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Brain Model Technology and Its Implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2023

Alysson R. Muotri*
Affiliation:
Department of Pediatrics/Rady Children’s Hospital, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA, USA Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA, USA Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
*

Abstract

The complexity of the human brain creates a spectrum of sophisticated behavioral repertoires, such as language, tool use, self-awareness, symbolic thought, cultural learning, and consciousness. Understanding how the human brain achieves that has been a longstanding challenge for neuroscientists and may bring insights into the evolution of human cognition and disease states. Human pluripotent stem cells could differentiate into specialized cell types and tissues in vitro. From this pluripotent state, it is possible to generate models of the human brain, such as brain organoids. The recent observation that brain organoids can spontaneously develop complex neural network activity in a dish can help one understand how neural network oscillations evolve and vary between normal and disease states. Moreover, this finding can be leveraged to other applications outside medicine, including engineering and artificial intelligence. However, as the brain model technology becomes more complex, it raises a series of ethical and moral dilemmas. This article discusses the status of this technology, some of its current limitations, and a vision of the future.

Type
Departments and Columns
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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