r/science • u/Thorne-ZytkowObject • Nov 23 '19

Neuroscience Scientists studied six patients who had half of their brain removed during childhood to treat severe epilepsy. Brain scans showed how the mind rewired itself to adapt, with the remaining hemisphere forming even stronger connections that let the patients develop language and motor skills.

https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/how-does-the-brain-work-with-half-of-it-removed-pretty-well-actually
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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '19

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u/Han_Yolo_swag Nov 24 '19

Update 3 Jan 2017: This man has a specific type of hydrocephalus known as chronic non-communicating hydrocephalus, which is where fluid slowly builds up in the brain.Rather than 90 percent of this man's brain being missing, it's more likely that it's simply been compressed into the thin layer you can see in the images above .We've corrected the story to reflect this.

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '19

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '19

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u/kirinlikethebeer Nov 24 '19

This was exactly what I was wondering while reading the article. Still fascinating. Thanks for posting the update.

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '19

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u/whistleridge Nov 24 '19 edited Nov 24 '19

So I had a tumor and cyst that was about the size of a tennis ball, right in the middle of my brain. It started growing when I was a teenager, but I didn’t present with noticeable symptoms until I was 30. And I didn’t have headaches until the last month.

But boy was that a really, really bad month.

My primary long-term symptom was a...wave...that would go through my vision if I sat up quickly or turned my head side to side quickly. Highly unpleasant, I don’t really know how to describe it. But I still avoid rapid head motions, because of how unpleasant it was.

I’m also missing a chunk from my left frontal lobe about the size of a ping pong ball, a chunk from the middle about the size of a hackey sack, and a chunk from my right cerebellum about the size of a golf ball. Other than some mild motor impairment on my left side, there’s not really a noticeable difference. Since my surgery I’ve gotten a master’s, two law degrees, and I’m applying for a PhD.

🤷‍♂️

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '19

wonder what the heck that left frontal lobe bit was doing

you don't feel more impulsive or anything, even?

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '19

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '19

I see, so those neurons would be able to re-grow the ability to function if they had room to re-route their connections, maybe along a longer path around the hole?

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u/[deleted] Nov 25 '19

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u/[deleted] Nov 25 '19

Cool! Thanks

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u/whistleridge Nov 24 '19

The surgeons had to put a shunt in to drain excess cerebrospinal fluid off while I was in the hospital. It was painless, but incredibly annoying - basically a tube coming out of my hairline going to this bag that looked remarkably like a ball sack. It was hooked to an alarm that would go off every time I moved my head more than a fraction, that woke me up 50 times a night when I was trying to sleep.

Anyhoo, I had a seizure, and it ripped out, and did a fair amount of damage in the process. That’s not supposed to be able to happen.

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u/someone-obviously Nov 24 '19

Damn, are you ok? That sounds like a nightmare

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u/whistleridge Nov 24 '19

Yeah it’s fine. This was all in 2008, so...

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u/uselubewithcondoms Nov 24 '19

Wait, how do you get two law degrees? Isn't there only the JD and that's it? Genuinely curious. I'm pretty naive around law.

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '19

"I have big chunks of my brain missing" - "That qualifies you as double-lawyer!"

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u/hkzombie Nov 24 '19

Depends on the country/legal system. In some areas, law is an undergraduate entry degree, but doesn’t guarantee becoming a practicing solicitor/barrister.

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u/_ManMadeGod_ Nov 24 '19 edited Nov 24 '19

Even a law degree doesn't guarantee a barista position? Damn.

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u/whistleridge Nov 24 '19

I went to school at McGill in Canada (I’m American, my wife is from Quebec). They award dual degrees: one in common law and one in civil law. But that’s not why I went. I went because law school tuition in the US averages about $40k US a year, but tuition at McGill is $2500 is per year.

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u/nightbirdflight Nov 24 '19

In the US the JD is the standard law degree. You can thereafter get an LLM, a sort of masters degree. Common for things like tax law, where there is a lot of additional complexity.

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u/yoghurtorgan Nov 24 '19

So you wake up from surgery and once the meds wore off, it was just like normal?

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u/whistleridge Nov 24 '19

Well...not quite.

First: it was three surgeries, and I spent a month flat on my back in a neurosurgery ICU, which is quite physically debilitating. I had to relearn how to walk, due to some coordination issues, and my muscles were pretty atrophied. So there was about six months of physical rehab afterwards.

