Do All The Atoms In Your Brains Neurons Replenish Overtime?

[Jimmy]

I read an article that said most atoms in your body are replaced throughout your life, with the exception of a few very stable cells like certain neurons in the brain. I also read another article that said all the atoms in your brains neurons are eventually replaced. Anyone know the truth?

 

[Jimmy]

Well I just read this so it seems there’s disagreement within the scientific community.

Neurogenesis. Many neuroscientists disagree about how many and how often new neurons are created in the brain. Most of the brain's neurons are already created by the time we're born, but there is evidence to support the theory that neurogenesis is a lifelong process.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I read an article that said most atoms in your body are replaced throughout your life, with the exception of a few very stable cells like certain neurons in the brain. I also read another article that said all the atoms in your brains neurons are eventually replaced. Anyone know the truth?

I wouldn't say atoms are replaced because they bond and unbind all the time, so I guess you could say they cycle throughout your body, but I get what you're trying to say here.

That your initial self is now non-existent because all the atoms and molecules have rearranged, essentially replacing the entirety of your being, and it is said to occur around I think every 7-8 years incrementally, but there are a few things that stay with you throughout your lifetime and don't rearrange or fall apart , which makes it interesting.

I would start studying with a really cool thing called bio scaffolding that goes on in the brain.

 

[ChristineM]

The replacement of brain atoms does happen at a certain rate. Besides which, from the point of view of quantum mechanics, identical atoms are like dollars in a bank account – they don't have individual identities.​

If my brain atoms were replaced with identical ones, am I still me?.

I look at like we are all made of dead people.

 

[Quintessence]

Here you go:

Our Bodies Replace Billions of Cells Every Day

Blood and the gut dominate cell turnover

www.scientificamerican.com

 

[The Hammer]

Ah yes. Another Ship of Thesseus.

 

[wellwisher]

I read an article that said most atoms in your body are replaced throughout your life, with the exception of a few very stable cells like certain neurons in the brain. I also read another article that said all the atoms in your brains neurons are eventually replaced. Anyone know the truth?

I read that the body replaces all its atoms, about every seven years. The body is constantly breaking things down, and replacing them, with the food we eat, being the main source of replacement atoms. In a sense we are what we eat in terms of atoms.

If a mother cell replicates, to form two daughter cells, she has to first pull in fresh materials from the blood supply, until there are enough material stored to make two daughter cells. Each cell cycle replaces half the atoms, with fresh atoms, that originated from our food and drink. Skin cells defoliate constantly, so each time new ones appear, half the atoms are replaced; exponential replacement. Hair gets cut and we need new atoms to make more hair.

But even cells like neuron, many of which never replicate, will still go through internal recycle, that takes down and rebuilds, adding new atoms as old atoms get flushed as waste.

Interestingly, the body's water molecules are replaced each millisecond, due to hydrogen bonding. The Oxygen will swap hydrogen atoms very frequently, so although H2O still appears, the H and O partners, for any given H2O molecule, are not the same for very long. This is connected to entropy. We drink water all the time and this enters the body and old water is expelled.