General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCan you live a normal life with half a brain? (BBC)
Tom Stafford
How much of our brain do we actually need? A number of stories have appeared in the news in recent months about people with chunks of their brains missing or damaged. These cases tell a story about the mind that goes deeper than their initial shock factor. It isn't just that we don't understand how the brain works, but that we may be thinking about it in the entirely wrong way.
Earlier this year, a case was reported of a woman who is missing her cerebellum, a distinct structure found at the back of the brain. By some estimates the human cerebellum contains half the brain cells you have. This isn't just brain damage the whole structure is absent. Yet this woman lives a normal life; she graduated from school, got married and had a kid following an uneventful pregnancy and birth. A pretty standard biography for a 24-year-old.
The woman wasn't completely unaffected she had suffered from uncertain, clumsy, movements her whole life. But the surprise is how she moves at all, missing a part of the brain that is so fundamental it evolved with the first vertebrates. The sharks that swam when dinosaurs walked the Earth had cerebellums.
This case points to a sad fact about brain science. We don't often shout about it, but there are large gaps in even our basic understanding of the brain. We can't agree on the function of even some of the most important brain regions, such as the cerebellum. Rare cases such as this show up that ignorance. Every so often someone walks into a hospital and their brain scan reveals the startling differences we can have inside our heads. Startling differences which may have only small observable effects on our behaviour.
***
more: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20141216-can-you-live-with-half-a-brain
Let the Tea Party* jokes begin !
*Not to suggest that being a TPer constitutes in any way a "normal" life.
shenmue
(38,506 posts)hobbit709
(41,694 posts)But they certainly aren't using more than 10% of what they do have.
kydo
(2,679 posts)giftedgirl77
(4,713 posts)No brain there.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Possibly the dumbest expression ever managed by homo sapiens:
Nay
(12,051 posts)Man from Pickens
(1,713 posts)I can't see how you can live a "normal" life, by today's version of normal. Any sort of thinking for yourself makes all the WTF that is going on stand out like a neon sign.
Orrex
(63,215 posts)Wait a minute...
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)nichomachus
(12,754 posts)The doctor said "We did an MRI of your head and we didn't find anything in there." I said that that was what Sister Mary Patricia told me in third grade and she didn't even have a machine. The woman was a genius.
Response to eppur_se_muova (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
giftedgirl77
(4,713 posts)My 16 yr old told one of his friends parents I only had half a brain & I manage...
peace13
(11,076 posts)Having lost a family member to a brain disease this year I would like to say that it is pretty cool to hear about this remarkable woman. Interesting to hear that you can live without a cerebellum because life with a malfunctioning one is living hell.
I do not excuse the selfish, hateful actions of the right because of lack of brains. Their sickness is centered around a fear of losing privilege, hateful hearts, jealous rage and the inability to know right from wrong.
It never hurts to stop and reflect on how lucky we are to think and feel they way we do, as painful as it can be some days!
That being said...carry on! After all, laughter is the best medicine! : )
Mosby
(16,319 posts)Docs can remove half the neocortex in children and they lead normal lives.
The concept of nueroplasticity has a lot to do with that but like everything in neuroscience, it's not well understood.
backscatter712
(26,355 posts)One treatment for really severe epilepsy is the hemispherectomy.
Kids actually recover from it surprisingly well - the remaining half of the brain grows and fills in much of the space that the removed half took.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)11 Bravo
(23,926 posts)n2doc
(47,953 posts)Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)backscatter712
(26,355 posts)Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Keeps getting arrested hence the Mugshots,