Tiny Blobs of Brain Cells Could Reveal How Your Mind Differs From a Neanderthalâs
Researchers grew clusters of brain cells in the lab with a gene carried by our ancient ancestors.
A cross section of a human brain organoid showing the formation of the cortical plate, the embryonic precursor of the cerebral cortex.Credit...Muotri Lab/UC San Diego
Feb. 11, 2021
In recent years, scientists have figured out how to grow blobs of hundreds of thousands of live human neurons that look â and act â something like a brain.
These so-called brain organoids have been used to study how brains develop into layers, how they begin to spontaneously make electrical waves and even how that development might change in zero gravity. Now researchers are using these pea-size clusters to explore our evolutionary past.