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Cases Of Little Or No Brain; Unusually Small Or Partial Brains

inkedmagiclady said:
...I did read somewhere that the abdomen has some sort of "grey matter" cells that they think could be a mini brain in the stomach area. When one gets a "gut feeling." it is this mini brain functioning. Of course I forgot where I read it so I can't quote the source. Anyone else remember something like that?

aikidoaus.com.au/dojo/docs/2nd_braina.htm
Link is dead. The MIA webpage can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20031209151106/http://aikidoaus.com.au/dojo/docs/2nd_braina.htm

ananova.com/news/story/sm_105441.html
Link is dead. No archived version found.
 
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Perhaps individuals that don't have brains yet appear normal don't need them as they are being remote controlled?
 
inkedmagiclady said:
Seriously though, I did read somewhere that the abdomen has some sort of "grey matter" cells that they think could be a mini brain in the stomach area. When one gets a "gut feeling." it is this mini brain functioning.

I well believe this because I have seizures sometimes, but no one has ever found anything strange in my brain. The seizures are preceded by a panicky feeling in the gut, however, and sometimes I've been able to prevent a seizure by telling by "guts" to quiet down.
 
A minor digression, but some dinosaurs were thought to have a large nerve cluster at the base of the spine that acted as a 'second brain' to provide fine control over the rear of the body (because they were so damn big that the nerve impulses from the brain would take unfeasibly long to react).

I'm not sure if anything similar can happen in humans.
 
Atch said:
Is that the same show in which later on she was shown by MRI or somesuch to have almost all her brain present, just a lot of the structures were pushed down towards the foramen magnum? It turned out her estimated brain volume was actually greater than that of her husband IIRC.

This or something similar was on the Discovey channel's series of half hour documentaries 'Extraordinary People' and was called 'The Woman with no Brain' (repeated just now):

library.digiguide.com/lib/episodes/205710
Link is dead. No archived version found.


Her name was Sharon and she was from Bolton. The normal human range of brain volumes is around 1,000-2,000 ccs and she was just over 2,000ccs so she doesn't just beat her husband on the brains department but most of us ;)

[edit2: She also had an IQ of 113 which is up in the 80th percentile of the population, allegedly]

It does make a bit of a mockery of the title of the show (although 'The Women who the Experts Thought Lacked a lot of her Brain was Actually Found to be Well-Endowed in the Cranial Department' doesn't work so well).

The issue of people with virtually no brains was featured in a Medical Bag from the last few years - anyone know which edition of FT it was in (hmmmmmm why don't I just look)?

[edit: Half a page in FT 163: 14]

Emps

Edit to Add:

Here's some more information about "The Woman With No Brain" (TV program; video).

Description

Sharon Parker, a staff nurse who lives in Barnsley with her husband and three children, has only 10-15% of a normal brain. This programme looks back at her childhood and explains how her lack of brain initially came about. What is not so easy to fathom, however, is how well she functions in her day to day life, even being able to score 113 on an IQ test. ...

Notes

Broadcast on 19 October, 2003. The same programme was repackaged as 'The Woman With The Mysterious Brain' and broadcast on 8 Feb 2004; see separate record for details. Narrated by Stephen Rashbrook. Directed by Sarah Wallis.
SOURCE: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/mjr2hc2w
 
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The Vietnam war photographer Tim Page lost part of his brain the size of an orange when a soldier in front of him trod on a mine. He survived and still works, but has lost some ability in his limbs. I recall seeing a picture of him at an exhibition wearing a hat with BRAIN DAMAGED on it. Also, the German expressionist painter Otto Dix used WW1 veterans as some of his subjects, many of whom had lived through horrific injuries previously thought unsurvivable... including huge chunks of heads being blown off.:eek:
 
Emperor said:
This or something similar was on the Discovey channel's series of half hour documentaries 'Extraordinary People' and was called 'The Woman with no Brain' (repeated just now):

http://library.digiguide.com/lib/episodes/205710

Her name was Sharon and she was from Bolton. The normal human range of brain volumes is around 1,000-2,000 ccs and she was just over 2,000ccs so she doesn't just beat her husband on the brains department but most of us ;)

It also appears she appears in a Channel 5 documentary tonight:

The Woman with the Mysterious Brain: Extraordinary People (Documentary)

Time - 20:30 - 21:00 (30 minutes long)
When - Sunday 8th February on Five

Documentary about Sharon Parker who was told by doctors that she would have only 10 to 15 per cent normal brain capacity following a childhood operation. She travels to the US to try to help the experts fathom as to how this successful career woman with three children has defied medical science.
(Repeat, Subtitles, Stereo)

Emps
 
Do we need our brains?

