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Comment by ghotli | Hacker News Reader

The part about the experimental surgery with transplanted brain cells helping restore motor function is quite something. Nothing more to add than a wow that worked, huh.

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How does it work, actually? Literally carve a hole, grab a chunk with your hand from the source brain, and chunk it inside the hole and pray? I mean, how does the "wiring" work?

Neurons usually handle that automatically. They are able to detect chemical signal and send out projections being axons or dendrites on their own

I was surprised with the lengths that doctors went to for the named patients in this article. for the first guy a new drug was synthesised specifically for him and for the others they had experimental surgery in Sweden. do we have the same level of care for the negative effects of drug addiction nowadays or were these just rich people?

It could also be the doctors seeing an opportunity to write a paper, learn or to get renown. If this is shown to work on more cases then their name will be forever attached to the "first to use X to treat Y".

Moreover, a druggie with fucked up brain will agree to any experimental treatment, and even if something goes horribly wrong, nobody will investigate, because it's impossible to prove that the side effects came from your treatment, not from the patient's drug habit

Also to be fair, many people would prefer death compared to being what seems to be almost paralyzed.

If there is an experiment that has only 5 % chance of success, many will take it.

This, and other surgery is probably the origins of a classically distasteful eric cartman scene from SouthPark

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