In 2022 we they will see organoids in the brain show energy that parallels the complexities that show awareness in humans. This will require us to reconsider what is like the brain signature of “knowledge” and raise the moral dilemmas related to the brain structure that have grown in the lab.
Brain organoids tiny particles of neurons, derived from the stem cells, which represent the various parts of the developing human brain. In medicine, they provide essential biological models that help us to investigate things, such as Zika-induced microcephaly, which affect brain development.
Brain organoids are also important for early brain science research. There is much to be learned about how the brain evolves from its original instructions and how, its structure, contributes to the complex systems that the brain works. Organoids provide a window into the production of neural circuitry that can be detected and modified at will.
The big question that gets bigger as the study progresses in 2022 is whether brain organoids can be “perceptive.” Other than that, they are made of the same material as the human brain-neurons-instead of silicon logic AI gates.
There are already interesting indications that other building blocks exist. In 2019, Hideya Sakaguchi and colleagues at Kyoto University showed special “spiking” phenomena in neural networks derived from organoids. Most interestingly, Alysson Muotri and his team at UC San Diego have found this The organoids of the brain exhibit interlocking electrical waves, as opposed to the way the baby’s brain appears before birth.
We can see more examples like this next year. Will we also look for evidence of organoid identity? The problem here is that we still do not know how to express information in a well-designed human brain, not just in a small group of cells growing in the lab. But there are other reliable ways to search. One of the most well-known signatures in the brain is its response to disruption. If you stimulate the sensory brain by vibrating energy, electrical energy will return to a complex system over time and space. Do the same to the unconscious brain and the echo will be as simple — as throwing a stone into immovable water. Neuroscientist Marcello Massimini and his team at the University of Milan have used their findings identifying residual or “hidden” in patients with severe brain injury. What happens to the brain of organoids when stimulated in this way is still unknown – and it is not known what the results might be.
As the brain organoids develop to a greater extent similar to those seen in the human brain, we will need to reconsider all of what we consider to be reliable brain signatures in humans, and the steps we can take to express awareness to something that is not yet born.
The moral consequences of this are obvious. The conscious organoid can suffer emotionally and we cannot detect its effects because it cannot explain anything. Discussions are already underway establishing ethical and operational guidelines for organoid research. These discussions have raised the question of organoid awareness so far. Next year we can see the evidence that we need to start all over again.
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