Mice with ‘half-human’ brains: Scientists make rodents SMARTER by injecting them with human cells

Mice injected with human brain cells grow to have ‘half human brains’ that make them smarter than other rodents, scientists have found.

Researchers claim that giving mouse pups a type of immature human brain cell, known as glial cells, caused their brains to grow differently so they became more human-like.

These human glial cells, which are the support cells of the brain providing it with structure and nutrients, multiplied and grew to replace a similar type of cell in the brains of the mice.

While the mice still had their own neurons – the cells that transmit and store information in the brain – the support cells were almost entirely human, according to the researchers.

Tests in these mice showed that they appeared to have better memories than those that did not have these hybrid brains. It is thought the human cells improved the efficiency of the mice brains.

The results have raised the prospect that it may be possible to make animals smarter by injecting them with human brain cells.

While it might raise fears that scientists may seek to create highly intelligent creatures, like those seen in science fiction films like Deep Blue Sea and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the researchers behind the work insist the affects would be limited.

They have also raised serious ethical issues about what this ‘hybrid brain’ research should be used for.

Dr Steven Goldman, who led the research at the University of Rochester Medical Centre in New York, said they had decided not to put human cells into monkeys.

He said: ‘While the human cells are essentially making the mice better, there are limits to how far that can go – the neural networks still belong to the mice.

‘So we are not creating a human brain in the mice, but it seems to improve the efficiency of the mouse neural network that is already there. They do not get any additional capabilities that could be seen as human.

‘It can be suggested that we could try this technique in monkeys and apes but we are not trying to make animals more intelligent.’

‘We really questioned about what the purpose of doing that would be – it has to justify the question you are trying to answer.’

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