Meet a mouse whose brain cortex is made up of human cells
Multiple cameras tracked a mouse as it wandered around a small arena. A computer charted its position and speed, leaving Pong-like traces on a monitor. The reason to watch this rodent so carefully? Nearly half its brain volume had been replaced with human cells. The effort to mix the brain tissues of distant species is…
Stanford University neuroscientist Sergiu Pașca and his team have created mice with human brain tissue in their cortexes by genetically modifying the rodents. The mice were missing most of their own brain cells, providing ample space for human cells to grow and thrive. These "xenocortical mice" were allowed to develop normally, without any apparent cognitive impairments.
However, when placed in a maze test, they outperformed their human-free counterparts, suggesting the human tissue may play a role in the animals' cognition. Pașca believes these experiments could help researchers study brain injuries, but warns against attempting such procedures in primates due to the potential for developing human cognitive abilities in non-human animals.
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