{"id":15661,"date":"2026-09-23T06:34:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T06:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=15661"},"modified":"2026-09-23T06:34:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T06:34:00","slug":"know-thyselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=15661","title":{"rendered":"Know Thyselves"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/div>\n

By KIM BELLARD<\/p>\n

With all the fuss about A.I. I was pleased to find some studies that illustrate that we don\u2019t even fully understand the human brain yet. The ancient Greeks had a maxim \u201cKnow Thyself,\u201d but the current research suggests they should have advised that we should \u201cKnow Thyselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new study from Stanford Medicine<\/a> suggests that our brain is actually two separate organs: \u201c\u2026we postulate the brain is a composite organ emanating from two lineage-restricted progenitors; these dual progenitors may be evolutionarily conserved across 550\u2009million years from hemichordates to mammals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Say what?<\/p>\n

Now, let me make this clear: they\u2019re not saying that the brain evolved<\/em> from two separate organs into the brain we have today; they\u2019re going a step further and saying there are still<\/em> two separate organs, working together or in parallel. Freud must be feeling vindicated.<\/p>\n

The press release<\/a> says:<\/p>\n

The new research finding shows that the human brain consists of two ancient nervous systems cleverly packaged together \u2014 a more primitive part that regulates our hearts\u2019 beating, our breathing and other functions, and another that makes us distinctly human, capable of poetry, mathematics and wondering about our own origins.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve shown for the first time that the front of the brain arises from a totally different progenitor cell than the back of the brain,\u201d said Kyle Loh<\/a>, PhD, associate professor of developmental biology. \u201cOur discovery means that we can now grow neurons from the back of the brain, the hindbrain, in a petri dish and study their functions.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re wondering why growing neurons from the hindbrain matters, it turns out that diseases that impact the brain stem, such as spinal muscular atrophy (also known as SMA) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease), have been hard to study because of the difficulty of growing such neurons in the lab. The researchers discovered the hindbrain follows a separate developmental path, running in parallel to \u2014 rather than branching off from \u2014 the pathway that creates the forebrain and midbrain.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrevious attempts to make hindbrain neurons likely tried to coax forebrain and midbrain progenitors into hindbrain cells, which our study shows is not possible,\u201d co-first author Rayyan Jokhai said. He added: \u201cNow we have a model to better understand these devastating diseases, and work toward regenerative therapies for them. This is a very exciting new frontier in brain research.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers looked at various organisms and found that the separate systems date back over 500 million years. \u201cOur research suggests that evolution took two existing neural systems and pushed them together spatially,\u201d Professor Loh said. \u201cHaving the brain as one organ would probably be more efficient, but we rely on this primordial way to make the brain as two separate pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised at our findings because the word \u2018brain\u2019 implies a contiguous organ that likely has a singular origin,\u201d Mr. Jokhai said. \u201cBut even 500 million years ago, there were these separate neural systems, which now almost operate as one, which is very cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Very cool, indeed.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, up the road a few miles, researchers at UCSF and UC Berkeley have shown<\/a>, in real time, the brain essentially arguing with itself. They studied patients who had electrodes implanted for surgical evaluation of epilepsy, and used those to watch the brain trying to decide to do something or not. They discovered \u2013 you guessed it \u2014 two neighboring patches of the brain that signal in opposite directions, one pushing toward \u201cdo it,\u201d the other toward \u201cdon\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve long suspected that this region was where the brain weighs reward against risk, but we\u2019ve never been able to measure it while it is happening in the human brain in real time until now,\u201d said<\/a> Edward Chang, MD, Joan and Sanford I. Weill Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at UCSF and co-senior author of the study.<\/p>\n

The researchers had participants play a video game where they had to navigate a maze with bomb-filled hallways, posing varying degrees of risk. As they reached decision points, the researchers identified two distinct areas of the brain firing; region near the middle of the eyebrow was connected to a risky choice, while a patch about two centimeters over, toward the side of the eyebrow, did the opposite.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost models of decision-making assume the brain gradually ramps up evidence until it crosses a threshold, like a dial slowly turning,\u201d said Robert Knight, MD, professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at UC Berkeley and co-senior author. \u201cWhat we saw instead was more like a switch flipping back and forth, oscillating between two extremes until one held.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers believe that their discovery could help conditions where people have an imbalance between risk-taking and caution, such as depression, OCD or gambling addiction. Co-author Clara Starkweather, MD, PhD, a neurosurgery chief resident at UCSF, who designed the video game, said: \u201cRight now, psychiatry mostly relies on asking people how they feel, I want to give it something more objective: a real, measurable signature of how someone\u2019s brain weighs risk, so treatment can target the specific circuit that\u2019s off, in addition to a mood score.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last but not least, researchers at the Salk Institute discovered a part of the brain that seems to be responsible for long-lasting fear responses. The amygdala has long been associated with immediate fear responses, but they identified a tiny nearby area called the amygdalostriatal transition zone (ASt).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ASt is at a crossroads between the brain\u2019s systems for emotional associations and action selection, but its function was largely unknown,\u201d says co-corresponding author Fergil Mills, PhD. \u201cWhen we started, we knew almost nothing about the ASt, and were truly exploring unknown territory in the brain. Now, we have a much deeper understanding of this structure and have found that the ASt is a \u2018missing piece\u2019 of the circuits for fear that was hiding in plain sight for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ASt and this circuit could be really relevant in developing therapies for panic attacks or phobias,\u201d adds co-corresponding author Kay Tye, PhD<\/a>, a professor and holder of the Wylie Vale Chair at Salk and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. \u201cAnxiety disorders affect hundreds of millions of people globally. Understanding what happens in the brain when it\u2019s in high-alert danger mode is key to addressing those disorders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Admittedly, the research was done on mouse brains, so more research will be required, but it is both promising and more evidence that our brains still hold more mysteries than we realize.<\/p>\n

With so much attention and funding focused on A.I., it\u2019s gratifying to see that there is still startling research being done on what drives our own intelligence.<\/p>\n

Kim is a former emarketing exec at a major Blues plan, editor of the late & lamented\u00a0<\/em>Tincture.io<\/em><\/a>, and now regular THCB contributor<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By KIM BELLARD With all the fuss about A.I. I was pleased to find some studies that illustrate that we don\u2019t even fully understand the human brain yet. The ancient Greeks had a maxim \u201cKnow Thyself,\u201d but the current research suggests they should have advised that we should \u201cKnow Thyselves.\u201d A new study from Stanford…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}