This sounds like the beginning of a plot for a bad movie. From NewScientist (14 January 2017):
Source: wiseGEEK
Alysson Muotri at the University of California, San Diego, and his team created the mini-brains by exposing stem cells taken from the pulp of children’s milk teeth to cocktails of growth factors that help them mature.Eventually, they can develop as many as six layers of cerebral cortex – the outer surface of the brain. This region is much more sophisticated in humans than in other animals, and houses important circuitry governing our most complex thoughts and behaviours, including socialising with others.
It’s cool stuff, really – who would have thought that the pulp of milk teeth could be used to create parts of a cerebral cortex? And why?
To understand how brain development affects sociability, the team used donated cells from children with autism and Rett syndrome, both of which are associated with impaired communication skills. They also used cells from children with Williams syndrome, a condition characterised by a hyper-sociable nature. People with Williams syndrome can be unable to restrain themselves from talking to complete strangers.
The team found that mini-brains grown using stem cells from children with autism form fewer neural connections, while those from Williams syndrome children have an abnormally high number. When cells from the teeth of children with none of these conditions were used, the resulting mini-brains were somewhere in between these two extremes.
Which leads to questions of whether or not therapies developed to correct the number of neural connections to an “ideal” number is an ethical treatment. After all, what would determine an ideal number? That leads to questions about neuro-typical vs neuro-atypical desirability.
It connects, in my mind, to the azi of C. J. Cherryh’s Cyteen series, who were basically bred slaves – who didn’t mind being slaves. I found them a bit chilling, but then that was one of the points of the series – heavy specialization may be necessary to survive in space.
