Scientists Say the Human Brain May Have Started as Two Separate Organs That Fused Together
Researchers found the forebrain and hindbrain arise from different progenitor cells, a split that could help explain why hindbrain disease research has lagged.
- Researchers at Stanford University published a study in Nature Neuroscience suggesting the brain comprises two separate organs that evolved independently, challenging the long-held belief it is a single, contiguous entity.
- For thousands of years, dating back to ancient Greece per the Stanford Encyclopedia, scientists believed the brain originated from a single developmental path. The new research indicates the brain forms from two separate nervous systems.
- Both regions feature different chromatin, a mixture of DNA and RNA, setting them on independent developmental paths. Researchers found two separate progenitor cells responsible for forming the forebrain and hindbrain independently.
- "Our discovery means that we can now grow neurons from the back of the brain, the hindbrain, in a petri dish and study their functions," said Kyle Loh. This enables investigation of hindbrain-related diseases.
- This study supports the "lizard brain" theory regarding core functions like breathing. It parallels evolutionary patterns in jellyfish, which diverged from humans 600 to 700 million years ago, suggesting these distinct systems eventually merged.
38 Articles
38 Articles
Scientists have long regarded the brain as a single organ, with a common developmental origin. A new research conducted by Stanford Medicine questions this basic hypothesis, suggesting that what we call the brain is actually made up of two distinct systems that have emerged separately over hundreds of millions of years of evolution, reports Science Daily, according to Agerpres.
Berliner Morgenpost
A spectacular Stanford study reveals how our complex brain was created can still be seen today. What's behind it.
The study can also help in the research of several diseases.
Photography shows a mouse embryo at 9.5 days of age and represents the two distinct origins of the brain during development. Stanford Medicine Unlike what science has believed for centuries, the human brain may not have a single origin during its development. This is what points to a new research led by scientists at Stanford University and published in the scientific journal "Nature Neuroscience".
The brain could be formed by combining two separate nervous systems hundreds of millions of years ago, and this was assumed by researchers at Stanford University (into the register of unwanted organizations in the Russian Federation), who discovered that its front and rear sections were developing from different types of pre-destroyed cells, a team led by Kyle Lo studied the early stages of the development of mice embryos, and found that cells i…
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