TED ÇORUM COLLEGE / 9-A
Mind is a Black Box? Think Again: How Cerebral Organoids Help Understand the Brain
Ahmet Toprak AKSOY
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The brain is an incredible organ that serves as the body’ s control center, managing thoughts, emotions, and movements. The spinal cord carries vital messages throughout the body. Despite much research, the brain remains one of the human body’ s most mysterious parts. Genetics, infections, and aging can all affect how it functions. Studying the brain is challenging because it often requires methods that can damage it( Ersoy et al., 2012).
In 2008, Yoshiki Sasai, Jürgen Knoblich, and Madeline Lancaster introduced cerebral organoids( Sasai, 2013). Organoids replicate organs in laboratory settings, and“ cerebral” refers to specific brain structures and functional units. These are tiny models of the brain grown in laboratories. Cerebral organoids are essentially models created by copying all brain layers sequentially. A groundbreaking development occurred in 2024 when Miria Richitti’ s team successfully produced cerebral organoids in space. This discovery marked a significant step forward in understanding how the brain works. While organoids had been sent to space before, this was the first in-situ production. They leveraged space’ s unique conditions to conduct numerous experiments on brain aging and made significant progress in treating diseases like brain death and trauma( Sapaty, 2024).
The production of cerebral organoids enables the study of healthy neurons and holds the potential for treating conditions like autism( Scott et al., 2022), Alzheimer’ s, and other severe disorders. It may also unlock ways to optimize brain efficiency. However, today, consciousness has yet to emerge in organoids due to their lack of sensory tissues, which precludes sensory input or motor output. Researchers aim to overcome these obstacles using artificial intelligence to address consciousness-related health problems and fully decode the brain. In the future, we might achieve science-fiction-inspired breakthroughs, such as projecting memories, erasing them, or controlling machines with thought alone.