Page 42 - Microsoft Word - The Future of Learning April 2017.docx

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In March 2013, the role of astrocytes and their impact on learning was given considerable support via the release of a research paper entitled ‘Forebrain Engraftment by Human Glial Progenitor Cells Enhances Synaptic Plasticity and Learning in Adult Mice’57 Up until the release of this paper the critical role of astrocytes in how we learn was contentious and hotly debated. Scientists added human astrocytes to the mice embryos and then allowed the embryos to grow and to be born.
When the chimeric mice (mice with DNA from more than one species), were born they were subject to three standard test of intelligence for mice. The mice were found to achieve these intelligence tests with improvements in their intelligence for each test of between 100 and 300%. Later trials that kept the mice alive for over 100 days resulted in the human astrocytes reproducing until there was literally no room left in the mouse brain.
By injecting stem cells of human astrocytes59 into the brains of embryonic mice, the young mice developed fully functional human astrocytes within their brains. The astrocytes coordinated neural activity in the brains of the chimeric60 mice and as a result, the mice dramatically increased their capacity to learn.61
Ray Kurzweil
The three graphs below58 show the results of the intelligence tests that were carried out on the mice with the additional human astrocytes, after they were born. Each of the test results indicated that the genetically enhanced mice learned must faster than ordinary mice. The graphs below show the test results. Lower scores indicate greater intelligence in Tests A and C, while higher scores indicate greater intelligence in Test B
Test A
Test B
Test C
Resource 15: The effect off adding human astrocytes to a mouse brain
The implications of this research are extraordinary, confirming the critical role of
astrocytes in the Learning Process.
57 Han, X., Chen, M., Wang, F., Windren, M., Wang, S., Shnaz, S., Xu, Q., Oberheim, N., Bekar, L., Bedstadt, S., Silva, A., Takano, T., Goldman, S. & Nedergaard, M. (2013). Forebrain Engraftment by Human Glial Progenitor Cells Enhances Synaptic Plasticity and Learning in Adult Mice. Stem Cell 12(3), 342–353. Retrieved from http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/retrieve/pii/S1934590913000076
58 Han, X., Chen, M., Wang, F., Windren, M., Wang, S., Shnaz, S., Xu, Q., Oberheim, N., Bekar, L., Bedstadt, S., Silva, A., Takano, T., Goldman, S. & Nedergaard, M. (2013). Forebrain Engraftment by Human Glial Progenitor Cells Enhances Synaptic Plasticity and Learning in Adult Mice. Stem Cell 12(3), 342–353. Retrieved from http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/retrieve/pii/S1934590913000076
59 Asytrocytic stem cells are possibly stored in the gyrus in our brain. Neurons may also mutate/morph into astrocytes.
60 Chimeric: A single organism that contain genetic matter from two or more genetically distinct cell types.
61 Kurzweil. (2013). Support cells found in human brain make mice smarter. Retrieved from http://www.kurzweilai.net/support-cells-found- in-human-brain-make-mice-smarter