# Human head transplant/reanimation: is this neurosurgeon a clown? Is the journal legit? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 20, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-head-transplant-reanimation-is-this-neurosurgeon-a-clown-is-the-journal-legit/766448 "2016-09-20T16:55:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-head-transplant-reanimation-is-this-neurosurgeon-a-clown-is-the-journal-legit/766448/1 "2016-09-20T16:55:29Z")
It’s in a journal _Surgical Neurology International_, which I’m not sure how legit it is; they’ve published a bunch of his previous work on spinal cord repair (cited in his _self-identified_ “Heaven: The Frankenstein Effect” project–another sign of clownishness). Is his previous work anything? [http://surgicalneurologyint.com/surgicalint\_articles/heaven-the-frankenstein-effect/](http://surgicalneurologyint.com/surgicalint_articles/heaven-the-frankenstein-effect/) ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-head-transplant-reanimation-is-this-neurosurgeon-a-clown-is-the-journal-legit/766448/2 "2016-09-20T18:53:54Z")
Here is a long [article](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/09/the-audacious-plan-to-save-this-mans-life-by-transplanting-his-head/492755/) from the Atlantic about the proposed surgery. (Warning: The photograph of the Soviet dog-and-a-half will haunt you). It sounds to me from this article like the surgeon is both accomplished in his field and quite crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-head-transplant-reanimation-is-this-neurosurgeon-a-clown-is-the-journal-legit/766448/3 "2016-09-20T22:12:56Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > (Warning: The photograph of the Soviet dog-and-a-half will haunt you). Isn’t this a known hoax? [Sounds like it:](http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=109;t=000769;p=0) > [@Joostik](#): > > Funny (in a macabre way) but absolutely fake. > > Heart: could be genuine, nothing extraordinary if you attach electrodes in the right places. > > Lungs: cannot breathe on their own, because they lack the muscles. Pressurized air will do the trick. > > Dogs head: even if you provided the oxigen to keep the brain alive, it could never move the way it does here. In the part where it is shown to be alive, you do not actually see it being attached to tubes, only in the first shot (in the movie, not necessarily IRL) where it doesn’t move at all and looks dead enough. Simple case of hole in the table, stick through head of (live) dog. > > Second dog: [Dog is drained of all blood; heart stops. Dog is declared dead. After 10 minutes (!) a primitive heart-lung machine is attached and blood is pumped back. Heart spontaneously starts beating again. Respiration starts. Machine is switched off. Dog is alive again!] Possible in theory if done real quick, but ten minutes? And they did not even have to stimulate the heart to get it working again? BTW, they didn’t “cut off its head” this time. > And that laboratory is sooo fake… just lots of bottles… Later on in the thread, it’s acknowledged that even if the experiment did happen (and nobody’s verifying _that_), the film itself is of a re-enactment _at best_. Reading further, it seems that there’s just barely enough uncertainty for it to be an actual debate, with evidence on both sides. That in itself is strong evidence of this being a hoax, given that a real experiment would rely upon incontrovertible evidence for it to be taken seriously by the scientific community. Of course, this was in a time and place when Lysenkoism was the law of the land, so we’ve circled back around and answered our own question. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-head-transplant-reanimation-is-this-neurosurgeon-a-clown-is-the-journal-legit/766448/4 "2016-09-20T22:38:23Z")
As far as “is the journal legit?”: Surgical Neurology International is an Internet-only open-access journal. Its impact factor (based on how often its articles are cited in other published research) is a bit hard to evaluate - based on [this listing](http://neurosurgic.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=101&Itemid=465) it comes in near the bottom of all neurosurgery journals (assuming “missing” is a valid impact factor). Elsewhere it is cited over the past few years as having an impact factor between about 0.6 and 1.7, which sounds at its best to be low mediocre. As for the (highly speculative) article itself with its, um, stimulating references (i.e. The Shocking History Of Electric Fish), I am just a wee bit dubious about its conclusions. For instance, the idea that neurons take several days to die seems at odds with our current knowledge about brain death. Bottom line: I wouldn’t be hasty about investing in this guy’s company (if he had one), and wouldn’t count on bringing Ted Williams back to help the Red Sox this year. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-head-transplant-reanimation-is-this-neurosurgeon-a-clown-is-the-journal-legit/766448/5 "2016-09-20T23:20:57Z")
In one of the _Series of Unfortunate Events_ books, Violet narrowly escaped being the patient in such a procedure, intended to be attempted by Count – I wanna say…Chocula? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-head-transplant-reanimation-is-this-neurosurgeon-a-clown-is-the-journal-legit/766448/6 "2016-09-21T01:08:36Z")
Olaf.