Culled off http://www.alternativescience.com/no_brainer.htm
What do you think?

Is your brain really necessary?

Do you really have to have a brain? The reason for my apparently
absurd question is the remarkable research conducted at the
University of Sheffield by neurology professor John Lorber.

When Sheffield's campus doctor was treating one of the
mathematics students for a minor ailment, he noticed that the
student's head was a little larger than normal. The doctor
referred the student to professor Lorber for further examination.

The student in question was academically bright, had a reported
IQ of 126 and was expected to graduate. When he was examined by
CAT-scan, however, Lorber discovered that he had virtually no
brain at all.

Instead of two hemispheres filling the cranial cavity, some 4.5
centimetres deep, the student had less than 1 millimetre of
cerebral tissue covering the top of his spinal column.

The student was suffering from hydrocephalus, the condition in
which the cerebrospinal fluid, instead of circulating around the
brain and entering the bloodstream, becomes dammed up inside the
brain.

Normally, the condition is fatal in the first months of
childhood. Even where an individual survives he or she is usually
seriously handicapped. Somehow, though, the Sheffield student had
lived a perfectly normal life and went on to gain an honours
degree in mathematics.

This case is by no means as rare as it seems. In 1970, a New
Yorker died at the age of 35. He had left school with no
academic achievements, but had worked at manual jobs such as
building janitor, and was a popular figure in his neighbourhood.
Tenants of the building where he worked described him as passing
the days performing his routine chores, such as tending the
boiler, and reading the tabloid newspapers. When an autopsy was
performed to determine the cause of his premature death he, too,
was found to have practically no brain at all.

Professor Lorber has identified several hundred people who have
very small cerebral hemispheres but who appear to be normal
intelligent individuals. Some of them he describes as having 'no
detectable brain', yet they have scored up to 120 on IQ tests.

No-one knows how people with 'no detectable brain' are able to
function at all, let alone to graduate in mathematics, but there
are a couple theories. One idea is that there is such a high
level of redundancy of function in the normal brain that what
little remains is able to learn to deputise for the missing
hemispheres. Another, similar, suggestion is the old idea that
we only use a small percentage of our brains anyway -- perhaps as
little a 10 per cent.

The trouble with these ideas is that more recent research seems
to contradict them. The functions of the brain have been mapped
comprehensively and although there is some redundancy there is
also a high degree of specialisation -- the motor area and the
visual cortex being highly specific for instance. Similarly, the
idea that we 'only use 10 per cent of our brain' is a
misunderstanding dating from research in the 1930s in which the
functions of large areas of the cortex could not be determined
and were dubbed 'silent', when in fact they are linked with
important functions like speech and abstract thinking.

The other interesting thing about Lorber's findings is that they
remind us of the mystery of memory. At first it was thought that
memory would have some physical substrate in the brain, like the
memory chips in a PC. But extensive investigation of the brain
has turned up the surprising fact that memory is not located in
any one area or in a specific substrate. As one eminent
neurologist put it, 'memory is everywhere in the brain and
nowhere.'

But if the brain is not a mechanism for classifying and storing
experiences and analysing them to enable us to live our lives
then what on earth is the brain for? And where is the seat of
human intelligence? Where is the mind?

The only biologist to propose a radically novel approach to these
questions is Dr Rupert Sheldrake. In his book A New Science of
Life Sheldrake rejected the idea that the brain is a warehouse
for memories and suggested it is more like a radio receiver for
tuning into the past. Memory is not a recording process in which
a medium is altered to store records, but a journey that the mind
makes into the past via the process of morphic resonance.

