A man with no brain!

[Donal]

http://perdurabo10.tripod.com/id1202.html

Strange Case Of A Man With No Brain



By James Donahue

April 2005


An odd twist of research into the human brain was sparked some years ago at the University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK, after a campus doctor treating a student for a minor ailment discovered that he had no brain.

As the story goes, the doctor noticed the student's head was a little larger than normal, and he referred the man to the late Professor John Lorber for further examination. When examined by CAT-scan, it was discovered that this man, a mathematics student with an IQ of 126, had virtually no brain at all.

Instead of two hemispheres filling the cranial cavity, some 4.5 centimeters deep, this student had less than one millimeter of cerebral tissue covering the top of his spinal column. His head was expanded because the student was suffering from hydrocephalus. That means the cerebrospinal fluid, instead of circulating around the brain and entering the bloodstream, becomes dammed up inside the skull.

Doctors say this condition is usually fatal during the first months of childhood, and if the individual survives, he or she is usually seriously handicapped. What was strange about this case was that the man was living a perfectly normal life and went on to gain an honors degree in mathematics.

The discovery led Professor Lorber to a study of the brain in which he projected the question, do humans need their brains at all? A better question might have been, do humans use any of their brains, and if they did, what more could they achieve in the course of their lives?

It apparently did not occur to either Lorber or other professors of the universities' neurology department to ask this important second question.

Just goes to show what kind of information humanity will keep on discovering. What do ye think are the implications?

i'm thinking of how all physics base their theory on the brain interpreting time-space. ie relativity with the optic nerce and quantum physics with what's you think is on the outside is what is being interpreted in your brain. Also with the binaural beats, they are based on lets say 60 hertz being applied to one ear and 50 hertz to another, and your brain creating a sound.

[MisterJingo]

This has been brought up in another thread. I'll paste my reply from there to here:

Please can you quote something with sources? My partner works in medicine and just last week a child was brought into her hospital that had little to no brain. The parents knew this during pregnancy but wished to go to full term. Since the child was born it has shown no autonomous action apart from automatic breathing. It has little flexibility and reacts with nothing. This alone disputes that un-cited webpage.
I know about hydrocephalus, it is better known as 'water on the brain'. Children can die early from this condition as fluid builds up in the brain cavity, stopping the brain from developing. There are some cases where the child didn't die, but the water forced their brain to grow along the inside of the skull, leaving the centre of the head a fluid filled hollow. They still had the same percentage of brain matter, it was just distributed differently. I think the page you quoted is just exaggerating such a condition to meet its own agenda (again, there are no references to anything, just vague suggestions of universities.
I think to suggest we don't need a brain is just silly else millions with severe brain trauma would not be killed. Or people who become brain-dead or ended up in vegetative states wouldn't be in those conditions.

That webpage is at best misleading, and at worst just plain lying. Please note the lack of any source or reference.

[MisterJingo]

ust goes to show what kind of information humanity will keep on discovering. What do ye think are the implications?

This isn't a discovery of anything. It's simply a website grossly exaggerating a medical condition. The condition, better known as "water on the brain" can kill a child, but there are also numerous cases where the child has survived but the pressure of the fluid has caused the brain to line the inside of the skull, rather than fill it. These people still have the same amount of brain tissue.

[Leilah]

that'd be crazy if it was true.

[Logic]

I dont even have to goto the website to know its fake, its on a tripod subdomain..

[RooJ]

Just another Aaron C. Donahue fan site, which means its almost definitely fake. I do have a certain level of respect for Aaron, he happens to have alot of good points, but he also has alot of bad ones and its pretty clear to anyone reading his work that he has no respect for human life.

An example of his views:

Old people and the severly disabled use up too much of the worlds resources and give nothing back, so they should all be slaughtered.

So in conclusion he's a nutcase!

[x1773]

Hello I am new here , but I specifically came online to look up this subject . I read an article about this case about five years ago. I read that people can be born with just the brain stem and still function ,they have fluid in the brain area called Hydrocephalus  but that their life span tends to be shorter. I do not think that this is impossible because it has been shown that others like this have been working and functioning and operating under normal circumstances. I have also found this small portion of a talk given by Professor Keith Kendrick in which there is small amount of brain , yet as can be seen from the MRI there is no brain matter in most of the cavity . In this case the man is a 44 year old "French civil servant in the tax office, with a wife and two children. He was not considered physically or mentally disabled and his development and his socialization were normal."
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8R71Q8_0y0> 

[Summerlander]

Poppycock! 

[blis]

It's amazing how much different parts of the brain can cover for damaged parts. Just a brain stem though? Doubt it.

I wonder if they know how little brain we can actually get by on. Hopefully they're not torturing some poor animals somewhere to find out.

