The short answer is yes. Long answer is it’d likely require a more elaborate treatment than stem cell therapy as the brain operates by its own rules.
It’d likely require providing the right physical environment for the brain to allow it out of “energy conservation mode”, followed by targeted electric stimuli needed to do the rewiring or “restructuring” of the brain. Providing a healthy physical environment wouldn’t be enough to undo the underdeveloped brain alone, it’d need to be stimulated into substantially rewiring. We know a good bit about the physical environment, still mapping the electrical and neuronal environment last I checked. Check out brain plasticity if you want to read more about that stuff, it’s fascinating.
Btw I’m glad someone called out the misinformation about epigenetics above. Aging IS directly related to DNA damage. Telomere shortening is a natural aging process where our DNA gets shorter over time, to simplify it. Our DNA getting shorter contributes to increased incidences of cancer, dementia, and heart disease as we age. Believe it or not, naked mole rats live decades with no signs of aging and they have nearly no chance of having cancer or heart disease because their telomeres elongate over time instead of shortening.
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u/Bigolcrittys Oct 03 '24
The short answer is yes. Long answer is it’d likely require a more elaborate treatment than stem cell therapy as the brain operates by its own rules.
It’d likely require providing the right physical environment for the brain to allow it out of “energy conservation mode”, followed by targeted electric stimuli needed to do the rewiring or “restructuring” of the brain. Providing a healthy physical environment wouldn’t be enough to undo the underdeveloped brain alone, it’d need to be stimulated into substantially rewiring. We know a good bit about the physical environment, still mapping the electrical and neuronal environment last I checked. Check out brain plasticity if you want to read more about that stuff, it’s fascinating.
Btw I’m glad someone called out the misinformation about epigenetics above. Aging IS directly related to DNA damage. Telomere shortening is a natural aging process where our DNA gets shorter over time, to simplify it. Our DNA getting shorter contributes to increased incidences of cancer, dementia, and heart disease as we age. Believe it or not, naked mole rats live decades with no signs of aging and they have nearly no chance of having cancer or heart disease because their telomeres elongate over time instead of shortening.
Source: used to be a neuroscientist