Today i was sitting at work thinking to myself, if a brain transfusion were possible, taking one healthy brain and replacing it with someones damaged brain. Lets say for arguments sake technology catches up and this procedure is possible.
Since the brain is the core organ in human beings, would replacing the brain change the persons personality/who they are? Would they be able to remember anything from their life? Or would the thoughts and memories stored in the new brain become that new person?

I thought of no better place than this forum to ask you guys, let me know what you think.

Well... I think that all the memories/ experiences would also transfer along with the brain, and I believe we develop our personality from all of the experiences we go through in life, so they would also have the same personality.

things such as experiences and memories stored in the brain though? so if it was switched wouldn't all that experience just be lost with the old brain?

your brain is you. without it all that is left is a useless bag of flesh.

if you did a brain transfer you would have to have your old brains data transferred into a new brain for you to still be you.

i'd have to say that the rest of your body sends signals to your brain as well. so many variables. like, if you had a stronger heart/set of lungs, your brain's going to get more oxygen and blood flow. I don't know all the biology/chemistry. In fact, i don't know most of it, but I do know that the brain and the body operate on a two-way street.

and like...if you took your brain out of your body, and put someone else's brain in, you definitely wouldn't be yourself. you'd be mostly like the other person, but with some adjustments based on the difference of the body.

This post was edited by Derkaderk on Nov 16 2011 04:13pm

ya i don't think this would ever work without a cloned body.

Not to mention how incredibly complex it would be to separate the brain from the spinal cord and then reattach it perfectly? Sounds completely impossible.

Rather than refitting a biological body, our best bet would be trying to find some way to digitally "clone" our memories, minds, personalities, etc and then put it into an android.

If this gets you thinking, this 'short story' (which is really an intuition pumping philosophical essay in the form of a short story) will really boil your noodle.
It's flawed and I could probably pull up an essay I wrote last year about exactly why it is flawed, but it's the natural progression from your OP.

http://www.newbanner.com/SecHumSCM/WhereAmI.html

The argument is not IF it's possible, but what would we conclude "scientifically" what would happen if such a procedure could happen?

This is pretty intriguing. /e read further herp derp

" Where Hamlet goes there goes Dennett. This principle was easily refuted by appeal to the familiar brain-transplant thought experiments so enjoyed by philosophers. If Tom and Dick switch brains, Tom is the fellow with Dick's former body — just ask him; he'll claim to be Tom and tell you the most intimate details of Tom's autobiography. It was clear enough, then, that my current body and I could part company, but not likely that I could be separated from my brain. The rule of thumb that emerged so plainly from the thought experiments was that in a brain-transplant operation, one wanted to be the donor not the recipient. Better to call such an operation a body transplant, in fact. So perhaps the truth was "

Wow.

This post was edited by TheInferno on Nov 17 2011 01:52pm