronic signal in our neurons as well to fully describe it?

There is a paradox in this simple question. It depends upon why and how brain function ceased. The most common reason for cessation of brain activity is oxygen deprivation. This causes chemical changes in the brain cells which cannot be reversed. Even if the rest of the body can be revived, the brain damage is permanent.

There are some people who believe it is possible to reduce brain activity to very low levels by reducing temperatures to below freezing, but preventing damage by ice crystal formation, and then returning to function. As far as I know, no one has ever frozen a brain and restored it to functioning order, either a human brain, or any mammal.

 

[steve_bank]

We do not yet know if the mind is separate from the electrical activity or not.

If it is separate then someday such restoration will probably be possible. If not, it's obviously impossible.

As a physicist I knew put it, the only way to know for sure us to 'put a bullet into your brainpan'.

 

[steve_bank]

There are frogs who freeze solid and comeback to life when summer comes. They have a natural antifreeze that protects cells.

 

[barbos]

Just a simple question. If brain function ceases completely, but brain cells themselves are more or less intact, can such a brain be revived (with foreseeable future technology)? Or is an ongoing electro-chemical activity in our brain something that is a fundamental requirement for us being who we are?

In other words, is a static image of a brain sufficient to reproduce that brain, or do we need to also track every electronic signal in our neurons as well to fully describe it?

There is a paradox in this simple question. It depends upon why and how brain function ceased. The most common reason for cessation of brain activity is oxygen deprivation. This causes chemical changes in the brain cells which cannot be reversed. Even if the rest of the body can be revived, the brain damage is permanent.

The fact that many small animals evolved to get frozen during winter suggests that brain does not have to die without oxygen
The loss of oxygen supply itself cause no chemical changes, chemical changes happens after oxygen supply is restored. Low body temperature improves success rate. The theory is that programmed cellular death during troubles with oxygen supply is a mechanism to fight cancer, and low temperature confuse this mechanism.

 

[skepticalbip]

There are frogs who freeze solid and comeback to life when summer comes. They have a natural antifreeze that protects cells.

I heard that when I was a kid. Of course, I had to see it before I would believe it so I caught a frog and put it in the freezer. The next morning I took it out of the freezer and watched. After about an hour, it sure enough began moving about, eventually seeming as spry as ever. I did learn something else too. Frogs (at least this frog) takes a healthy piss if put into the freezer. I discovered this when my mother wanted to know what that yellow spot in the frost was. Further experimentation on the frog wasn't possible by mom's orders.

 

[Bronzeage]

Just a simple question. If brain function ceases completely, but brain cells themselves are more or less intact, can such a brain be revived (with foreseeable future technology)? Or is an ongoing electro-chemical activity in our brain something that is a fundamental requirement for us being who we are?

In other words, is a static image of a brain sufficient to reproduce that brain, or do we need to also track every electronic signal in our neurons as well to fully describe it?

There is a paradox in this simple question. It depends upon why and how brain function ceased. The most common reason for cessation of brain activity is oxygen deprivation. This causes chemical changes in the brain cells which cannot be reversed. Even if the rest of the body can be revived, the brain damage is permanent.

The fact that many small animals evolved to get frozen during winter suggests that brain does not have to die without oxygen
The loss of oxygen supply itself cause no chemical changes, chemical changes happens after oxygen supply is restored. Low body temperature improves success rate. The theory is that programmed cellular death during troubles with oxygen supply is a mechanism to fight cancer, and low temperature confuse this mechanism.

This is research with which I am unfamiliar, but I am very familiar with the effects of oxygen deprivation and no amount of oxygen in the world can reverse the effect.

 

[barbos]

The fact that many small animals evolved to get frozen during winter suggests that brain does not have to die without oxygen
The loss of oxygen supply itself cause no chemical changes, chemical changes happens after oxygen supply is restored. Low body temperature improves success rate. The theory is that programmed cellular death during troubles with oxygen supply is a mechanism to fight cancer, and low temperature confuse this mechanism.

This is research with which I am unfamiliar, but I am very familiar with the effects of oxygen deprivation and no amount of oxygen in the world can reverse the effect.

Cancer tumors grow under conditions of blood/oxygen starvation. So one of the mechanism of fighting the cancer is programmed cellular death when such conditions are detected.

 

[bilby]

As emergency medical workers know, you're not dead until you're warm and dead.

It's not practical to confirm brain death in hypothermic patients; Some apparently dead people with severe hypothermia come good when you warm them up - particularly if they had a high blood alcohol level to begin with.

But essentially the OP question is ass-backwards. Death is defined as a state from which the brain cannot be restarted, so if you can restart the brain, then you were (by definition) incorrect to believe that patient was dead.

 

[Cycad]

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/stories-50630441/life-after-death-how-seven-kids-came-back-from-the-dead

Interesting case in 2011 in Denmark where 7 kids hypothermic and allegedly 2 hours without pulse, recovered.
So if no heartbeat, no fresh oxygen to the brain, I guess.
Info however is very basic and incomplete. What treatment did they get by first aid on their way to the hospital etc etc

But as mentioned above and in the clip : "they were dead but not really dead"

 

[Loren Pechtel]

We do not yet know if the mind is separate from the electrical activity or not.

If it is separate then someday such restoration will probably be possible. If not, it's obviously impossible.

What is the function of a brain if not to animate the body and generate mind/consciousness?

You misunderstood. The question is basically whether the mind exists in the structure of the brain or whether it exists in the electrical impulses in the brain. The evidence leans towards structure but that's not proven. If it's structure you could recover the mind from a "dead" but intact brain with sufficient technology. If it's electrical it's gone.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The fact that many small animals evolved to get frozen during winter suggests that brain does not have to die without oxygen
The loss of oxygen supply itself cause no chemical changes, chemical changes happens after oxygen supply is restored. Low body temperature improves success rate. The theory is that programmed cellular death during troubles with oxygen supply is a mechanism to fight cancer, and low temperature confuse this mechanism.

This is research with which I am unfamiliar, but I am very familiar with the effects of oxygen deprivation and no amount of oxygen in the world can reverse the effect.

Oxygen can't restore the situation caused by a lack of oxygen, but that doesn't prove there is no solution. It's not the lack of oxygen itself that fries the brain, it's the return of the oxygen that starts a fatal cascade that at this point we can't stop.

Note that this is solid enough that they are doing experiments in ERs when they get a trauma patient they don't believe they can save some are trying chilling the body fast and deep as they can to buy time. (The intact survival record for no blood flow to the brain in the OR is over an hour--the surgeons knew they were taking an extreme risk but not operating meant she would die soon. Note that this was done with equipment far more crude than what we have available now. For cold water drownings it's considerably longer.)