Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by me_me_me 2387 days ago
>Or is the "RAM" also critical?

There are cases of people without short term memory. That to me qualifies as RAM, guess its not critical to survival.

1 comments

Short term memory is more akin to cache.

The connections between the neurons is the architecture. The neurons themselves have state. If that state is wiped across the brain, I'd be surprised if the body connected to it could even still keep itself alive.

To the actual question though, neurons die/fail very quickly at their normal metabolic rate without an oxygen supply. You are certainly dead once that happens.

These procedures are all about providing some oxygen and dropping the metabolic rate to keep the neurons alive longer than they would unassisted.