Transplants of hearts, livers, kidneys and other organs have meant a new lease of life for thousands of people. But brain transplants still belong to the realms of science fiction. Or do they?
HUNDREDS of people have undergone operations during the 1980s to place cells in their brain which do not belong there. The aim is to reduce the symptoms of an incurable brain disease. Given the enormous complexity of the brain – billions of highly specialised cells, each with up to a thousand connections – does such an approach stand a chance of success?
A brain transplant, or more properly…
