Currently, many organ transplants such as kidney, lung, and heart transplants are performed worldwide, after accidents or in certain medical conditions, but brain transplants are still impossible.
Available information indicates that the Alcor Center in Arizona currently holds more than 150 human heads preserved in cryopreservation under special conditions, in the hope that medicine will one day be able to transplant the brains into new bodies. However, scientists emphasize that this type of procedure remains impossible at present.
Dr. Max Krokoff, a neurosurgeon at the Medical College of Wisconsin, explains that the main obstacle is that surgeons have not yet been able to reconnect nerves in the central nervous system, i.e., the brain and spinal cord, unlike peripheral nerves, which have a limited ability to regenerate.
He pointed out that even partial brain transplants, such as cerebellar replacements, remain impossible at present due to the immense complexity of neural networks. Furthermore, previous attempts at head transplants in animals have not been truly successful; dogs and monkeys that underwent these procedures survived for only a few days. In the 1970s, Dr. Robert White successfully transplanted the heads of monkeys that were able to chew and swallow, but they did not survive for more than nine days.
However, scientists do not rule out the possibility of future applications of some concepts in neural engineering, particularly in the fields of stem cells and microorganisms, areas experiencing rapid research advancement. Theoretically, stem cells programmed to differentiate into neurons could integrate more effectively into neural circuits than mature cells.
Clinical trials are currently underway to use these technologies in treating diseases such as Parkinson's, strokes, spinal cord injuries, and epilepsy, although none of them have yet been approved for widespread medical use.
For his part, Ruslan Rast, a neurophysiologist at the University of Southern California, confirms that the biggest challenge is ensuring that the transplanted cells are transformed precisely into the required type, and that they are able to integrate correctly into the targeted neural networks.
Conversely, freezing human heads remains a distant scientific prospect, with proponents hoping that technology will one day be able to repair complex neural networks and reconnect them to new bodies. However, the scientific community currently emphasizes that brain or head transplants, and even the revival of a frozen brain, remain within the realm of theoretical concepts far removed from practical application.
