Born With Half A Brain

[SPOCKED]

Mods, can we get this moved to TNZ so we can flame the epic shit out of the OP? Please?

And this deserved a notification because..? Frivolous notifications are seriously frowned upon.

Also.. keep these ridiculous TNZ problems and attitudes out of Miscellaneous, thank you.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Going back on topic...

I wonder if that patient ever suffered from epilepsy? I have read about similar cases of congenital asymmetrical cerebral atrophy with severe hydrocephalus, where among the prevailing symptoms was frequent seizures.

 

[Crusher Disciple]

Going back on topic...

I wonder if that patient ever suffered from epilepsy? I have read about similar cases of congenital asymmetrical cerebral atrophy with severe hydrocephalus, where among the prevailing symptoms was frequent seizures.

Yo, Doc- nobody answered my question earlier.

If there's no right brain, what happens to the functions like creativity that the right brain usually takes over?

 

[Australis]

I remember during the Falklands War, a soldier took a shot to the head, lost nearly half his brain. The only symptom of this has been some restricterd use of his left arm iirc. So, not only was he not born like that, his brain rewired itself to cope.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Going back on topic...

I wonder if that patient ever suffered from epilepsy? I have read about similar cases of congenital asymmetrical cerebral atrophy with severe hydrocephalus, where among the prevailing symptoms was frequent seizures.

Yo, Doc- nobody answered my question earlier.

If there's no right brain, what happens to the functions like creativity that the right brain usually takes over?

Well (given that it's now past my bedtime and my brain's capacity is now reduced to silliness) there being no "right brain" would imply a defective or deficient cerebral cortex (complex thoughts, sensation and motor function and other centres depending on the part of the brain), limbic system (emotions, memory, "primitive" senses and desires), ventricular system, basal ganglia (motor control, broadly speaking) and thalamus (a sensory junction box of sorts). There would also imply that the brainstem is intact, as the brainstem contains the centres for eye control and coordination (midbrain), facial movement, taste and swallowing (pons to a certain degree), central control of the heart and lungs (medulla), and consciousness (the so-called reticular activating network), as well as an intact cerebellum (control of coordinated motor functions such as walking, balance, and arm movements, all in conjunction with the eyes, ears, and dorsal columnar and spinocerebellar sensory pathways).

Anyway...

I reckon that the case in the article is an example of the sort of plasticity that is thought to happen when a certain centre in the brain is absent or defective in the first instance: the remaining parts of the cerebral cortex adapt slowly over time to form different parts of the brain that respond positively to creative stimuli and eventually lead to creative processes. How it does it I'm not sure.

Granted, they won't be the same impulses seen in the standard brain, and they will be expressed differently as different abilities - some of them savant-like (as seen in the case in the OP), others deficiently, and with added frustration and loss of emotional control. But some creativity is still possible if there is enough frontal, parietal and temporal function left in the remaining higher brain. In other words, the brain tries to learn, adapt and reinforce new pathways among the myriad neurones in the remaining cerebral cortex and interprets them as creative centres.

I'm no neuroscientist, but that's how I understand it.