Problem is in the Brain

In the study of the brain, India’s best contribution was its Yogic system. The ancient scientists had discovered the importance of oxygen in maintaining a healthy nervous system. They had, therefore, worked out the close-circuit communication network, connecting the brain with the entire length of the body through the spinal cord. The ancient scientists (rishis) were on the right path when they prescribed shirsha-aasan (standing on the head) for a healthy nervous system without resorting to drugs or external stimulants. But they did not have advantage of modern electronic instrumentation to penetrate the inner-self of the body. They had mostly to rely on observation of the exterior body structure and guess work. Today’s researchers confirm that the nerve cells grow according to the direction received from the nerve growth factor (NGF) and the cells compete for food chemicals provided through the protein.

French embryologist Nicole Le Douarin’s findings, as reported in the New Scientist confirmed that the social-cultural environment and food protein had decisive influence in determining development of brain cells. The cell changes its properties in response to messages and characteristics of electrical activity of chemicals secreted by its neighbouring cells. This may be called “adjacency effect” which means that the environment which includes the cumulative effect of social forces, as well as the chemical reaction of protein in one’s neighbouring environment becomes the decisive factor in the development of our self. For example, the neurons in an embryo, which are only a few micrometres across, have to swim several centimeters to link the spinal cord with muscles in the toes.

Since the early 1970s there had been thousands of cases of grafting, but mostly of the heart, kidney or bone marrow from living or dead donor, usually a mature adult. But the question of brain transplant is an entirely different matter, because the brain is a complex conglomerate of about 10 billion cells interconnected with long fibres of axons, which provide close-circuit communication, linking the entire network of our body communication system including our memory, self-identity and personality growth since conception, called the nervous system. Once disconnected, the brain cells would not survive a grafting operation. Nor can they survive the death of the donor as is the case with eyes or kidneys.

Much more seriously is the threat to the wellbeing of the donor because any tampering of the brain cell affects the totality of the person. Even a brief stoppage of oxygen for a few moments can badly damage the brain cells, causing immediate paralysis. The doctors can keep a heart patient alive artificially, but to make a brain-dead alive artificially is not feasible. This is because unlike other tissues in our body, the brain cells are fully matured at birth. They can increase their numbers by dividing only during the development of the foetus inside the mother’s womb. They can grow to any distance and make new connections but only during the development of the foetus. The brain researchers have, therefore, conducted experiments in grafting tissues from the brains of rat-foetuses into adult rats. Since the cells in the foetuses are not yet fully matured and, therefore, expected to continue the process of establishing connections, it was likely that the young tissues can still have the capacity to divide themselves, and grow into the host’s brain cells.

But identifying the brain cells is the most difficult task, because the cells have variety of shapes and sizes, depending on the region of the brain and the job it has to perform in the nervous system. Each brain cell is identified by its specific chemical number. They communicate with each other, in the vast nervous system of billions of neurons, by releasing a chemical, called neurotransmitter which the receiving cell accepts through a specialized molecule,

The most challenging problem before neuroscientists is to map this complex chemical communicating system, and number the billion cells and their matching appropriate receptors. Unlike the eye or kidney, the brain consists of interconnected circuits that help each other’s activity. And, therefore when one circuit is damaged, other connected circuits would also be affected and misfunction, even if they are not damaged. For the brain surgeons, therefore, it is necessary to replace the whole defective circuit in order to restore the entire nervous system of our body. Researchers, however, hope to apply Nano-Science technology to handle the nervous system enclosed in the network of neuronic human brain. But the Nano Sciences are not expected to be developed before 2050.

When brain grafting becomes possible, we will be able to overcome the so far incurable diseases which cause irreparable damage to a specific region inside the brain. Among the most dreaded brain illnesses are Parkinson’s disease which affects the functioning of our muscles and Alzheimer’s disease which causes memory failure mostly in the elderly.

Whenever the brain tissues are deprived of oxygen, probably damage occurs in a specific region but it affects the whole system. In epilepsy, seizures begin with the functioning of nerves in a restricted area being hit, but it spreads to the entire nervous system and thus affects the whole body.