Scientists were astonished to find that recirculating a cocktail of preserving agents through a severed pig's head caused the animal's brain to show signs of life.
As New Scientist reports, basic cellular functions were restored in the dismembered brain — something that was previously thought impossible following the cessation of blood flow.
While the pig brain wasn't exactly oinking at the farm after the treatment, in scientifically significant ways it was seemingly brought back from the brink of death — a ghoulish experiment that could have implications for future efforts to reanimate a dead human brain as well.
In fact, Yale School of Medicine neuroscientist Zvonimir Vrselja and his colleagues are looking to try the technique on human brains — efforts, needless to say, that could have thorny ethical ramifications.
For one, the definition of when a person has died has remained a lively debate among health practitioners.
"We are trying to be transparent and very careful because there’s so much value that can come out of this," Vrselja told New Scientist.
Some argue that death occurs when the heart stops beating. Others define it as the point when the brain's functions cease entirely.
Things get murkier when you consider that neuroscientists have already found that brain activity can extend far beyond cardiac arrest. In fact, research has found that the brain can even light up when the heart stops beating.
"The dying brain actually starts this massive rescue effort," University of Michigan neuroscientist Jimo Borjigin told New Scientist.
Borjigin found in a 2023 study that the brain "appeared to be on fire" after four dying people were taken off of life support.
"If we can better understand what’s going on at this point, I believe we could resuscitate it," he added.
Vrselja and his colleagues are at the forefront of those efforts, having developed a special drug cocktail called BrainEx that stops the brain from being damaged by the sudden surge of oxygen-rich blood following brain death.
In a 2019 experiment involving pig brains, the researchers managed to bring some activity back four hours after decapitation.
But even getting remotely near the point of consciousness with a donated human brain could have major ethical ramifications, forcing the team to tread carefully.
"We had to develop new methods to make sure no electrical activity is occurring in an organized way that might reflect any kind of consciousness," Vrselja told New Scientist.
For now, they're using their invention to test out treatments for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Similar techniques could also be used to prolong the shelf life of donor organs, which could save lives.
More on death: Professor of Medicine Says Death Appears to Be Reversible
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