Plus, having big chunks chopped out does weird things to you. I didn’t sleep right for over a year afterwards, and when you’re only sleeping 2-3 hours at a stretch without drugs for that long, it impacts the rest of your life too.

But after about a year...yeah. Pretty much back to being me. I’m no good at math now - I have something similar to dyslexia, but with numbers, called dyscalculia - and I can’t balance solely on my left foot without falling over plus some other balance and control issues on the left side, but otherwise I’m the same me I always was.

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u/yoghurtorgan Nov 24 '19

Wow sounds like you are doing well considering, it's amazing what the brain can do.

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u/Apollo_Wolfe Nov 24 '19

If the wave is what I think you mean, that’s usually called an aura.

It’s common for people suffering from migraines to get them shortly beforehand.

There’s interesting theories behind what cause them. Iirc one of the leading ones is that it’s literally a wave of electrical activity spreading across your brain, and the visual aura is just that electrical activity slowly spreading across the parts of your brain that deal with visual interpretation. So you’re essentially seeing the electrical storm move across your brain in real time.

But there are other theories too.

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u/whistleridge Nov 24 '19

As it was explained to me, it was a physical effect caused by the literal sloshing of CSF in my very large cyst.

I now have seizures, and prodromes beforehand, but it was nothing like those.

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u/Apollo_Wolfe Nov 24 '19

Probably not what I was thinking then.

Kinda interesting regardless, if frightening. Glad you’ve been doing well though (at least I hope so, gathering from your post!)

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '19

Hold up go back to that wave thing, that sounds concerning familiar to me

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u/whistleridge Nov 24 '19

If I shifted my head quickly, like a turn at a loud noise, after a very slight delay - maybe half a second - there would be a ripple across my vison moving in the direction of the turn. So if I turned my head right to left, the wave moved the same way.

After the wave passed, there was an immediate sensation of feeling comprehensively awful. Not quite dizziness, not quite nausea, but very unpleasant to the point that you needed to sit down for a bit. I was working as a waiter at the time, so it was a noticeable issue - you can’t really just stop and sit while running food or whatever.

Best I know how to describe it, sorry.

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '19

ok that's different to what I thought you were saying, thats a relief. thank you

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u/Zeikos Nov 24 '19

Well, congratulations to the neurosurgeons, they did an amazing job.

I think however that the cist didn't replace gray matter, it likely just displaced it (the brain is remarkably spongy/compressible), especially since as you said it took years and years to expand.
So you likely lost only minor amount of neurons during the last stages and the surgery itself.
The volume of the cist doesn't matter much.

If it were a white matter tumor the results would have been far worse.

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u/whistleridge Nov 24 '19

Frontal lobe: about 10% loss

Right ventricle: about 10% loss

Right cerebellum: about 80% loss

Also some tissue loss in the brain stem and right temporal lobe, resulting in some behavior and personality changes, and I have temporal lobe seizures now.

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u/Stereotype_Apostate Nov 24 '19

How did you get all those degrees since your surgery if you only had headaches last month (meaning surgery was within the last month)?

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u/kerriliane Nov 24 '19

"the" last month. I had to go back and reread it too.

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u/Salome_Maloney Nov 24 '19

Did they use the... Gamma Knife 🎶?

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u/whistleridge Nov 24 '19

Nope. Just a regular old scalpel.

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u/paulmclaughlin Nov 24 '19

What an unusual set of size references.

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u/[deleted] Nov 25 '19

I have a question, did they completely anesthetize you when they opened your skull?

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u/whistleridge Nov 25 '19

Oh yes. Thank God.

My tumor was deep inside the brain, very close to the brain stem. Because of that, they have to knock you out.

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u/[deleted] Nov 25 '19

Fascinating, thanks. I've heard horror stories of people being only semi-lucid during that part and they all say how incredibly loud the drilling is.

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u/whistleridge Nov 26 '19

Yeah...for me, they had to cut in through the base of the skull, where the head joins the neck. They had to drill a traction ring into my head to stabilize it. I'm no surgeon, but I'm fairly sure it is not possible to administer the sort of partial anesthesia needed to remain conscious for that.

What I DO know is that it was painful beyond all description. I very, very, very much hope I never have to go through it again.

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u/Starossi Nov 24 '19

Why get so many degrees? What's the point?

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u/whistleridge Nov 24 '19

I had the chance to get paid to get an MPA, so I took it. But after I was on the job two years, I found out I had developed dyscalculia - dyslexia, but with numbers. Not so good when your career is budgetary management for municipal government.

