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/sci/ - Science & Math

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9449832 No.9449832 [Reply] [Original]

Imagine we could surgically attach two human brains together successfully somehow. One brain from a doner attached to the brain of a living test subject. What would be the result of attaching two whole brains together, maybe side by side? Would the increase of prefrontal cortex matter and gray matter, in an organized way, increase the intelligence of the test subject that decided to undergo this procedure? I say organized because, from my cursory knowledge of brain augmentation, simply adding new neurons to a brain in an unorganized manner probably wouldn't cause those new neurons to have any functionality.

>> No.9449956

>>9449832
The two consciousnesses would do battle with one eventually taking over both brains or more likely both of them dying.

>> No.9449962

>>9449832
If you plug two computers into the same power supply, do they produce better answers?
Of course not! They'd have to communicate, to pass data back and forth between them. And if one is running Linux and the other is running Windows, each is going to consider input from the other as garbage. They have to speak a common language and the data has to go to the right place.
No two brains are identical. Do you see what I see? Probably not. If my brain was somehow connected to your eyes, I'd see nothing intelligible. We have to learn to organize nerve-impulses into a coherent "map" of the external world.

If I took your optic nerve and moved the individual fibers to other cells (though still within the visual cortex) you'd be blind and have to learn to see all over again.
Fusing two brains would be immeasurably more difficult -- even assuming rejection didn't kill you quickly.

>> No.9449987

This is extremely hypothetical and akin to figuring out how a zombie's physiology would be by mere analytical thinking.

Let's get the most basic scenario in this case: vision.

Suppose the living person suffered from retinal loss and will get the visual circuit from the donor. He will have one functional retina and two functional remaining circuitry.
If you connect the working retina to both visual circuitries, how would the input be processed?
He would have regulatory mechanisms from both brains and would either:
A - enhance his apperception;
B - have cortical blindness
C - go mad and kill himself.


Honestly, I have no ideia.

>> No.9450488
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9450488

>>9449956
>The two consciousnesses would do battle
True
>with one eventually taking over
Somewhat true
>both of them dying
Unlikely.

We can assume this, because this is already how the two brain hemispheres work and interact normally. You can even safely remove a whole hemisphere from someone during their early life, and have them show no noticeable effects from this whatsoever. Yet the hemispheres are usually in constant debate with each other normally, and split brain patients use them totally independently to the point where neither hemisphere seems to be aware of what the other is doing in such cases. Pic related has more info.

>> No.9450493

>>9450488
pop-sci explanation of this:
https://youtu.be/wfYbgdo8e-8