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Human brain is actually two separate organs, scientists find
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GolfFoxtrotLima sh.itjust.works GolfFoxtrotLima@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2026-08-18
Quote

The human brain is not a single organ, but two separate systems that evolved independently before fusing together, according to groundbreaking new research.
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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.

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solrize lemmy.ml solrize@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2023-06-22
#2 · Quote Reply

Yeah this is pretty cool. The front part of the brain develops from a different progenitor cell than the brain stem. There has been a ton of difficulty over the years trying to grow hindbrain cells from forebrain progenitors. It's because they were using the wrong progenitors. So they may be able to make more progress treating hindbrain conditions like ALS. I have no idea why nobody tried this decades ago but there's probably a reason.

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AfterlifeAdventures lemmy.world AfterlifeAdventures@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-02-22
#3 · Quote Reply

[deleted]
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Optional lemmy.world homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-09
#4 · Quote Reply

Member that time ‘scientists’ discovered lymph nodes in the brain and it was like 2014 or something? And everybody was all, “Did you not think to look there, or . . ?” How did we get 20k years in and not know that.

But, that’s the way the knowledge bounces.

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GenderNeutralBro lemmy.sdf.org GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org
Joined: 2023-06-15
#5 · Quote Reply

I'm going to start saying "that's a one-brainer" to describe decisions that are simple but not quite obvious.

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phdepressed sh.itjust.works phdepressed@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2024-01-24
#6 · Quote Reply

Member that time ‘scientists’ discovered lymph nodes in the brain and it was like 2014 or something? And everybody was all, “Did you not think to look there, or . . ?” How did we get 20k years in and not know that. But, that’s the way the knowledge bounces.

Because we fund basically jack shit of scientific investigation that is just for the sake of investigation. A vast majority of funding is purpose driven which puts big blinders on the field. Failure of this type of idea could easily end the career of a new investigator or postdoc.

There's a lot to rant about the state of modern research but a lack of funding is nearly always the biggest reason for why something seemingly obvious in hindsight wasn't discovered earlier.

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melfie lemmy.zip melfie@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2026-03-24
#7 · Quote Reply

Turns out they were separate organs after all, despite confounding evidence to the contrary:

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Funkt4st1c lemmy.world Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-07-30
#8 · Quote Reply

[deleted]

Sloppy.

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AfterlifeAdventures lemmy.world AfterlifeAdventures@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-02-22
#9 · Quote Reply

Sloppy.
[deleted]
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lacethespace sh.itjust.works lacethespace@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-07-04
#10 · Quote Reply

Sloppy.

Yes, and also stuffing obnoxious USA politics into a very cool discovery.

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Squirrelsdrivemenuts lemmy.world Squirrelsdrivemenuts@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-09-21
#11 · Quote Reply

Yeah this is pretty cool. The front part of the brain develops from a different progenitor cell than the brain stem. There has been a ton of difficulty over the years trying to grow hindbrain cells from forebrain progenitors. It's because they were using the wrong progenitors. So they may be able to make more progress treating hindbrain conditions like ALS. I have no idea why nobody tried this ...

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-026-02433-7
So from the abstract of the paper they use two different techniques. Lineage tracing studies in mouse embryos and differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells. Both these techniques are not even decades old at this moment.

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Random_Character_A lemmy.world random_character_a@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-29
#12 · Quote Reply

Haven't we known this for about 3/4 century?

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Squirrelsdrivemenuts lemmy.world Squirrelsdrivemenuts@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-09-21
#13 · Quote Reply

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-026-02433-7 So from the abstract of the paper they use two different techniques. Lineage tracing studies in mouse embryos and differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells. Both these techniques are not even decades old at this moment.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.02.662771v2.full

The non-paywalled non-peer reviewed older version of this article.

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cynar lemmy.world cynar@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-17
#14 · Quote Reply

Haven't we known this for about 3/4 century?

We knew the forebrain and hindbrain were different. This research shows that the difference is OLD, and likely from when the brain was more distributed. They also found that, while they function in almost the same way, they are built from different genetic tool kits.

Basically, we knew there was a difference. This explains what the difference is and how to work around the problems it has created.

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gastroglizzy piefed.social gastroglizzy@piefed.social
Joined: 2026-08-26
#15 · Quote Reply

I think this lends a lot more credibility to the idea that the two halves of ancient humans' brains weren't connected (called the "bicameral mind"), and references to "gods" during that time period were hallucinations from the disconnected half.

References to "the gods abandoning me/us" were people describing what it was like to experience the two halves connect, leading to the disappearance of the hallucinations.

References to searching for people who are "still connected to the gods" means they're looking for people who still have a bicameral mind and experience the hallucinations.

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kepix lemmy.world kepix@lemmy.world
Joined: 2024-01-06
#16 · Quote Reply

so...basicly two wolves inside your head

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Onomatopoeia lemmy.cafe Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe
Joined: 2025-01-02
#17 · Quote Reply

[deleted]

So that's what you are?

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moldy_rice piefed.keyboardvagabond.com moldy_rice@piefed.keyboardvagabond.com
Joined: 2026-08-07
#18 · Quote Reply

I think this lends a lot more credibility to the idea that the two halves of ancient humans' brains weren't connected (called the "bicameral mind"), and references to "gods" during that time period were hallucinations from the disconnected half. References to "the gods abandoning me/us" were people describing what it was like to experience the two halves connect, leading to the disappearance of...

That or seizures, which was a common coincidence in religious folks who claimed they saw god/spirits/profits

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magnue lemmy.world magnue@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-04-09
#19 · Quote Reply

I think this lends a lot more credibility to the idea that the two halves of ancient humans' brains weren't connected (called the "bicameral mind"), and references to "gods" during that time period were hallucinations from the disconnected half. References to "the gods abandoning me/us" were people describing what it was like to experience the two halves connect, leading to the disappearance of...

It's front/back not left/right. So no, it does not lend more credibility.

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M137 lemmy.today M137@lemmy.today
Joined: 2026-04-17
#20 · Quote Reply

Turns out they were separate organs after all, despite confounding evidence to the contrary:

I tried finding a vagina version of this but searching "brain vagina" got some real weird results. Lots of furry and odd anime stuff.

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