Weird & Strange

Several years ago, researchers from Yale University succeeded in restoring several functions in the brains of pigs after their death. Hours after the animals were killed in a slaughterhouse, they revived the animals' brains somewhat. In this way, they restored circulation and some of the cell activity in the brain four hours after death.

However, no indication of consciousness was observed in the already deceased pigs, the Yale scientists emphasize. It has been widely accepted for centuries that cell death in the brain is a rapid and irreversible process. A few seconds after cutting off the supply of oxygen and blood, electrical activity and consciousness disappear, and after a few minutes the stored energy is used up and irreversible degeneration occurs.

Researchers have known for some time that viable cells can be extracted from post-mortem brains, even hours after death. These cells can then be kept alive and studied in a laboratory, but the connections and three-dimensional organization of the brain are of course lost.

A professor of neurology at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven wondered whether it might not be possible to study brain cells in an intact brain. To make this possible, the brain cells would have to somehow receive oxygen, nutrients and possibly also chemicals to protect them. After years of research, Yale researchers have discovered a technique for this.

Thanks to their BrainEx technique, they observed various basic functions of the cells in the pigs' brains ten hours after the death of the pigs, which until now were thought to stop a few seconds or minutes after the loss of the supply of blood and oxygen.

(FVDV for Tagtik/Source: BigThink - Cape Breton Post/Picture: Pixabay)