But, of course, such a crazy idea couldn't possibly be true,
could it?
 
My brain hurts.
I think.

What a great article. I used to have a book with a chapter on just such phenomena, including apparently miraculous recoveries from disastrous brain injuries. Even more baffling were apparently normal babies who'd died mysteriously and been found at post-mortem to have no brain at all, just fluid. (11 ounces is the amount I seem to remember.)

Our brains are fascintaing things.

Anyone know what this means?

On Old Olympus Topmost Top, a Fat-Eared German Viewed a Hop.

Clue: it's not brain brain surgery!
Well, it is, actually. ;)
 
We use all our brain power.

I read in the New Scientist magazine (I think) that we in fact use all of our brain power all of the time ie. 100%.

How some people therefore manage on virtually no brain, as in cases of severe hydrocephalus, I'll never know- There was a case of a British Nurse just like this on TV (Channel 4 or 5) in 2003.
 
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Did any-one read a case of one persons brain, found to contain just a little liquid, yet this person had 'apparently ' functioned as 'normal'. Sorry not to be more specific, I'll see if I can find the book it was in. That sounds impossible, to me.
 
I remember seeing something on TV years ago that may have been called "the boy with no brain" OWTTE. Featured cases of people with very little brain matter in their skulls, who lead totally normal lives with normal intelligence levels etc ... the boy in question had "no" brain matter at all (supposedly) and they had pix of him as a baby being held up in front of a strong light and you could "see" right through his skull :eek:

edited for speeling
 
OWTTE?*vows to avoid standing in front of strong lights*
 
DNA = BRAIN.

As i mentioned before somewhere on FT there was a case of a baby been born with no brain (and no water in there to)it lived for 3 to 4 months before docters noticed anything wrong.
Going back to DNA,the organic computer is bassed on DNA strands and the incredibal amount of memory they has have.

Sometime in the future we will be able to have an organic computer inplanted in side us(then we will be able to download our brains and make a back up to) no kidding.
Billo
 
kid with no brain

Ok, so I was looking at a "Best of the Fortean Times" book that I have and I showed my bf an article about a child who was born with only a brain stem. The kid smiled and lauged and stuff and some people thought that these were real emotions and some people didn't. Me and my bf were arguing for SO LONG over whether or not this was true and, if so, whether or not he was able to think and feel emotions ( I said he was, he said he wasn't.) Anyway, there wasn't much info and my bf looked online and couldn't find anything, and I was just wondering if anybody had any more information on this subject?
 
A child can be born with various degrees of anencephaly, as described on websites here.
http://www.anencephaly.net/

Anencephaly and spina bifida are neural tube defects.
Most babies born with anencephaly do not survive for long.
:(
 
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Thank you

It is sad that most of these babies die so soon, but I am still interested in looking for info on those who survive.
 
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And I think this fit here - its odd:

The Vanishing Brain - A Special Report

Feb. 10, 2005

Ed Yeates Reporting

A medical mystery has more than a dozen of the world's top brain doctors puzzled. Why is the brain of a 51-year old man from Bountiful literally shrinking? In our special report - - The Vanishing Brain.

When the University of Utah builds its world class "Brain Institute," this is where researchers will focus - what is considered the last frontier of medicine - and mysteries like the one plaguing David Mitchell and his family. Who David Mitchell once was - the father, the husband his family once knew - is fading away. And nobody knows why!

Cynthia Mitchell: “And I find that every time I go in on a monthly basis, emotionally, it's very hard on me because you can see the degeneration that's happened from the month before.”

After consultations with the world's best neurologists in the United States and Canada after numerous exams and brain scans -- the mystery continues. While the right hemisphere in David's brain remains healthy and functional, the left hemisphere is shrinking away.

Kathleen Digre, M.D., University of Utah Neurologist: “On this side, the left side, you can see that the Gyri are bigger and there is much more space in all the black.”

The Gyri Dr. Kathleen Digre refers to are tissue loops that form patterns in our brain. The black in between are the atrophied tissue disappearing in David's brain. The white is spinal fluid moving in to fill the void.

