These tiny brains were grown in a lab

The human brain is a spectacular supercomputer that lets us do all sorts of miraculous things, like reading the very words on this screen. So perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that understanding all of its intricate neural circuitry has proven to be a massively difficult undertaking, which at least partly explains why the White House is cozying up with the scientific community and spending $100 million to map the human mind in its entirety.

A small team of researchers in Europe, meanwhile, are taking a somewhat different approach to understanding how the brain carries out its various functions. They're growing their own in a lab.

Neuroscience researchers at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have successfully cultivated tiny, pea-sized brains in a petri dish. The mini-minds boast roughly the cognitive capabilities of a nine-week-old fetus, but are — somewhat thankfully? — incapable of retaining thoughts or memories of their own.

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So how do you grow itty, bitty brains out of living tissue in the first place? Since you can't just mosey over to the brain store and purchase a batch of wrinkled seedlings, you start with a gooey cocktail of embryonic or induced pluripotent stem cells, which have the miraculous ability to transform into just about any kind of living tissue. Here's LiveScience's detailed explanation of the brain-growing process:

These tiny, non-complex brains aren't intended to be transferred into scary mini-humans, and thankfully, they're about as large as they're ever going to grow. The basic idea behind their existence is this: Right now, neuroscience research hinges largely on the study of rodent brains. While the brains of rats and mice are perfectly fine and boast remarkable similarities to our own, they're still far from ideal. These lab-grown brains are better.

Researchers say they're using these lab-grown noggins to specifically study microcephaly, a neurodevelopmental disorder often caused by having an unusually small head. "Ultimately we would like to move towards more common disorders like schizophrenia or autism," researcher Dr. Juergen Knoblich told BBC News.