[ether2]

i reckon with my "limited" research into the minds size/parts ya could get away with a tenth or less the size and still have full functionality with being only one part of it, as ya say different parts can cover damaged parts, it's not that hard when ya think about it...

i cant wait to get into this area  , but i have to wait until i finish in other areas first...

oh yer without the animal thing...

good luck

love all

[Volgerle]

I compiled links about this topic quite a while ago, there were more links back then, now this is only one working still (too lazy to search new ones). These are cases researched by a British neurologist.

http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/science/is_the_brain_really_necessary.htm

"Brainless Boy
One related case that has received more exposure than most is that of Andrew Vandal, who was born on 12 July 1984.  In the early stages of his development in the womb a cyst appeared on the stem of his brain.  Known as an atelencephic aprosencephaly, this destructive event left the boy with a cranium containing nothing but fluid.  In some cases, it can even leave victims with no detectible brain at all - a condition known as anencephaly or "brainlessness."  Cases like Andrew's are again usually terminated before birth, but in this instance the subject was born and then put up for adoption.  He was adopted by a pædiatric nurse, Kaye Vandal, from Wallingford, Connecticut, US, who, when last asked about Andrew's welfare, stated that she remained devoted to "giving him the best quality life for however long he lives."  At the same time, Kaye stated that, against doctors' predictions, Andrew was able to laugh, giggle and smile and, has a "glowing, outgoing, bubbly personality."  Kaye also stated that her young charge was able to respond to stimulus and was maturing mentally; both of which doctors believed to be impossible, considering his complete absence of brain matter.
Andrew was, however, unable to speak, and was cortically blind; that is, he could see images, but was unable to interpret them.  Andrew was also incapable of walking, but did manage to drag himself along on his back.  Cases such as Andrew's provide real-life testimony to our astonishing adaptability as biological organisms.
(...)
Sheffield University became aware of a young man with a larger than normal head.  He was referred to Lorber even though it had not caused him any difficulty.  Although the boy had an IQ of 126 and had a first class honours degree in mathematics, he had "virtually no brain".  A noninvasive measurement of radio density known as CAT scan showed the boy's skull was lined with a thin layer of brain cells to a millimeter in thickness.  The rest of his skull was filled with cerebrospinal fluid.  The young man continues a normal life with the exception of his knowledge that he has no brain.
Although anecdotal accounts may be found in medical literature, Lorber is the first to provide a systematic study of such cases.  He has documented over 600 scans of people with hydrocephalus and has broken them into four groups:

* those with nearly normal brains
* those with 50-70% of the cranium filled with cerebrospinal fluid
* those with 70-90% of the cranium filled with cerebrospinal fluid
* and the most severe group with 95% of the cranial cavity filled with cerebrospinal fluid.

Of the last group, which comprised less than 10% of the study, half were profoundly retarded.  The remaining half had IQs greater than 100."

As these cases are indeed rare you don't even find a lot on it in 'alternative' web. Moreover, as mainstream science tries to sweep 'anomalies' under the carpet, there is hardly anything to find on it in 'official' literature, as a matter of fact.

[blis]

You made me look into it a bit further Volgerie. Thanks.

I found an interesting article which had been quoted on wikipedia.

http://www.psych.ufl.edu/~steh/PSB6087/brainnecessary.pdf

[Jon_88]

Haha would be funny if it was true. Anyway i do belive my core mind is safely stored outside of my body. But unfortunatly it seems that the brain is nessery atleast for interacting properly with this world. Ive seen several times how debilitating it is with a brain not functioning properly.

[Volgerle]

You made me look into it a bit further Volgerie. Thanks.
I found an interesting article which had been quoted on wikipedia.
http://www.psych.ufl.edu/~steh/PSB6087/brainnecessary.pdf

cool, interesting, also thanks

Haha would be funny if it was true. Anyway i do belive my core mind is safely stored outside of my body. But unfortunatly it seems that the brain is nessery atleast for interacting properly with this world. Ive seen several times how debilitating it is with a brain not functioning properly.

exactly my view too, of course (and even the article shows it) the brain IS necessary in order to function properly (or at all) on this 'plane', but for me the more interesting implication is another one here: talk with materialists / skeptics and many scientists about the soul and they will (if they use it at all, normally they do not have a concept of it) be likely to equate 'it' with the main thinking organ - the brain....
so, speaking from an ethical pov now, even though a boy like this can at least 'live' and even have emotions and feelings, and even learn, and show a lot of 'human-ness' .... isn't it still a soul-less being for them due to his brainless-ness? is it a zombie? what is their view then? would be interesting to know.

[apsinvo]

An interesting fictional read, but I'm struggling to find any sources to back this story up. I think a living, functioning, intelligent man with no brain matter whatsoever, and a skull filled with liquid would have become quite famous by now

[w]

What kind of site could be considered a reliable source... ?

I just did a bit of googling myself, as I've read about this before. Couldn't find the original article that I read (which may not have been a reliable source anyway). I'll throw in a few links to well known news sites I've found it on though:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,290610,00.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/07/20/us-brain-tiny-idUSN1930510020070720
http://www.lepoint.fr/archives/article.php/193216 (I googled it in French too since one of the discoveries was made in a French hospital).

Though can we trust anything even the mainstream media say? I don't think there's a way to proove (or disproove) that this is true. I'd like it to be though. 

[Ryan Onessence]

The Egyptians believed the heart to be the centre of conscious awareness and it has also been discovered to have neurotransmitters. A bit of food for thought... lol

[Fresco]

I've been getting along fine in life without a brain too   

[KarmicBeats]

It goes to show how much consciousness is outside the physical body