Dan Baumgardt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and

If brain transplants like the one in Poor Things were possible, this is how they might work

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2024-04-02 05:00:09

Dan Baumgardt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

The neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero announced in 2015 that he could soon be capable of performing the world’s first human head transplant procedure. This would mean that it would be possible to remove someone’s head, and graft it onto the neck and shoulders of another person. As of yet, this has only been performed on cadavers and not on living humans.

But suppose you want to keep the face that you’ve already got? Or have grown tired of the body you inhabit? Could it ever be possible to switch brains between bodies instead?

Emma Stone recently won her second Oscar for her performance in the brilliantly surreal comedy Poor Things. In the film, Stone’s character, Bella Baxter, receives a brain transplant from her surviving unborn child after killing herself. The surgery is performed by experimental scientist Dr Godwin Baxter (played by Willem Dafoe).