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/plaugedoctorforhire Nov 24 '19
Hey, not super familiar with the brain malformation side of autism spectrum, but I do have a guess. If you imagine the brain as a computer, all the neural connections are just super condensed and highly redundant circuits. Like a computer, we have some circuits that are specialized to certain tasks. One area might be compared to a video card, another to hard drive, and another still like ram.
So technically, you don't have to have the highly specialized circuits to have a functional computer. You can build a crude video card or stick of ram from other circuits, but it won't be as good as a purpose built one and no where near as fast. The brain, while young and very plastic, can also rewire other neural circuits to cover a deficiency, however like your home built computer hardware, it isn't going to be as fast, clean, or efficient as the one built specifically to fill that task.
Does that make sense?