"The new research findings show that the human brain consists of two ancestrally ingeniously integrated nervous systems: a more primitive part that regulates heartbeat, breathing and other functions, and another that makes us distinctively human, capable of poetry, mathematics and reflection on our own origins.

This discovery could help explain why scientists have struggled for decades to grow certain types of brain cells in the lab, and opens new avenues for the study of devastating diseases affecting the brainstem, such as spinal muscular atrophy (also known as SMA) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease)."