Cargando…
Human cerebral organoids and consciousness: a double-edged sword
Human cerebral organoids (HCOs) are three-dimensional in vitro cell cultures that mimic the developmental process and organization of the developing human brain. In just a few years this technique has produced brain models that are already being used to study diseases of the nervous system and to te...
Autor principal: | |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer International Publishing
2020
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7723930/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32895775 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40592-020-00116-y |
_version_ | 1783620448249970688 |
---|---|
author | Lavazza, Andrea |
author_facet | Lavazza, Andrea |
author_sort | Lavazza, Andrea |
collection | PubMed |
description | Human cerebral organoids (HCOs) are three-dimensional in vitro cell cultures that mimic the developmental process and organization of the developing human brain. In just a few years this technique has produced brain models that are already being used to study diseases of the nervous system and to test treatments and drugs. Currently, HCOs consist of tens of millions of cells and have a size of a few millimeters. The greatest limitation to further development is due to their lack of vascularization. However, recent research has shown that human cerebral organoids can manifest the same electrical activity and connections between brain neurons and EEG patterns as those recorded in preterm babies. All this suggests that, in the future, HCOs may manifest an ability to experience basic sensations such as pain, therefore manifesting sentience, or even rudimentary forms of consciousness. This calls for consideration of whether cerebral organoids should be given a moral status and what limitations should be introduced to regulate research. In this article I focus particularly on the study of the emergence and mechanisms of human consciousness, i.e. one of the most complex scientific problems there are, by means of experiments on HCOs. This type of experiment raises relevant ethical issues and, as I will argue, should probably not be considered morally acceptable. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7723930 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Springer International Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-77239302020-12-14 Human cerebral organoids and consciousness: a double-edged sword Lavazza, Andrea Monash Bioeth Rev Original Article Human cerebral organoids (HCOs) are three-dimensional in vitro cell cultures that mimic the developmental process and organization of the developing human brain. In just a few years this technique has produced brain models that are already being used to study diseases of the nervous system and to test treatments and drugs. Currently, HCOs consist of tens of millions of cells and have a size of a few millimeters. The greatest limitation to further development is due to their lack of vascularization. However, recent research has shown that human cerebral organoids can manifest the same electrical activity and connections between brain neurons and EEG patterns as those recorded in preterm babies. All this suggests that, in the future, HCOs may manifest an ability to experience basic sensations such as pain, therefore manifesting sentience, or even rudimentary forms of consciousness. This calls for consideration of whether cerebral organoids should be given a moral status and what limitations should be introduced to regulate research. In this article I focus particularly on the study of the emergence and mechanisms of human consciousness, i.e. one of the most complex scientific problems there are, by means of experiments on HCOs. This type of experiment raises relevant ethical issues and, as I will argue, should probably not be considered morally acceptable. Springer International Publishing 2020-09-07 2020 /pmc/articles/PMC7723930/ /pubmed/32895775 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40592-020-00116-y Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Original Article Lavazza, Andrea Human cerebral organoids and consciousness: a double-edged sword |
title | Human cerebral organoids and consciousness: a double-edged sword |
title_full | Human cerebral organoids and consciousness: a double-edged sword |
title_fullStr | Human cerebral organoids and consciousness: a double-edged sword |
title_full_unstemmed | Human cerebral organoids and consciousness: a double-edged sword |
title_short | Human cerebral organoids and consciousness: a double-edged sword |
title_sort | human cerebral organoids and consciousness: a double-edged sword |
topic | Original Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7723930/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32895775 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40592-020-00116-y |
work_keys_str_mv | AT lavazzaandrea humancerebralorganoidsandconsciousnessadoubleedgedsword |