Thread: Severed dog head brought back to life

Originally Posted by WaterDumple

Originally Posted by ...bigdog...

didn't you ever take chordate anatomy or human physiology?

you have to think of bodies like machines. Especially muscles like the heart. And then innate responses that aren't controlled by complex brain function, but simply nervous reaction (to sound, light, heat, pain, etc).

We did some pretty terrible things to frogs to show this in physiology lab. Turtles too.

I understand the concept of reviving a single organ, but an entire head, complete with nervous system reactions such as reactions to touch and light, is foreign to me. It seems strange that so many systems could be restored at a time with only a heart, lungs, and the head itself.

reactions to stimulus are not complex thoughts. They are simple reactions. Especially to things like noise, or light, or pain.

For example (and I'm not proud of it), in a college physiology lab, you'll do an experiment on a live frog, removing the top of it's head/brain, and then test various stimuli on it's legs. Such as pinching it with forceps, or putting an irritant (something itchy or burning sensation) on it's skin. No head...no brain....only spinal reflexes (or whatever they are called). And the frog makes gestures to try and kick off the stimulus, wipe off the irritant, and even grabs things like the forceps pinching him.

Agian....no head, period. And it can do this. So, the head is the same thing. It's simply reacting to things....but the brain (depending on how long that head was sitting there, uncirculated) is gone. In that dog's case, I doubt it could have been for long, otherwise you have things like rigormortis and such setting in, especially in mammals. So....this isn't "reviving" anything. It's simply cutting off the body, quickly hooking up the necessary hoses for blood, and pumping away.

The heart thing is pretty cool, too. We did that on a turtle, taking out the heart, and then putting it in a petri dish of sugar and electrolytes. It will sit there and "beat", just like the movie, for minutes. Literally. Because it has everythign it normally would in the body (oxygen, sugar, electrolytes, etc). If it slows down, you simply put a few drops of epinephrine on it...or maybe some sodium or potassium (I forget which does which) to refresh the potential of the nerves.

There is no doubt that the organs were hooked up quickly. They even say it was < 1 hour.
And I seriously doubt there was any intelligence in the head and 100% reflex.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs