Human brain is two separate organs, Stanford Medicine-led research finds
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News Center Topics A-Z Menu Search Clear Submit Research Stanford Medicine News Center Latest Articles Human brain is two separate organs, Stanford Medicine-led research finds Stanford Medicine researchers have shown that the human brain is two distinct organs, a finding that creates opportunities for studying devastating diseases that affect one of those parts — the brain stem. News By Krista Conger Share Article: Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Email For centuries, scientists have thought of the brain as a single, unified organ. But new research led by Stanford Medicine reveals that what we call the brain is two distinct organs that evolved independently over hundreds of millions of years. The discovery overturns a prevailing model of brain development. For decades researchers have subscribed to the theory that there is a single progenitor cell early in development that gives rise to the entire brain. This model suggested all parts of the brain shared a common developmental origin. The new research finding shows that the human brain consists of two ancient nervous systems cleverly packaged together — a more primitive part that regulates our hearts’ beating, our breathing and other functions, and another that makes us distinctly human, capable of poetry, mathematics and wondering about our own origins. The discovery could help explain why scientists have struggled for decades to grow certain types of brain cells in the laboratory — and it opens new avenues for studying devastating diseases that affect the brain stem, such as spinal muscular atrophy (also known as SMA) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease). Kyle Loh “We’ve shown for the first time that the front of the brain arises from a totally different progenitor cell than the back of the brain,” said Kyle Loh, PhD, associate professor of developmental biology. “Our discovery means that we can now grow neurons from the back of the brain, the hindbrain, in a petri dish and study their functions.” The findings were published in Nature Neuroscience Sept. 18. Loh is the senior author. Graduate students Carolyn Dundes and Rayyan Jokhai are co-first authors of the research. Two brains The adult brain has three main regions: the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain. The forebrain handles higher-level thinking — language, consciousness and abstract reasoning. In contrast, the hindbrain, located at the back of the skull and often called the brain stem, controls essential, automatic functions that keep us alive: breathing, sleeping, and regulating our heartbeat and hunger urges. The hindbrain neurons also control the muscles of the face, tongue and throat, which affect speech and swallowing. Despite the critical importance of the hindbrain, scientists have struggled for decades to generate human hindbrain neurons in the laboratory. This gap has hampered research into devastating diseases affecting the brain stem, including spinal muscular atrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. SMA is a leading genetic cause of death in children under 1 year of age. ALS, which is often diagnosed between the ages of 40 and 70, affects both the forebrain and the hindbrain. In both disorders, certain hindbrain neurons gradually cease to function, and the patient loses the ability to swallow, which can cause pneumonia when food or liquid is inhaled into the lungs; eventually, patients lose the ability to breathe. The researchers’ breakthrough came from studying the earliest moments of embryonic development, during a stage called gastrulation when the body first takes shape. Jokhai and Dundes discovered that the hindbrain follows a separate developmental path, running in parallel to — rather than branching off from — the pathway that creates the forebrain and midbrain. The researchers learned this from examining developing mouse embryos. They identified two different brain progenitor cells. One, which expresses a gene called Otx2, is destined to become the forebrain and midbrain. The other, which expresses a gene called Gbx2, is committed to forming the hindbrain. They showed that these two cell populations never overlap; they are mutually exclusive from the earliest stages of development. The team then examined the DNA packaging, or chromatin, in these cells. Chromatin is a way cells determine which genes can be easily accessed and which are bundled away out of reach. What they found was striking: The anterior neural ectoderm (future forebrain and midbrain) and posterior neural ectoderm (future hindbrain) have fundamentally different chromatin configurations. These differences essentially locked each progenitor cell into its respective fate, like travelers on parallel tracks that never cross. “Previous attempts to make hindbrain neurons likely tried to coax forebrain and midbrain progenitors into hindbrain cells, which our study shows is not possible,” Jokhai said. This revelation explained