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It's a puzzlement.

People have exhibited "normal" behaviour with extensive brain damage, like the boy in your example, and have gone gonzo-weird with (seemingly) minuscule brain trauma.

Part of why I find the Brain/Mind so fascinating.

by ATinNM on Sat Oct 18th, 2008 at 07:51:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Except that that boy hasn't had "brain damage". His brain developed from the embryonic stage as a hydrocephallic brain, just like the brain of Rainman developed without a corpus callosus.

So maybe removing the corpus callosus from a normal brain would kill it or turn it into a vegetable, but it's possible for the brain to develop viably without one?

A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Oct 18th, 2008 at 08:01:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]
In other words, malformation is not damage.

A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Oct 18th, 2008 at 08:03:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes.

"Malformation" is a physical characteristic, not necessarily having a functional affect.  

That I know of.

This is kcurie territory and the wimp wimped out.  (The wuss! :-)

by ATinNM on Sat Oct 18th, 2008 at 08:35:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, apparently TBG has all the answers on this one!

Ad astra per aspera
by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Sat Oct 18th, 2008 at 08:42:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Would anyone like to join my cult?

It's not very expensive. And almost entirely painless.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sat Oct 18th, 2008 at 09:11:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Which plane of reality should I apply through for membership?

Ad astra per aspera
by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Sat Oct 18th, 2008 at 09:14:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Flossing is THE answer!
by ATinNM on Sat Oct 18th, 2008 at 10:45:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
your cult sells Mental floss?

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Sun Oct 19th, 2008 at 05:07:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Reference to a passage in a book by Robert A. Wilson.  Joke directed at TBG.
by ATinNM on Sun Oct 19th, 2008 at 01:47:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Ah answered with a Zappa reply, fishing for people who knew.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Sun Oct 19th, 2008 at 05:14:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
ThatBritGuy:
And almost entirely painless.

operative word: almost!!

we already did, tbg, and yes it hardly hurt at all...

clutches cranium and staggers off into the night gibbering.

 je je jejeje...

oops, wires crossed again..

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sun Oct 19th, 2008 at 01:39:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The developing brain interprets malformation as damage and routes around.

-- #include witty_sig.h
by silburnl on Mon Oct 20th, 2008 at 06:52:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Kim Peeks (the original Rain Man) isn't "normal" by standard criteria.  He is functional for a broad definition of "function."  

It seems there are processes during brain development that 'do their thing' with can give rise (emergent property?) to an attempt to full (?) and complete (?) status?   It seems to be true that areas of the brain have their potential function lost by adjacent areas 'moving in' if it is unstimulated at the proper time or in the proper degree.

Yet other functions - language - develop no matter if the child is stimulated by human language or not.  

Removing functions in a 'finished' adult brain can kill or put a person in a coma.  But not always.  I don't know if an adult has ever had their corpus collosum removed.  There have been cases where it has been severed, eliminating the cross-hemisphere traffic, to ameliorate epileptic attacks.  These are the basis for the Split Hemisphere studies and their well-known findings.  These people are functional but not fully functional to a "normal" level.

As I said, it's a puzzlement.

by ATinNM on Sat Oct 18th, 2008 at 08:30:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I didn't say "normal" or even "functional" but "viable".

A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Oct 19th, 2008 at 03:52:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]
"Viable" has a group of specific meanings in Biology and is used at the organism/species level.  At that level a brain is not 'viable.'
by ATinNM on Sun Oct 19th, 2008 at 12:54:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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