Nature is capable of remarkable feats under the right conditions.
Through our almost century-long study of the brain and how it works, we have made astonishing discoveries about ourselves and the multitude of animal life on our planet. But how can studying a mouse brain reveal a complex learning system that can restart itself, even in freezing temperatures?
How long do complex systems that you learnt stay in your brain for?
How the brain is constantly evolving and never stands still
The human brain is a never-ending story with many pages to get through.
Neuroplasticity is the process whereby the brain sculpts itself and makes changes to our internal OS. That’s the reason why you will never quite be the same person you were five minutes ago, at least on a molecular level.
Our ability to learn never stops with age, so it turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks.
The iconic test that London Taxi drivers undergo proves this to be true. Black cab drivers in the British capital need to take a comprehensive and complex test to ensure that they know their city through and through. The test increases the size of the driver’s hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for learning.
The connection between animal and human brains is becoming clearer
As it is not possible to study human brains unless the situation is fine-tuned, we mostly turn to animal life to understand the complexities of certain factors of life.
Science has made several remarkable findings in recent years by studying our brains. For instance, we now know that closing our eyes to concentrate is actually counterproductive and less effective than we initially thought.
Many odd findings have been made that widen and broaden our collective knowledge about human and animal brains.
The mysteries of consciousness have inspired some scientists to dedicate their whole careers to studying brain activity. Like one scientist who has studied thousands of human brains to better understand how negative thinking affects us.
But one study has been focusing on mouse brain tissue and how it behaves under certain situations.
A recent study, “Functional recovery of the adult murine hippocampus after cryopreservation by vitrification,” published in PNAS, has detailed the remarkable findings made.
Scientists find that mouse brain tissue can actually reset itself, much like us
A team of researchers was studying brain tissue from mice in -150 °C temperatures when they made a remarkable discovery.
Many of us have seen films about ancient people or animals stuck in ice blocks before coming back to life with no apparent damage to their brains or central nervous systems, other than the shock of still being alive.
We have spent an inordinate amount of time studying our own brains, revealing aspects such as how each of our individual cells has a “sleeping” alarm system.
Wake and smell the fresh coffee, says this study
The study found that mouse brain tissue that was vitrified at −150°C for a week successfully restarted its metabolic and electrical activity once the brain tissue was “revived” after being frozen.
So wake and smell the coffee, if you’re able to, that is.
Once the mouse brain tissue was warmed up a bit, the team found that the potentiation, which is the basis for learning and long-term memory, remained intact. The study demonstrates the potential of functional preservation in cryopreserved neural tissue.
While we now understand how some humans are able to wake up fully rested after only a few hours of sleep, this study proves that even if brain tissue is essentially frozen, it can restart its brain’s engine system.