A man with an unusually small brain manages to live a completely normal life despite his condition, which was caused by an accumulation of fluid in the skull. The man lost 50-70% of the brain but it seems to be perfectly fine .Scientists describe the case of this patient.
Shocked scientists: lost 50-70% of the brain and is...well
The 44-year-old man's brain scans showed that a large fluid-filled chamber occupied most of the skull hole, leaving little more than a thin sheet of real brain tissue.
"It is difficult to explain exactly the percentage of brain reduction, since we do not use software to measure its volume.But visually, this man lost 50-70%" says Lionel Feuillet, neurologist of the University of the Mediterranean in Marseille, France.
The subject is a married man and father of two children, who works as an official. The man went to the hospital after feeling a slight weakness in his left leg .When Feuillet's colleagues took his medical history, they learned that, when he was a baby, he had had a ventriculoperitoneal shunt to drain the hydrocephalus (water in the brain) he suffered.
Although the shunt was removed when he was 14, the researchers decided to check the status of his brain using computed tomography, a scanning technology, so as another type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).When checking the results they were surprised at the "massive enlargement" of the lateral ventricles , usually small cameras that contain the cerebrospinal fluid that protects the brain.that proceeded to operate him, as we have told you.
The intelligence tests showed that the man had an IQ of 75, below the average score of 100, which is not considered mental retardation or disability ."The entire brain was reduced frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital, on both sides, left and right.These regions contain motion control, sensitivity, language, vision, hearing and emotional and cognitive functions.
The results show that " the brain is very plastic and can adapt to a certain brain damage that occurs in the prenatal and postnatal period when properly treated."
"What seems incredible to me is that, today, it is as if the brain could cope with something that should not be compatible with life," says Max Muenke, a specialist in pediatric brain defects at the Institute National Human Genome Research in Bethesda, Maryland, United States.
The subject is currently leading a normal life, despite his "clipped" brain.
For more stories about people with extraordinary brains, don't miss our article on ¿Pu Does Einstein's brain explain his genius?
Image: Mark Auer, Dmitry Kirsanov, la.kien via Flickr
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