decades of frustration in the field — scientists had been trying to turn one type of progenitor cell into another that it is fundamentally incapable of becoming. “In stem cell biology, people are always fixated with creating the end cell type, like the neuron,” Jokhai said. “But it’s important to begin at the earliest stages of embryonic development. Our careful attention to that early time point allowed us to find this fundamental split in brain development.” Growing hindbrain neurons Armed with this knowledge, the researchers for the first time successfully coaxed human pluripotent stem cells (a kind of cell that can create any cell in the human body) to become functional hindbrain motor neurons in the laboratory. These lab-grown neurons displayed all the hallmarks of authentic hindbrain cells: They exhibited waves of electrical activity called action potentials and made proteins that identify the segments of the hindbrain that control facial and swallowing muscles. Finally, the researchers looked back over 550 million years of evolutionary time. They found the same two-origin brain pattern in chickens; zebrafish; and, remarkably, in acorn worms, tiny creatures living on the ocean floor that share a distant common ancestor with humans. Jellyfish, which diverged from humans about 600 to 700 million years ago, have two nervous systems at different ends of their body. “Our research suggests that evolution took two existing neural systems and pushed them together spatially,” Loh said. “Having the brain as one organ would probably be more efficient, but we rely on this primordial way to make the brain as two separate pieces.” “I was surprised at our findings because the word ‘brain’ implies a contiguous organ that likely has a singular origin,” Jokhai said. “But even 500 million years ago, there were these separate neural systems, which now almost operate as one, which is very cool.” The research also has implications for investigating treatments for SMA, ALS and other conditions affecting the brain stem. Until now, studying these diseases has been nearly impossible because scientists cannot obtain brain stem tissue from living patients. The ability to grow these neurons in a dish opens new possibilities for understanding what goes wrong. There’s even an unexpected connection to obesity treatment: The hindbrain contains circuits that regulate hunger — which is precisely how weight-loss drugs like semaglutide work. The researchers would like to extend their studies to determine the developmental origins of the spinal cord and to learn exactly how SMA and ALS compromise the function of hindbrain neurons. “Now we have a model to better understand these devastating diseases, and work toward regenerative therapies for them,” Jokhai said. “This is a very exciting new frontier in brain research.” Researchers from the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, San Francisco contributed to the study. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants DP5OD024558, DP2GM146258, R00GM121852, R01DK115728, R01DE027538, T32GM119995, T32GM007365, T32GM007790 and F31DE031154); the National Science Foundation; the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine; the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation; a Stanford Maternal and Child Health Research Institute grant; the Stanford Beckman and Ludwig Centers; the Siebel Stem Cell Institute; a Stinehart-Reed Foundation grant; the Gatsby Charitable Foundation; the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; the Packard Foundation; the Pew Charitable Trusts; the Baxter Foundation; the Human Frontier Science Program; and the anonymous, Fickel, Gilbert, and Stinehart-Reed families. About Stanford Medicine Article topics: Neurobiology Science writer Senior science writer Krista Conger, PhD ’99, covers cancer, stem cells, dermatology, developmental biology, endocrinology, pathology, hematology, radiation oncology and LGBTQ+ issues for the office. She received her undergraduate degree in biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley and her PhD in cancer biology from Stanford University. After completing the science writing program at UC Santa Cruz, she joined the Stanford Medicine Office of Communications in 2000. She enjoys distilling complicated scientific topics into engaging prose accessible to the layperson. Over the years, she has had chronicled nascent scientific discoveries from their inception to Food and Drug Administration approval and routine clinical use — documenting the wonder and long arc of medical research. Her writing has repeatedly been recognized with awards from the Counsel for the Advancement and Support of Education and the Association of American Medical Colleges. She is a member of the National Academy of Science Writers and a certified science editor through the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences. In her spare time, she enjoys textile arts, experimenting with new recipes and hiking in beautiful northwestern Montana, where she was raised and now lives. kristac@stanford.edu Media Contact Krista Conger Tel 650-725-5371 kristac@stanford.edu Related Neurology & Neurosurgery September 08, 2023 Scientists identify 'Velcro-like' molecule to potentially treat ALS A drug created by Stanford Medicine scientists aimed at a 'Velcro'-like protein reduces ALS symptoms and improves survival in mice. Neurology & Neurosurgery January 18, 2022 Discovery of hundreds of genes potentially associated with ALS may steer scientists toward treatments Using machine learning, Stanford Medicine scientists and their colleagues have found hundreds of genes that could play a role in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
