Science

[ysabetwordsmith]

Flatworms can regrow their brains – and some of the genes they use exist in humans too

When a human brain loses neurons to injury or disease, it replaces very few of them. A planarian, a tiny freshwater flatworm, can lose its whole head and grow it back, brain included.

New research has identified genes that tell the worm’s stem cells what kind of nerve cell to become and where in the body it belongs. Those two instructions aren’t handed out one after the other. In the worm, a new neuron’s job and its address are settled at nearly the same moment, by different genes working together.


This is very useful for traumatic brain injury and diseases that attack the brain. It's important to distinguish what can be restored and what cannot. Physical functions can be restored; so can potential. Stored memories cannot for most people, at least not by this method.

Comments

Neuropathy

[dialecticdreamer]

As a result of chemo, neuropathy burns nerves in the body, especially those that convey tactile information. The damage nerve twanging for attention is one kind of pain, and it does not stop.

Even if the process can never be used to ease TBI, I'm hopeful that nerve damage from chemotherapy will be as unfamiliar to my grandkids as iron lungs for polio survivors are to my generation.

Not everything is fixable, and not everyone will respond to the treatment the same way, but honestly, in the computer-dependent world we have now, ANYTHING that makes them easier to use will help the affected people feel LESS disabled.

Re: Neuropathy

[mellowtigger]

Before I went gluten-free at a neurologist's recommendation many years ago, I experienced significant nerve damage that myographs a few years apart showed was getting worse but was not in the pattern of multiple sclerosis. (That's my brain in the thumbnail image too, being checked during that time of my life.) After going gluten free, I recovered most but not all of the original sensation and function. I'm encouraged by the change in science since I was in school, where we thought brains/neurons stopped growing at some point. Now, it seems that the human brain has significant regeneration and plasticity potential. It makes it seem always worthwhile to read another book or solve another brain teaser.

Re: Neuropathy

[dialecticdreamer]

I've been finding ways to encourage neuroplasticity since I learned of the concept. Gabapentin for neuropathy did nothing but ruin meals for two years before I gave up on it, but alpha lipoic acid for the same length of time means that I can now feel a dime lying on a tabletop (but nothing thinner). Mostly, long, long hours of practice have helped me to maintain skills like writing or typing, but still, I typo as much as I type.