
Man with tiny brain shocks doctors (2007) - mtuncer
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12301-man-with-tiny-brain-shocks-doctors/
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gmt2027
If this much of the brain is not completely necessary for its function then
there are all kinds of questions raised.

What is the minimum viable human brain? If our brains are indeed highly-
redundant scale-free networks, would it be possible to eliminate a precisely
targeted 99% of neurons without significant degradation? Can we simulate 1% of
a brain on today's supercomputers? How about emulating an existing brain? Do
animals have the raw hardware to match or exceed human intelligence? Can we
download human 'software' into modified animals instead of machines? Are we
already being simulated?

This would keep me up at night too.

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thomaslkjeldsen
This reminds me of dropout regularization where you improve a neural network
by removing random neurons from the neural network.

See
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropout_(neural_networks)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropout_\(neural_networks\))
and
[https://youtu.be/u4alGiomYP4?t=33m53s](https://youtu.be/u4alGiomYP4?t=33m53s)

~~~
98Windows
Dropout is only used during training a neural network and also neurons are
turned off not removed.

~~~
luckystarr
Well, the brain is constantly trained and used. :)

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rothron
Hemispherectomy patients do not decrease in IQ as much as one might assume.
Typically less than 15 points. Some have no change and others even a slight
improvement.

While not directly comparable, as these are brains with massive problems, you
don't remove half just for the fun of it, it's still a testament to the
resilience and redundancy of the organ.

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aldo712
“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”

The way I see it, the Human Brain increases its efficiency (Assuming the 10%
Brain Efficiency Myth is true) in such cases, to be able to do all the work
that otherwise an entire Brian would have done. I'm curious what would happen
if we were to somehow gradually disable parts of the brain, ensuring all
functions of the Human Body are still intact, and then suddenly bring all of
it back.

~~~
xattt
There is a limit to the flexibility of the brain. In a compensated brain, it
is very likely that an injury that would normally not have any effect on
function would have devastating consequences.

To answer your question, I'd imagine that it likely depends on the timescale.
People with TIAs have decrease in function that lasts minutes to hours, and on
return of proper bloodflow, might take days to fully recover. You might see
this as people who completely lose speech during the TIA, and then have word
hunting for several days.

A brain that adapted to gradually diminished function, say as a result of
microvascular changes, over the course of months to years would likely
experience the same debilitation if there was a sudden permanent change.

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new299
There are a few recorded examples of this. Peter Watts had quite a good blog
post on them a while back:

[http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=6116](http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=6116)

About 50% of the examples have above average IQ (he says).

~~~
kwhitefoot
That reminds me to read Blindsight again. I find Peter Watts' novels
disturbing but fascinating.

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evincarofautumn
I’ve heard that most processing in the brain happens near the surface, while
the central brain regions are more connective. Is that accurate and could it
be a factor here? If he’s got otherwise mostly normal brain function, my gut
reaction is that maybe those connections were just displaced or formed in
other ways.

~~~
chrischen
Article says his IQ is 75, which is quite low.

~~~
98Windows
But he has a job in the civil service and a wife, which are more useful
indicators than a high IQ

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subroutine
I'm skeptical of these images. I can't find any follow-up scans on Lorber's
patient, despite such an unbelievable finding. Unfortunately John Lorber has
passed away (1996), making this patient impossible to track down.

Interestingly someone took it upon themselves to reclaim these images in
2012...

[http://retractionwatch.com/2016/09/08/authors-didnt-
generate...](http://retractionwatch.com/2016/09/08/authors-didnt-generate-key-
brain-images-probe-finds/)

Only to get retracted in 2016.

~~~
idkfa
There's nothing unbelievable in this findings regardless of authenticity of
these images. I know about at least one such case here in Russia, from my own
fathers career, and he told me there were others. It's something people know
about for quite a long time, at least in our country.

~~~
subroutine
It is the particulars here that are unbelievable to me. Normal after
hemespherectomy - sure, depending on the lobe, you will have fully intact
language, hemiblindness but probably can regain motor function on the effected
side after some time (depending on age). No cerebellum, nbd, cerebellum does
not plan, initiate, or stop motor movement - it only corrects errors and has
some putative cognitive roles.

What we have here is far more extreme: massive cortical tissue loss and
compression, bilaterally. His striatum looks completely gone. There are many
well studied and documented patients with far less tissue loss who suffer
major cognitive and learning deficits. That makes this case here remarkable to
me.

~~~
idkfa
It's probably not a tissue loss, rather it's just undeveloped, as it was in
the case I mentioned above. But nevertheless this probably should push nervous
system to its limits to compensate such deficiency, so it's quite remarkable
indeed.

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andy_ppp
I love the idea that _one of us_ might be an example of a high performing
"tiny brain".

What if it's you? Or me? How would we know without a brain scan? Would it
matter? Would it change the way you think about yourself and stop you trying?

Probably best to never find out!

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joering2
Another thread on HN points to article [1] that starts:

 _For decades now, I have been haunted by the grainy, black-and-white x-ray of
a human skull. [...] The image hails from a 1980 [...]_

Anyway to actually trace back that patient? Do we know who he is (I would like
to read about his story and daily life; nothing creepy).

Do we know if he/she is still alive??

[1]
[http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=6116](http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=6116)

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kuschkufan
The linked article within that story about the other person missing the entire
cerebellum is also interesting.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
It highlights how popular press write science stories too.

The article on absent cerebellum says 50% of neurons are there, clearly a
smaller cross-sectional area is missing but this statement serves to increase
the magnitude of the issue to the layman ... but in the article where it
appears most of the cerebellum is present this key point on brain structure
isn't noted; that would reduce the apparent magnitude of the injury.

That may be happenstance, or otherwise unintentional, of course.

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tiredwired
Reminds me of the CTO at my last job.

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nurettin
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10810454](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10810454)

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kalal
Nice title, one of those which people definitely click. But is the add really
necessary?

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tim333
It might be that he has a usual number of neurons but squished.