In addition to losses in thinking clearly, there is extreme pain and other side effects.

David Mitchell: “I'm trembling more and I don't know why. And I'm more dizzy than I have been, and I'm losing my balance on occasion, where I've fallen down.”

University of Utah neurologists have all the scans now from the Mayo clinic and they'll do even more here, trying to unravel the puzzle.

But one good thing has happened, Dr. Digre has found a way to treat David's pain.

David Mitchell: “That little bit of relief that I have gotten has made a big difference in my life.”

Pain is what the Mayo Clinic says must be controlled if he wants to try re-teaching the good side of his brain to salvage at least a few functions he's losing.

The techniques are almost identical to those used on brain injury patients - like Kortney Johnston at Primary Children's Hospital. She couldn't talk or walk or think clearly - but through brain retraining, has come a long way.

Kortney Johnston: “I have a lot more use than I use to, a lot. Like before it was just right here.”

And for memory, thinking and coordination..

Judy Gooch, M.D., Physiatrist, P.C.M.C.: “We might suggest using a daily planner to plan out the day so that you can go through the day and not need to remember all of the little details.”

Kortney's brain still has what doctors call "plasticity." David will have more difficulty because of his age and because, unlike Kortney, he's continually losing more and more brain tissue.

But still...

Cynthia MItchell: “I mean, we've got to give everything a try.”

David Mitchell: “I felt more optimistic yesterday than I have for a long, long time.”

David's case is so intriguing, one national neurologist came out of retirement to study him. His case is so unique, neurologists aren't even sure if there's ever been another case exactly like David's.

Source
 
Do You Really Need To Have A Brain?

Here was an interesting blog found while surfing Rense:

Do You Really Need
To Have A Brain?
By Mitch Doolittle
3-25-5


The reason for my apparently absurd question is the remarkable research conducted at the University of Sheffield by neurology professor the late Dr. John Lorber.

When Sheffield's campus doctor was treating one of the mathematics students for a minor ailment, he noticed that the student's head was a little larger than normal. The doctor referred the student to professor Lorber for further examination.

The student in question was academically bright, had a reported IQ of 126 and was expected to graduate. When he was examined by CAT-scan, however, Lorber discovered that he had virtually no brain at all.

Instead of two hemispheres filling the cranial cavity, some 4.5 centimetres deep, the student had less than 1 millimetre of cerebral tissue covering the top of his spinal column. The student was suffering from hydrocephalus, the condition in which the cerebrospinal fluid, instead of circulating around the brain and entering the bloodstream, becomes dammed up inside.

Normally, the condition is fatal in the first months of childhood. Even where an individual survives he or she is usually seriously handicapped. Somehow, though, the Sheffield student had lived a perfectly normal life and went on to gain an honours degree in mathematics. This case is by no means as rare as it seems. In 1970, a New Yorker died at the age of 35. He had left school with no academic achievements, but had worked at manual jobs such as building janitor, and was a popular figure in his neighbourhood. Tenants of the building where he worked described him as passing the days performing his routine chores, such as tending the boiler, and reading the tabloid newspapers. When an autopsy was performed to determine the cause of his premature death he, too, was found to have practically no brain at all. Professor Lorber has identified several hundred people who have very small cerebral hemispheres but who appear to be normal intelligent individuals. Some of them he describes as having 'no detectable brain', yet they have scored up to 120 on IQ tests.

No-one knows how people with 'no detectable brain' are able to function at all, let alone to graduate in mathematics, but there are a couple theories. One idea is that there is such a high level of redundancy of function in the normal brain that what little remains is able to learn to deputise for the missing hemispheres.

Another, similar, suggestion is the old idea that we only use a small percentage of our brains anyway-perhaps as little as 10 per cent. The trouble with these ideas is that more recent research seems to contradict them. The functions of the brain have been mapped comprehensively and although there is some redundancy there is also a high degree of specialisation-the motor area and the visual cortex being highly specific for instance. Similarly, the idea that we 'only use 10 per cent of our brain' is a misunderstanding dating from research in the 1930s in which the functions of large areas of the cortex could not be determined and were dubbed 'silent', when in fact they are linked with important functions like speech and abstract thinking.