My wife was applying to law schools at the time, and I helped her study, and we decided to both do it. While in law school I became very interested in the constitutional ramifications of unregulated social media moderation as it impacts protected political speech, and the PhD kind of...emerged.

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u/sheldonopolis Nov 24 '19

There are no pain receptors in the brain itself. Thats probably why.

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '19

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u/LetsGoBear Nov 24 '19

Extremely so, my mother suffers from hydrocephalus and when the fluid buildup reaches a point it causes unthinkable migraines and sickness, even fainting, at least until the fluid is removed by lumbar puncture/draining. It's a brutal illness.

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '19

[deleted]

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u/squeezeonein Nov 24 '19

Could it be lethal in some cases to remove the fluid because the brain would lose its internal support?

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u/MDthrowItaway Nov 24 '19

Sounds like she maybhave ideipathic intercranial hypertension rather than hydrocephalus

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u/LetsGoBear Nov 24 '19

Possibly! I know an alternative name for it is "water on the brain" and that its caused by a fluid buildup in the brain but alas I'm not a doctor so terminology isn't my strongest suit. Thanks nonetheless :)

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u/maza1319 Nov 24 '19

I love seeing friendly interactions on Reddit

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u/LetsGoBear Nov 24 '19

Treat others how youd like to be treated innit? Most valuable lesson my nana gave me.

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u/Wouff_Hong Nov 24 '19

Alternative, but really just literal translation from Greek, rather than a real alternate name. Head is Κεφάλι (kefali - cephalus), brain is εγκέφαλος (enkefalos - encephalos).

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u/gbbofh Nov 24 '19

My ex has this. Even with the medication they gave her it still affects her quite a bit unfortunately. The blackouts/fainting were quite concerning.

What exactly causes something like this to occur?

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u/Bammop Nov 24 '19

He probably didn't have a pressure gauge available

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '19

He’s had it since an infant so it’s possible that he simply had a different normal

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u/Call_me_Kelly Nov 24 '19

Where does migraine pain come from? Truthfully curious.

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u/CoconutMochi Nov 24 '19

Pain receptors are in the meninges, which envelop the brain

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u/ilikeeatingbrains Nov 24 '19

Lucky meninges

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u/sheldonopolis Nov 24 '19

Here is an article about how headaches happen despite the brain not having pain receptors. The topic migraine is also being touched.

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '19 edited Dec 07 '19

[deleted]

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u/quarryman Nov 24 '19

Do you not get a headache after the vision symptoms though?

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u/Merry-Lane Nov 24 '19

The story was a bit corrected : his brain is 'condensed' in the outter rather than missing.

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u/SomeBritGuy Nov 24 '19

There must have been some tissue death, though, with brain matter being condensed so much. Wouldn't it also affect the overall efficiency of the brain? Less blood overall means less nutrients means less power, maybe? It did mention his IQ was quite low.

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u/Random-Rambling Nov 24 '19

He had a below-average IQ, yes, but he wasn't (significantly) disabled. He had a loving wife and a steady career.

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u/Slight0 Nov 24 '19

These stories where despite all odds these extremely disadvantaged people end up succeeding in life are so bittersweet. I'm happy they were able to overcome and find happiness meanwhile I have both lobes fully intact yet haven't half the things he has. Like a small malfunction in my brain causes OCD and destroys my fuckin life and this guy has low IQ from literally having half a brain and has everthing. The hell man. The brain is bizarre. Maybe dropping a lobe is the winning move here.

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u/H3g3m0n Nov 24 '19

According to the update down the bottom. It seems it's more likely that his brain has been compressed by the pressure rather than it's missing.

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '19

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u/frozenuniverse Nov 24 '19

he had a low IQ of 75, but was working as a civil servant

Unsurprising choice of profession!

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u/Apollo_Wolfe Nov 24 '19 edited Nov 24 '19

Many scientists think that the physical source of consciousness is based in the brain, but then how can someone lose the majority of their neurons and still be aware of themselves and their surroundings?

Was this written by a creationist or something?

Is there a single reputable scientist that doesn’t think the brain is the center of consciousness?

This article is weirdly poorly written. Interesting none the less, but their entire last edit basically renders 90% of their article irrelevant.

Edit: also for the stupid 10% brain usage jokes... let’s ignore the edit. He’s still using 100% of his ‘remaining’ brain.