The Brain May be Able to Repair Itself

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

TODAY’S TED TALK The brain may be able to repair itself -- with help 11:34 minutes · TEDGlobal>Geneva Through treating everything from strokes to car accident traumas, neurosurgeon Jocelyne Bloch knows the brain's inability to repair itself all too well. But now, she suggests, she and her colleagues may have found the key to neural repair: Doublecortin-positive cells. Similar to stem cells, they are extremely adaptable and, when extracted from a brain, cultured and then re-injected in a lesioned area of the same brain, they can help repair and rebuild it. "With a little help," Bloch says, "the brain may be able to help itself." Watch now »   PLAYLIST OF THE DAY How does my brain work? How exactly does the brain -- a 3-pound snarl of nervous tissue -- create inspired inventions, the feeling of hunger, the experience of beauty, the sense of self? Researchers at the edge of science explain …Watch » 14 talks · Total run time 3:22:01