Can lab grown "mini" brains really be smarter than human brains?

October 30, 2019 / Bio Valley bio on / -- in the laboratory, the technology of assembling cell clusters into human miniature brain version is attracting more and more scientists' attention These brain organs transformed from stem cells can provide unparalleled insight for human brain, which is well known to be difficult to study But some researchers worry that these mini brains may generate some form of consciousness, and sometimes even transplant it into animals, so as to at least sense the degree of pain and trapped If this is right, we must think about it with great care before we consider making it possible Compared with human brain, brain like organs are relatively simple, and they cannot generate consciousness in the same way Due to the lack of blood supply, the size of these brain like organs will not exceed 5mm or 6mm, that is to say, they can generate brain waves similar to those of premature infants Some studies have shown that they can grow neural networks that respond to light There are also signs that such organs can be connected with other organs and receptors of animals, which means that brain organs may not only become perceptual organs, but also be able to communicate with the outside world through the collection of perceptual information Maybe one day, they can produce certain reactions through acoustic equipment or digital output Photo source: 80's child / shutterstock Making mini brains in animals or in artificial biological environment may scare us Researchers believe that this may have far more moral impact than the pain of making mini brains If researchers create a brain, no matter how small it is, it has the ability to process information As long as there is enough time and information input, it can Ability to think independently Some forms of consciousness are universal in the animal world, which is obviously the most complex as human beings Although we don't know what consciousness is, we are still worried that artificial intelligence designed by human beings may produce some forms of consciousness But thought and emotion may be the natural attributes of the network that neurons are assembled through development, and they are more likely to appear in an organism, rather than in a robot This may be a primitive form of consciousness, or even a complete version, as long as it can accept input from the outside world and find ways to interact with it In theory, as long as it can provide the oxygen and necessary nutrients to maintain growth, the mini brain can grow permanently in the laboratory, and its complexity and function will continue to improve; however, if you cultivate the mini brain in the laboratory without time limit in this situation, can it really develop an ideology beyond the ability of human brain? This may worry a lot of people, but it's more worrying that the biological super brain takes over, but remember, this new creature may not have to worry about getting old or dying, because it doesn't have a body in essence This may sound like the first line of a bad science fiction plot, but the researchers don't think these ideas are ever unrealistic It might make sense to slow down research by controlling the size and lifespan of quasars, or to agree widely to suspend research before researchers have reached a payback point, but unfortunately, with the growing popularity of biological laboratories and devices, it will become very difficult, as we have seen, to use gene editing to edit embryos Similarly, future researchers should be cautious when conducting such studies Reference materials: [1] cleber A Trujillo, Richard Gao, Priscilla D negrees, et al Complex waves emerging from continental organizations model early human brain network development, cell stem cell (2019) doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2019.08.002 [2] abed alfatah Mansour, J Tiago Goncalves, Cooper w bloyd, et al An in vivo model of functional and vascularized human brain organoids ， Nature Biotechnology volume 36， pages 432–441 (2018) doi：10.1038/nbt.4127 【3】 Lab-grown mini brains： They could one day outsmart us by Guillaume Thierry， The Conversation