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And you can't just rely on natural mending processes and neural plasticity to make up the difference.

I wonder about that. I can see healing and plasticity going a very long way over time, but intuition is telling me there's not enough plasticity in the wiring of critical autonomic functions.

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It goes pretty far, and it is amazing, but the limitations are real and are encountered even on seemingly "simple" transplants like a finger. Critical autonomic functions, actually, may work fine, because they are more self-contained - the heart regulates itself, the gut in many ways as well, and many actions like breathing and basic drives are, to my knowledge, rather "standardized" between humans in the lower part of the brain. That's why we all have similar reactions to touching something hot or sharp, being hungry, out of breath, etc.

Did you get down voted for voicing an opinion about a non-political, scientific topic? Only among nerds...

smosher got downvoted because intuition is not helpful here. We can sit around and talk about what we feel might be an answer, but if we don't have any information, it's just random noise.

I have a good bit of information about neurology, and that's exactly what my intuition draws from. I am extremely thankful I don't have the attitude you're endorsing.

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