The human brain is not a single organ, but two separate systems that evolved independently before fusing together, according to groundbreaking new research. … Armed with the knowledge of how hindbrain cells uniquely form, the team has successfully turned human stem cells into becoming functional hindbrain motor neurons in a lab for the first time.
I don’t find that hard to believe… I have one brain, the brain that is me and I am now communicating with you.
I have a separate brain that makes me hate myself, it gives me anxiety at the highest level… It is why I never was popular in school, lost many friends and it is why I’m now why I’m a loud extrovert at 38 who just wants to help people and talk about how great I am.
Much better article which includes links to the original paper: https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2026/09/two-separate-brains.html
“Nobody will benefit from this research for 40 years, and even then, it’ll only be the rich?”
We barely know anything about the human brain and yet some proclaim that they’re making an artificial general intelligence based on a algorithm that purportedly mimics it.
Maybe I’m too sleep deprived, but why does “built from two blueprints” equal “is two organs”? When the two base components fuse they become one self-contained unit.
It’s that the brain stem is made of different cells than the forebrain and midbrain. You can’t grow a full brain from one sample of cells. So, it’s considered 2 different organs.
To expand on what frongt said. An organ is a collection of specialized tissues that performs certain specific tasks. The stomach is an organ, the pancreus is an organ, and together they are part of a system. If the brain is more than one organ, we can target specific parts in the tissue differences for lab cell growth (as the article suggests), targeted medicine delivery (due to differences in autonomic braincell makup vs frontal and temporal processing tissues), and the next step in research will probably be how the two brain organs develop connections which could lead to nerve pathway repair (typically very hard to achieve).
I’m more surprised that it’s separated as front and back, and not right to left.
The left/right brain thing has always been bunk. People have entire hemispheres removed with minimal negative consequences, personality changes, etc.
The personality test stuff is bunk. Pretty sure the experiment with the one hand drawing something and the other hand doesn’t know are real.
Are you sure people can have an entire hemisphere removed with minimal consequences? That sounds absolutely wild!
There are brain surgeries where you just chuck out the extra to get to the parts you want to work on, eloquent vs non-eloquent tissue. And epilepsy surgery where they completely disconnect the halves. Recently read a pretty good book on this.
If you skip the first chapter, and then stop once he starts talking about anything other than neuroscience The Immortal Mind is a great overview of this by an extremely talented neurosurgeon who has dog shit views on literally everything else. Still worth it for the good parts but I warned you.
I learned this a while ago so I had to double check!
In terms of postoperative motor function, some patients may have improvement or no change of their weaker extremity,[11] and many can walk independently.[13] Most patients postoperatively have minimal to no behavioral problems, satisfactory language skills, good reading capability,[13] and only a minority of patients have a decline in IQ.[14] Predictors of poor outcome may include seizure recurrence and structural abnormalities in the intact hemisphere.[13]
so. here is the thing. that. to me. is more of an indication the two hemispheres are independent and thus the left right thing. If we take the previous paragrpah into consideration:
There is also data pertaining to how hemispherectomy affects the body in other ways. After surgery, the remaining cerebral hemisphere is often able to take over some cognitive, sensory and motor functions. The degree to which the remaining hemisphere takes on this additional workload often depends on several factors, including the underlying etiology, which hemisphere is removed and the age at which the surgery occurs.[13]
In terms of postoperative motor function, some patients may have improvement or no change of their weaker extremity,[11] and many can walk independently.[13] Most patients postoperatively have minimal to no behavioral problems, satisfactory language skills, good reading capability,[13] and only a minority of patients have a decline in IQ.[14] Predictors of poor outcome may include seizure recurrence and structural abnormalities in the intact hemisphere.[13]
We can see that indeed the other hemisphere has to expand its capability from what it had pre surgery and that much of what they are looking at is basic function and not like if they were as good at art or reasoning after surgery.
Wait so we have two brains and yet our society hasn’t figured out how to use either of them?
Probably three brains if you consider the neural activity going on in the gut and how it interacts with our brain.
In a study published in 2023, the scientists found that long COVID is associated with a reduction in the body’s natural levels of serotonin, a signaling molecule that is produced the brain and the gut. In the brain, serotonin influences mood, sleep and memory. In the rest of the body, it plays a role in physiology, but Thaiss and Levy found that gut-produced serotonin can affect the brain as well.
…
Before these findings, scientists debated how SARS-CoV-2 could cause cognitive problems, as it is unclear if the virus breaches the blood-brain barrier. But the study by Thaiss and Levy suggests that the disease could have direct influence on the brain via the vagus nerve, regardless of whether the virus enters the brain.
…
The gut also contains the largest number of neurons outside the brain of any structure in the body — more than 100 million neurons line the human digestive tract, from the esophagus to the anus. These cells make up what is known as the enteric nervous system, which some scientists refer to as a “second brain.”
It never ceases to amaze me how complicated our bodies and our minds are.
Fuck this shit show. Its connected to the blood system and liver too. It becomes a rabbit hole. Don’t go down it.
esophagus to the anus. … the enteric nervous system, which some scientists refer to as a “second brain.””
Can I get an AI for that, I have a few questions about life here in the US, for AI that understands shit.
Looking at lizards, I think they’re ahead though.
Enjoy sun
Eat some bugs
Lizard life
Jim Morrison from The Doors sometimes referred to himself as The Lizard King
Until you spend most of your life in fight or flight. It’s good at reacting quickly, but it’s stupid and won’t let me think
Pretty cool stuff. It’s been well understood for a while that lower brain function governs things like hunger sex and lower animal functions and the frontal cortex governs higher reasoning. Crazy they might have been separate organs at one point.
Now all the people who believe in brain/body dualism are going to have to decide which brain is the cockpit for our homoucli. The good news is that cryogenics is going to get cheaper now that we only have to freeze half of the brain.
The meat does the thinking!
Yeah that’s my second favorite. I have a love for Bob’s Burgers
That one goes way back … to the 90s, maybe even the 80s, I think I first saw it in Harper’s Magazine. Great stuff. I tend to forget about it for years until something (like this) reminds me of it and I find a copy online to read. Meat problems.
In all honesty I introduced my kids to this story the way some parents introduce religious stories. But this one has real insight.
And people said either I’m bipolar or just a classic Gemini. Now I’m just going to tell them about this recent study and tell them that hearing two voice in my head is normal.
As long as one of them is only using lizard vocalizations it’s completely normal.
I wonder where love comes from? Hind or front. What about social functions? Like group loyalty?
So they developed seperately? I mean humans have to tend to their babies for years compare to lizards that probably have an effect love evolutionarily
I believe they were making a joke about different positions of intercourse, not actually answering the question. e.g. “Front” ≈ missionary on a normal day, and “hind” ≈ doggy when frisky.
The human brain structure is believed to have once mirrored the nervous networks observed in jellyfish
It’s a shame that humans didn’t evolve more intelligence than our Jelly friends.
Since you only feel like one person which brain has your consciousness
Look up the split brain experiments. They’re incredibly interesting.
We seem to have at least two consciousness, but for most people one of them is almost entirely unable to communicate with the outside world, only the verbal consciousness.
At least, it can observe and respond; I don’t know it has a subjective experience.
that sounds very interesting. do you have an overview you can point me to? thanks.
Friendly video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfYbgdo8e-8
I don’t have links to research or summaries, tho.
I’m just speculating here but it might be more of ‘which organ does your consciousness reside?’
I feel like my brain presents me with ideas and I get to pick which ideas to act upon.
