A French man whose skull was mostly occupied by a "huge fluid-filled chamber" was able to operate perfectly well as a civil servant - despite having "little more than a thin sheet of actual brain tissue", Reuters reports.
The 44-year-old's condition was revealed when he went to hospital suffering from mild weakness in his left leg. A probe of his medical history revealed he'd had a shunt inserted into his skull as an infant to relieve hydrocephalus, which was removed when he was 14.
Doctors were "amazed" when computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scans showed "massive enlargement" of his lateral ventricles, "usually tiny chambers that hold the cerebrospinal fluid that cushions the brain".
Dr Lionel Feuillet and colleagues at the Universite de la Mediterranee in Marseille explained in a letter to The Lancet: "He was a married father of two children, and worked as a civil servant." Tests revealed the chap's IQ as 75, below average but evidently no impediment to leading a normal life.
Dr Max Muenke, a paediatric brain defect specialist at the National Human Genome Research Institute, said: "What I find amazing to this day is how the brain can deal with something which you think should not be compatible with life. If something happens very slowly over quite some time, maybe over decades, the different parts of the brain take up functions that would normally be done by the part that is pushed to the side." ®
Right. I'm just glad as all hell that this didn't come up during the Schiavo case or it would have been a complete fucking catastrophe instead of being just a disaster.
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Never mind that it's an entirely different condition the man suffers from...
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This is not the first time someone has been found with this conditions - although it is extremely rare.
When examined with a fMRI or PET, which measure activitiy in the brain, these peoples scant brain tissue is lit up like Christmas. The few cells are working overtime. This provides a means to distinguish between those with functioning brains (however scanty) and those who are nonfunctional.
It should also be noted that these "brainless but functional" people are invariably those in who the damage occured, as noted, very slowly, probably over decades, and whose condition started in infancy (or even before birth). Adults who suffer this sort of devastation in a short time, particularly in a short time period, are not functional.
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DPDarkPrimus wrote:Never mind that it's an entirely different condition the man suffers from...
I know that, but do you think that would have made a fucking lick of difference to the ravening idiot hordes in the Schiavo case?
In any case, I'd never heard of this before, so it's fairly amazing to me.
Warwolf Urban Combat Specialist
Why is it so goddamned hard to get little assholes like you to admit it when you fuck up? Is it pride? What gives you the right to have any pride?
–Darth Wong to vivftp
GOP message? Why don't they just come out of the closet: FASCISTS R' US –Patrick Degan
The GOP has a problem with anyone coming out of the closet. –18-till-I-die
First - Absolutely amazing from a medical perspective. Makes you wonder how intelligent this man would be if the shunt was still in his head and he had more brain-tissue.
Wise ass remark -
I work for the government. People without brains functioning perfectly well as civil servants has been known for some time.
Solauren wrote:First - Absolutely amazing from a medical perspective. Makes you wonder how intelligent this man would be if the shunt was still in his head and he had more brain-tissue.
My guess is that he would be normal. The reason his brain works overtime is because what's left has to take over the function of the 90% that has disappeared over the last several decades. If his brain hadn't died slowly, there'd have been no reason for it all to be working overtime.
As for Terri Schiavo, the only line of argument that springs to line is that if we'd have waited and let her live, what's left of her brain would have coped and adapted to her condition -- and this is easily rebutted both empirically and with an analogy to the ecosystem. As Broomstick points out, change occurring very quickly will wipe out brain function, while change occurring very slowly will be adapted, just like fast change (e.g., an asteroid strike) in an ecosystem will result in mass die-offs, while slow change (e.g., an ice age) will result in adaptation.
Of course, that's reasoned argument. The idiots who wanted her kept alive for religious reasons don't respond to that, so Edi's right in that this man would have been used as "evidence" that brain-damaged people can cope and adapt.
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Solauren wrote:Wise ass remark -
I work for the government. People without brains functioning perfectly well as civil servants has been known for some time.
Damn it, I wanted to go for that joke as well! If only I had Spanky's fist-shaking emoticon!
Anyway, cool discovery. Reminds me of a study I heard about (but can't seem to find on Google ) that extremely young children who have damaged optic lobes can still see because the function was shunted off to other parts of the brain. It's really nifty how the brain can be so resiliant and can alter its function if need be, at least in young children.
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A brainless civil servant? What's the surprise —we've had a brainless president here for over 6 years.
The sad thing is that the civil servant is demonstrably more competent and aware than the president.
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Frank Hipper wrote:Uhhhhmm, this is The Register, people.
If you look quick, you can see that the word gullible is written on every ceiling.
So what if it's The Register, Frank? Care to point out how this story is a fake or somehow inaccurate? Their reporting on certain subjects could be better, but in general they do a fairly good job.
Warwolf Urban Combat Specialist
Why is it so goddamned hard to get little assholes like you to admit it when you fuck up? Is it pride? What gives you the right to have any pride?
–Darth Wong to vivftp
GOP message? Why don't they just come out of the closet: FASCISTS R' US –Patrick Degan
The GOP has a problem with anyone coming out of the closet. –18-till-I-die
I've always considered The Register to be a comedy oriented source, Onionesque, and stories of functional people with mostly fluid in their skulls to be pure urban legend.
Frank Hipper wrote:I've always considered The Register to be a comedy oriented source, Onionesque, and stories of functional people with mostly fluid in their skulls to be pure urban legend.
Oh well, the more you know.
They are a real news source, though they have a lot of comedy. I have seen other cases like this but the IQ was usually much lower - in the 60 range or so, with only half the brain not developing.
) that extremely young children who have damaged optic lobes can still see because the function was shunted off to other parts of the brain. It's really nifty how the brain can be so resiliant and can alter its function if need be, at least in young children.
