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eppur_se_muova

(36,269 posts)
Thu Dec 18, 2014, 11:22 AM Dec 2014

Can 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.
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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.

22 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Can you live a normal life with half a brain? (BBC) (Original Post) eppur_se_muova Dec 2014 OP
Sure, if you're a Republican shenmue Dec 2014 #1
I don't know if the TPers have half a brain missing or not. hobbit709 Dec 2014 #2
W nt kydo Dec 2014 #3
That's a damn puppet.... giftedgirl77 Dec 2014 #11
This is still one of my favorite memories of the Chimperor hifiguy Dec 2014 #22
Lots of people seem to manage. nt Nay Dec 2014 #4
if you have more than half a brain Man from Pickens Dec 2014 #5
A few months ago they did an MRI on my head and found nothing. Orrex Dec 2014 #6
Mine found something benign, so I had it removed jberryhill Dec 2014 #8
Same here nichomachus Dec 2014 #20
Message auto-removed Name removed Dec 2014 #7
I have lesions on the majority of my frontal & occipital lobes... giftedgirl77 Dec 2014 #9
Too soon for the brain jokes. peace13 Dec 2014 #10
google hemispherectomy Mosby Dec 2014 #12
That's what I was thinking. backscatter712 Dec 2014 #17
Maybe. But, we know, considering Reagan and Dubya, that you can become president. Tierra_y_Libertad Dec 2014 #13
Hell, Sarah Palin got RICH with less than that! 11 Bravo Dec 2014 #14
Doesn't Limbaugh boast about this? n/t n2doc Dec 2014 #15
Famous mugshot Jesus Malverde Dec 2014 #16
Phineas Gage, eat your heart out! backscatter712 Dec 2014 #18
From a comment this poor guy was in a car accident. Jesus Malverde Dec 2014 #19
Well, you'd still have twice as much brain as Bush, and he got to be president! LeftishBrit Dec 2014 #21

hobbit709

(41,694 posts)
2. I don't know if the TPers have half a brain missing or not.
Thu Dec 18, 2014, 11:25 AM
Dec 2014

But they certainly aren't using more than 10% of what they do have.

 

hifiguy

(33,688 posts)
22. This is still one of my favorite memories of the Chimperor
Sat Dec 20, 2014, 05:45 PM
Dec 2014

Possibly the dumbest expression ever managed by homo sapiens:

 

Man from Pickens

(1,713 posts)
5. if you have more than half a brain
Thu Dec 18, 2014, 11:31 AM
Dec 2014

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.

nichomachus

(12,754 posts)
20. Same here
Thu Dec 18, 2014, 03:58 PM
Dec 2014

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)

 

giftedgirl77

(4,713 posts)
9. I have lesions on the majority of my frontal & occipital lobes...
Thu Dec 18, 2014, 12:17 PM
Dec 2014

My 16 yr old told one of his friends parents I only had half a brain & I manage...

 

peace13

(11,076 posts)
10. Too soon for the brain jokes.
Thu Dec 18, 2014, 12:19 PM
Dec 2014

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)
12. google hemispherectomy
Thu Dec 18, 2014, 12:52 PM
Dec 2014

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)
17. That's what I was thinking.
Thu Dec 18, 2014, 01:37 PM
Dec 2014

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.

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