From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rms2g@virginia.edu)
Date: Mon Oct 21 2002 - 14:31:08 MDT
FutureQ wrote:
> Eugene,
>
> But do you feel that in the case of mad cow could the remaining
> tissue of dead neurons might be rebuilt by nanotech or does the
> body/brain reabsorb the dead tissue? In other words is there any hope
> at all of perhaps the trackways remaining, or some kind of physical
> remnant of the depleted neurons, some hint as to structure? I have no
> knowledge of how the disease presents the remaining brain tissue so I
> am asking perhaps a dumb question but that is how one learns.
>
### Dying neurons undergo apoptosis and lysis pretty quickly, although for
some time you see "ghosts" with the remains of undigested highly crosslinked
protein. Since the membranes are fully removed, all of the synaptic
connectivity record is erased.
On the other hand, as long as a part of the network survives, there might a
shadow of a chance left. Since the neural network has some redundancy, it is
not quite impossible that at least a part of the lost functionality could be
deduced from the remains. In many conditions the problems with memory loss
are due not so much to a loss of the engrams but rather to difficulty in
retrieval, which could be perhaps fixed from general principles.
I would say, if you have the money, vitrify even the severely demented. Do
not keep your hopes up. Most likely it will be impossible to produce
anything more than amnestic clones, but as long as there is chance, it might
be worth taking in the case of somebody you love.
Rafal
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