Standford Medicine Led Research Found That Human Brain Is Two Separate Organs

[RAMROD 118,098]

For centuries, scientists have thought of the brain as a single, unified organ. But new research led by Stanford Medicine reveals that what we call the brain is two distinct organs that evolved independently over hundreds of millions of years.

The discovery overturns a prevailing model of brain development. For decades researchers have subscribed to the theory that there is a single progenitor cell early in development that gives rise to the entire brain. This model suggested all parts of the brain shared a common developmental origin.

The new research finding shows that the human brain consists of two ancient nervous systems cleverly packaged together — a more primitive part that regulates our hearts’ beating, our breathing and other functions, and another that makes us distinctly human, capable of poetry, mathematics and wondering about our own origins.

The discovery could help explain why scientists have struggled for decades to grow certain types of brain cells in the laboratory — and it opens new avenues for studying devastating diseases that affect the brain stem, such as spinal muscular atrophy (also known as SMA) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease).

“We’ve shown for the first time that the front of the brain arises from a totally different progenitor cell than the back of the brain,” said Kyle Loh, PhD, associate professor of developmental biology. “Our discovery means that we can now grow neurons from the back of the brain, the hindbrain, in a petri dish and study their functions.”

The findings were published in Nature Neuroscience Sept. 18. Loh is the senior author. Graduate students Carolyn “C” Dundes and Rayyan Jokhai are co-first authors of the research.

 

Full article:

https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2026/09/two-separate-brains.html

[loveandpeace 2,190]

2 minutes ago, RAMROD said:

and another that makes us distinctly human, capable of poetry, mathematics and wondering about our own origins.

That side is clearly underdeveloped in my case

[Duella Dvil 12,085]

Oh this is HUGE and I'm very excited to see what kind of medical advancement this will lead to.

[bxr 3,025]

Kind of echoes the whole existing philosophical dichotomy between the brain and the mind … 

@Apec—visceral belly neural network callback to round out the cerebral triptych!

[Economy 53,158]

Fascinating but sounds like 1 study coming up with a new hypothesis that is now added to list of possibilities about our brain and its history

 

I suspect when humans learn to master the quantum level fully we will still be trying to figure out the human brain. To date still considered by some the most complex thing known in the known Universe