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Stanford Medicine-led research has revealed that the human brain is composed of two distinct, separate organs, challenging the long-held model that posited a single progenitor cell gave rise to the entire brain. This discovery provides significant opportunities for investigating devastating neurological diseases that specifically affect the brain stem. The study indicates that the brain structures are organized as two ancient nervous systems that evolved independently over deep evolutionary time. The adult brain is traditionally divided into the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain. The forebrain is responsible for higher-level cognitive functions such as language, consciousness, and abstract reasoning. In contrast, the hindbrain, often referred to as the brain stem, governs essential, automatic physiological functions necessary for survival, including heart rate regulation, breathing, sleep cycles, and hunger urges. Furthermore, neurons in the hindbrain control the muscles of the face, tongue, and throat, directly influencing speech and swallowing mechanisms. Despite the critical importance of the hindbrain, scientists have faced protracted difficulties in generating human hindbrain neurons in laboratory settings, which has severely hampered research into conditions affecting the brain stem, such as spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The breakthrough originated from examining the earliest stages of embryonic development during gastrulation. The researchers, including Kyle Loh, PhD, along with co-first authors Carolyn Dundes and Rayyan Jokhai, discovered that the hindbrain follows a developmental trajectory separate from the pathways that form the forebrain and midbrain, running in parallel rather than branching off from them. They identified two distinct brain progenitor cell populations: one expressing the gene Otx2, destined for the forebrain and midbrain, and another expressing Gbx2, committed to forming the hindbrain. Critically, these two cell populations were found to be mutually exclusive from the earliest developmental stages. This separation was further supported by examining the DNA packaging, or chromatin, within these cells, revealing that the anterior neural ectoderm and the posterior neural ectoderm possess fundamentally different chromatin configurations, effectively locking each progenitor cell into its appropriate developmental fate. This understanding resolved decades of frustration in stem cell biology, as previous attempts to generate hindbrain neurons by coaxing forebrain cells into those fates proved impossible. Utilizing this insight, the researchers successfully guided human pluripotent stem cells to differentiate into functional hindbrain motor neurons in vitro. These laboratory-grown neurons displayed authentic hindbrain characteristics, including action potentials and the expression of proteins that define the segments controlling facial and swallowing muscles. The evolutionary context for this dual-origin pattern is profound. Examination over 550 million years of evolutionary history revealed the same two-origin brain pattern in diverse organisms, including chickens, zebrafish, and even acorn worms. This suggests that evolution operated by spatially merging two pre-existing neural systems. The researchers propose that evolution utilized these separate neural systems and subsequently brought them closer together spatially to form the brain. This finding implies that the structure of the brain, as one contiguous organ, may not be the most evolutionarily efficient configuration, supporting the primordial arrangement of two distinct neural systems. The implications of this research extend to understanding neurological disorders, as it provides a novel model for investigating conditions like SMA and ALS by offering a system to study the dysfunction of hindbrain neurons. Moreover, the ability to grow these neurons opens new therapeutic avenues. The research also suggests an unexpected connection to obesity treatment, as the hindbrain contains circuits regulating hunger, which aligns with the mechanism of weight-loss drugs. The scientists aim to extend their work to determine the developmental origins of the spinal cord and to precisely map how the damage in hindbrain neurons contributes to these debilitating diseases, leading toward the development of regenerative therapies. |