Surgeons cut three pigs’ spinal cords and used a surgical sealant to try to fuse the severed nerves back together.

Neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero and surgeons in Moscow cut the spinal cords of three pigs and tested a surgical sealant to fuse the severed nerves back together. The team published the work this past summer, and Canavero points to it as evidence that reconnecting severed spinal cords is possible. The procedure supports long-running efforts to pursue a human head transplant.

Robert White, a neurosurgeon at Case Western Reserve University, transplanted a rhesus monkey’s head onto another monkey’s body in 1970. The primate lived several hours, and its reattached head could move its eyes and mouth but never controlled the new body. Sergio Canavero later became the main proponent of a human head transplant, and Valery Spiridinov initially agreed to the surgery before he withdrew.

For builders tracking neurotech, the pig experiment tests a core claim behind head transplants: surgeons can reconnect severed spinal cords. Operators evaluating brain preservation or memory uploading should treat spinal fusion as one enabling step, not a proven path to cognitive immortality. Surgical sealants and nerve repair techniques could find use in less speculative spinal cord treatments.

Canavero says views will change once people accept that reconnecting severed spinal cords is possible. Critics counter that the procedure would resemble murder or leave volunteers paralyzed and dependent on a ventilator. Watch how spinal fusion research shapes the transplant debate.

What matters

• A summer paper describes cutting three pigs’ spinal cords and using a sealant to fuse the nerves.
• Builders tracking neurotech should watch spinal fusion research because it underpins head transplant claims.
• Canavero says views will change once people accept that reconnecting severed spinal cords is possible.

Why it matters

Canavero says views will change once people accept that reconnecting severed spinal cords is possible.

This GenAI News article was prepared in original wording using reporting and materials published by MIT Technology Review AI. Source reference: https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/10/15/1145819/six-wild-ideas-perpetuating-your-mind-cognitive-immortality/.

Drafted by the GenAI News review pipeline.