Stanford-led study finds separate embryonic origins for major brain regions
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The Facts
- A Stanford-led study was published in Nature Neuroscience.
- The study challenges the view that one progenitor-cell population forms the entire brain.
- One embryonic progenitor-cell type gives rise to the forebrain and midbrain.
- A separate embryonic progenitor-cell type gives rise to the hindbrain.
- The hindbrain regulates functions including breathing, heartbeat and sleep.
- Researchers examined mouse embryos, human stem cells and other species.
- The findings enabled researchers to generate hindbrain motor neurons from human stem cells in the laboratory.
- The laboratory model could support research into ALS and spinal muscular atrophy.
Context
Which brain regions have different developmental origins?
The study found that one progenitor-cell type forms the forebrain and midbrain, whereas another forms the hindbrain. Nature ScienceAlert San Francisco Chron…
Why is the hindbrain important?
The hindbrain helps regulate automatic functions including breathing, heart rate and sleep. Aol Nature GEO TV
What could the research enable?
Researchers reported generating hindbrain motor neurons from human stem cells, creating a potential laboratory model for studying hindbrain-related diseases including ALS and spinal muscular atrophy. RT en Español Postal do Algarve Neuroscience News
Where Left and Right agree
Left and right largely agree on this one.
- What both sides accept
- Discovery that the hindbrain arises from its own distinct progenitor cells, not a shared one, now lets scientists grow hindbrain motor neurons for ALS and SMA research.
- Where Left and Right differ in emphasis
- Both value this new tool for ALS/SMA research; one frames it as reason to sustain publicly accountable science, the other as proof research needs freedom from settled models.
How left and right read it
Patient, publicly accountable basic science is what overturns a textbook model — the hindbrain, which regulates breathing, heartbeat and sleep, turns out to arise from its own embryonic progenitor cells rather than one population shared with the forebrain and midbrain. That is why the stem-cell side matters: hindbrain motor neurons grown in the lab give ALS and spinal muscular atrophy research a foothold it lacked. Not a cure. Who sustains that work now?
“The human brain is not a single organ, but two separate systems that evolved independently before fusing together, according to groundbreaking new research.” — The Independent
A settled model should have to earn its keep, and this one didn't: the hindbrain — breathing, heartbeat, sleep — traces to its own embryonic progenitor cells, not the population that builds the forebrain and midbrain. Because of that correction, researchers can now grow hindbrain motor neurons from human stem cells, which gives ALS and spinal muscular atrophy work a real tool. Not a cure. Keep the bench free to build.
“Next time you have a good, hard think, just know you're racking your brains.” — New York Post
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Independent coverage (49)
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