How close are we to genetically altering brain functionality?

[thehacker3]

Title says it all. How close are we to genetically instilling more memory, faster processing power, etc.. in the human brain?

Can an admin please PM this time before just deleting the thread? It's a serious question and an interesting discussion if taken as such.

 

[nismaratwork]

Title says it all. How close are we to genetically instilling more memory, faster processing power, etc.. in the human brain?

Can an admin please PM this time before just deleting the thread? It's a serious question and an interesting discussion if taken as such.

Not close at all... remember that to achieve those ends we need to have a deep understanding of memory and what makes the brain work "faster" and "better". The last time gene therapy was tried with good intentions and little testing, it killed all save one participant.

I would say we're not even within sight of such a breakthrough, unless it came out of nowhere. Remember that genes act in an incredibly complex fashion with each other, the environment, and then each other again. It's one thing to make a fern bioluminescent, quite another to enhance a brain without killing it.

 

[thehacker3]

Not close at all... remember that to achieve those ends we need to have a deep understanding of memory and what makes the brain work "faster" and "better". The last time gene therapy was tried with good intentions and little testing, it killed all save one participant.

I would say we're not even within sight of such a breakthrough, unless it came out of nowhere. Remember that genes act in an incredibly complex fashion with each other, the environment, and then each other again. It's one thing to make a fern bioluminescent, quite another to enhance a brain without killing it.

Thank you for a much more informative response. This answered my question quite well, actually.

 

[nismaratwork]

Thank you for a much more informative response. This answered my question quite well, actually.

Glad to hear it, and if you're intersted (which it seems you are), I'd begin by researching gene therapy over the past decade or two, the expecations for it at the outset, and the reality.

There is a lot of promise in our genome, and altering it, but first we need to understand it... and we don't... not even close.

 

[Proton Soup]

you could try the dual n-back method to increase working memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-back#Dual_n-back

i downloaded the brain workshop game, but just never seem to find the interest to play it.

 

[thehacker3]

you could try the dual n-back method to increase working memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-back#Dual_n-back

i downloaded the brain workshop game, but just never seem to find the interest to play it.

My college statistics professor directed us to that game.

Agreed, no interest to play it, even if it may increase working memory.