Human Brain Information

The human brain is unique because it is the only body organ that cannot, even in principle, be transplanted from a donor without fundamentally altering the individual persona of the recipient patient. Information pertaining to brain structure, neural connectivity, neurotransmitter activity, cellular and organ-level neurological function, and higher mental states including personality and self-awareness can be permanently altered or lost as a result of physical trauma, pathogenic diseases, and a variety of degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s. Once destroyed, this information cannot, even in principle, be recovered using current techniques, thus permanently diminishing patient health. It must be a key goal of future medical technology to provide novel methods for measuring, validating, and archiving comprehensive brain-related structural and functional information. Such person-specific information, once preserved, might subsequently be employed to analyze existing pathologies at cellular detail and to devise appropriate therapies, and ultimately might be used to guide processes designed to restore the original state of the brain that existed prior to its pathological degradation.