The other interesting thing about Lorber's findings is that they remind us of the mystery of memory. At first it was thought that memory would have some physical substrate in the brain, like the memory chips in a PC. But extensive investigation of the brain has turned up the surprising fact that memory is not located in any one area or in a specific substrate. As one eminent neurologist put it, 'memory is everywhere in the brain and nowhere.' But if the brain is not a mechanism for classifying and storing experiences and analysing them to enable us to live our lives then what on earth is the brain for? And where is the seat of human intelligence? Where is the mind?

One of the few biologists to propose a radically novel approach to these questions is Dr Rupert Sheldrake. In his book A New Science of Life Sheldrake rejected the idea that the brain is a warehouse for memories and suggested it is more like a radio receiver for tuning into the past. Memory is not a recording process in which a medium is altered to store records, but a journey that the mind makes into the past via the process of morphic resonance. Such a 'radio' receiver would require far fewer and less complex structures than a warehouse capable of storing and retrieving a lifetime of data.

But, of course, such a crazy idea couldn't possibly be true, could it?

http://www.tblog.com/templates/
 
I've heard of this before. Let's hope none of these people live in Florida......
 
Re: kid with no brain

RainyOcean said:
Ok, so I was looking at a "Best of the Fortean Times" book that I have and I showed my bf an article about a child who was born with only a brain stem. The kid smiled and lauged and stuff and some people thought that these were real emotions and some people didn't. Me and my bf were arguing for SO LONG over whether or not this was true and, if so, whether or not he was able to think and feel emotions ( I said he was, he said he wasn't.) Anyway, there wasn't much info and my bf looked online and couldn't find anything, and I was just wondering if anybody had any more information on this subject?

Show this to your big bad bf (LOL):
http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/921731324.html

I'm a nurse and I care for newborn babies. I learned of this disorder - hydranencephaly - when I took care of a premature baby who had it.

The baby appeared perfectly normal. He gained weight and behaved normally living in his incubator, but when he got big enough to be moved to an unheated crib we noticed his temperature was never normal. He was always either too cold or too hot. A head scan revealed that he had only a brainstem, no cerebrum - not even the hypothalamus part of the brain which regulates temperature.

He was able to eat out of a bottle early on, but as he grew his reflexes weakened and he had to be tube fed. Eventually he got very spastic and screamed a lot. It was very sad.

He was moved to a nursing home for children and died at age 3.
 
Aw, that's so sad. :(

Thanks for the information though!
 
Oh, do you know whether or not this kid, when no longer a newborn, seemed to show emotions and stuff, or if he was just kind of there?
 
RainyOcean said:
Oh, do you know whether or not this kid, when no longer a newborn, seemed to show emotions and stuff, or if he was just kind of there?

He had no detectable response to his environment. His screaming fits were likely just a brainstem response to physical stimuli like thirst. He wasn't able to interact and showed no signs of being emotionally distressed, or of being comforted when held.
 
No Brains

In the cases of individuals with "no brains," with skulls full of water, but who think and act normally, might not the rest of the nervous system take over the functionings of the missing organ?

We DO know now that there is a SECOND brain located in the stomach and that it responds to dangerous situations FASTER than the brain located in the head. This seems to be the reason we speak of "gut reactions." (But the ancient Egyptians knew of this second brain and its location 3000 years ago,)
 
It's not so much a third brain, more like a compact set of nerve ganglia. There might hot be much to the 'gut reaction' thing, which has more do do with the (upper) brain-based flight/fight response..

In evolutionary terms, it's pretty much like our appendix -for those who still have them- and was much larger in pre-hominid times. The nerve ganglia shrunk due to our ancestors move to a meat-eating diet, and the resultant growth of our bi-lateral thingy behind the eyes.

I pay attention to my own 'gut reactions' everytime...
 
sunsplash1 said:
It's not so much a third brain, more like a compact set of nerve ganglia.

Did you mean "second brain"?

It might be a compact set of nerve ganglia, but I have epilepsy (basically controlled), and guess where my seizures originate -- gut level.
 
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