If you are a zombie, I apologize — this is not what you think.
What caught my eye was this headline —
Brain donation is critically needed
You read that correctly — someone wants you brain, but for legitimate scientific purposes. Here’s the sales pitch —
One out of every six people is suffering from a devastating neurological disorder or disease. That’s why brain donation is critically needed. Diagnoses of autism and dementia is rising at an alarming rate, addiction is crushing families and mental illness can be devastating. Since the chances of developing a brain disorder increase with age—and Americans are now living longer than ever—the number of people in our population with disorders will rise significantly. Brain donation will help increase the availability of brain tissue for study to find answers & treatments for these diseases.
To meet this need, the NeuroBioBank was created in 2013 by the National Institutes of Health to aid researchers and expedite study of neurological disorders. The Bank has established a framework for collecting, processing, storing and distributing human brain tissue. Six brain banks are now contracted to collect the tissue and provide specimens for research.
The next step was the Brain Donation Project (https://braindonorproject.org), established in 2016 as a tax-exempt, non-profit corporation. Its Board of Directors includes representatives from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), which oversee the NeuroBioBank of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
I’m considering signing up for this, if only to prove that I really do have a brain.