The human brain is not a single organ, but two separate systems that evolved independently before fusing together, according to groundbreaking new research. … Armed with the knowledge of how hindbrain cells uniquely form, the team has successfully turned human stem cells into becoming functional hindbrain motor neurons in a lab for the first time.
I’m more surprised that it’s separated as front and back, and not right to left.
The left/right brain thing has always been bunk. People have entire hemispheres removed with minimal negative consequences, personality changes, etc.
Much better article which includes links to the original paper: https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2026/09/two-separate-brains.html
Inside you are two brains…
One is a genius, the other’s insane.
Narf! I know this one…I think.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking?..
“Nobody will benefit from this research for 40 years, and even then, it’ll only be the rich?”
Wait so we have two brains and yet our society hasn’t figured out how to use either of them?
Probably three brains if you consider the neural activity going on in the gut and how it interacts with our brain.
In a study published in 2023, the scientists found that long COVID is associated with a reduction in the body’s natural levels of serotonin, a signaling molecule that is produced the brain and the gut. In the brain, serotonin influences mood, sleep and memory. In the rest of the body, it plays a role in physiology, but Thaiss and Levy found that gut-produced serotonin can affect the brain as well.
…
Before these findings, scientists debated how SARS-CoV-2 could cause cognitive problems, as it is unclear if the virus breaches the blood-brain barrier. But the study by Thaiss and Levy suggests that the disease could have direct influence on the brain via the vagus nerve, regardless of whether the virus enters the brain.
…
The gut also contains the largest number of neurons outside the brain of any structure in the body — more than 100 million neurons line the human digestive tract, from the esophagus to the anus. These cells make up what is known as the enteric nervous system, which some scientists refer to as a “second brain.”
It never ceases to amaze me how complicated our bodies and our minds are.
Fuck this shit show. Its connected to the blood system and liver too. It becomes a rabbit hole. Don’t go down it.
esophagus to the anus. … the enteric nervous system, which some scientists refer to as a “second brain.””
Can I get an AI for that, I have a few questions about life here in the US, for AI that understands shit.
We have lots of brains but we only use 10% of them
We’re pretty good at using the lizard brain, actually.
Looking at lizards, I think they’re ahead though.
Enjoy sun
Eat some bugs
Lizard life
I wonder where love comes from? Hind or front. What about social functions? Like group loyalty?
Front on a regular day. Hind when you’re feeling really frisky.
So they developed seperately? I mean humans have to tend to their babies for years compare to lizards that probably have an effect love evolutionarily
Since you only feel like one person which brain has your consciousness
I’m just speculating here but it might be more of ‘which organ does your consciousness reside?’
What if consciousness is procedural and utilizes both?
Look up the split brain experiments. They’re incredibly interesting.
We seem to have at least two consciousness, but for most people one of them is almost entirely unable to communicate with the outside world, only the verbal consciousness.
At least, it can obverse and respond; I don’t know it has a subjective experience.
that sounds very interesting. do you have an overview you can point me to? thanks.
Friendly video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfYbgdo8e-8
I don’t have links to research or summaries, tho.
Thanks, I’ll check it out.
Maybe I’m too sleep deprived, but why does “built from two blueprints” equal “is two organs”? When the two base components fuse they become one self-contained unit.
They don’t fuse. They’re connected, yes, but so is everything in your body.
To expand on what frongt said. An organ is a collection of specialized tissues that performs certain specific tasks. The stomach is an organ, the pancreus is an organ, and together they are part of a system. If the brain is more than one organ, we can target specific parts in the tissue differences for lab cell growth (as the article suggests), targeted medicine delivery (due to differences in autonomic braincell makup vs frontal and temporal processing tissues), and the next step in research will probably be how the two brain organs develop connections which could lead to nerve pathway repair (typically very hard to achieve).
It’s that the brain stem is made of different cells than the forebrain and midbrain. You can’t grow a full brain from one sample of cells. So, it’s considered 2 different organs.
Men always be thinking with the lower one, amirite?
/hi5
