Have you ever thought about donating your brain to science? Don’t worry, I mean after you die.
You may have heard of donating your body to science or donating organs for transplants and wondered if they are similar. Or maybe you have a vague idea that donating your brain might be a good idea and want to know what’s in it.
If you go ahead and donate your brain, it would be stored in a brain bank, perhaps one at the University of Sydney, where I am the director.
Here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about donating your brain to science.
Is it like donating a kidney?
No, donating your organs, such as kidneys or liver, during your life or after your death is for transplants. A brain is definitely not for transplants.
Donating your body to science is also different and is largely so that medical or allied health students can study human anatomy, including the anatomy of the brain.
Donating your brain to a brain bank after you die allows researchers to use your brain tissue for research.
Read more: Are you dead yet? Science, fear and organ donation
What kind of brain are you looking for?
Scientists want to study all kinds of brains. This includes brains from people who have brain disease, such as dementia or depression, when they enroll in our program, and those who do not initially have brain disease but later develop it.
To understand why certain people get brain disease, scientists need to compare affected brains with those of people without brain disease. Brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and stroke are among the leading causes of death in Australia. Addiction, anxiety and depression are the main causes of illness.
How will my brain be used?
Researchers use donated brain tissue to first confirm the patient’s diagnosis. Diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease can only be confirmed after death.
By studying brain tissue, researchers can also learn how brain disease progresses. By studying diseases at the microscopic level, we are trying to find how they can be better diagnosed and treated.
We still know very little about what happens in the brain to cause these conditions and why the most promising treatments fail to improve them.
The ability of many treatments to cure brain diseases in animals, but there is a high failure rate when tested in humans. This is because our brains are so uniquely human, in terms of size and complexity. The only accurate model is the human brain itself.
Read more: What causes Alzheimer’s disease? What we know, we do not know and suspect
What is really involved?
When you die, brain bank staff communicate with hospital or aged care staff, funeral directors and your family. Your body is taken to a mortuary, either a public hospital or a forensic center, and a brain-only autopsy is performed.
The entire brain and spinal cord are removed by mortuary staff and immediately transported by brain bank staff to the bank for further preparation.
At the bank, staff work quickly to split the brain in two: one half is placed in a chemical fixative, while the other half is dissected and placed in a -80℃ freezer. The time between death and fixation or freezing is called the postmortem interval and should be kept as short as possible to maximize the success of future analytical techniques.
The fixed tissue remains in solution for three weeks before being dissected into a series of blocks which are then embedded in wax and allowed to harden. These blocks are then cut with a very thin blade to produce sections one-hundredth of a millimeter thick. These sections are stained for disease-specific proteins to allow a diagnosis to be formally made by the bench neuropathologist.
Researchers interested in a specific brain disease apply to the bank’s Tissue Science Committee. Often a prospective study will involve both fixed and frozen tissue, so complementary spatial (from fixed tissue) and molecular (frozen tissue) studies can be performed.
We store about 500 brains from donors with various diseases and from those with “normal” brains.
Why do people sign up?
People donate their brains to science for all kinds of reasons.
A peer review from New Zealand found that the main reason was a desire to help others.
The main reasons for not donating included family being against it, religious concerns and not knowing that brain donation is possible.
Donation was more likely if people had thorough knowledge and understanding of the entire process.
Read more: Donate your body to science? Don’t worry, it’s not what it used to be
OK, you’ve convinced me. What’s next?
The first step is to contact your local brain bank to find out what’s available.
After talking with your family or friends and giving informed consent, potential brain donors will be enrolled in a program.
Some donor programs are associated with referral clinics for specific diseases such as Parkinson’s disease or motor neuron disease. In this case, patients will be informed of the brain donation by their specialist and the bank will contact the authorisation.
The brain bank tracks the donor’s lifestyle and medical history through annual questionnaires and optional additional studies.
We need this information years before death to build a more complete picture of the person behind the brain and any problems that may be related to brain disease.
Thanks
Australia’s brain banks have already contributed to many discoveries, including research into Alzheimer’s disease, alcohol addiction, young-onset dementia and Parkinson’s disease.
So thank you for considering donating your brain to science so we can have a chance to learn more.