

Half a brain girl recovers vision - dlnovell
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8159631.stm

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DarkShikari
_"Despite lacking one hemisphere, the girl has normal psychological function
and is perfectly capable of living a normal and fulfilling life. She is witty,
charming and intelligent."_

I'm always impressed at how the brain can put so much function in such a small
space on such low power. But it's this like _this_ that really impress me:
imagine a computer not only as powerful and efficient as the brain, but also
which is so adaptive that you could _remove half of it during production_ and
it would still, when finished being produced, be capable of most of its normal
function.

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nopassrecover
The research I've seen tends to lend weight to the view that each hemisphere
is its own indpendent computer. Each may specialise in particular tasks but
they are not dependent on each other. It's kind of like disabling one core in
a dual core CPU.

~~~
timcederman
This was interesting:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrocephaly#Exceptional_case>

One interesting case involving a person with past hydrocephalus was a 44-year
old French man, whose brain had been reduced to little more than a thin sheet
of actual brain tissue, due to the buildup of fluid in his skull. The man, who
had a shunt inserted into his head to drain away fluid (which was removed when
he was 14), went to a hospital after he had been experiencing mild weakness in
his left leg.

In July 2007, Fox News quoted Dr. Lionel Feuillet of Hôpital de la Timone in
Marseille as saying: "The images were most unusual... the brain was virtually
absent."[9] When doctors learned of the man's medical history, they performed
a computed tomography (CT) scan and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, and
were astonished to see "massive enlargement" of the lateral ventricles in the
skull. Intelligence tests showed the man had an IQ of 75, below the average
score of 100 but not considered mentally retarded or disabled, either.

~~~
nopassrecover
There's a lot of interesting stuff with hemisphere seperation. Also check out
that TED lecture of the lady having a stroke.

