Tiny brain no obstacle to French civil servant

A man with an unusually tiny brain managed to live an entirely normal life despite his condition, caused by a fluid buildup in his skull, French researchers reported on Thursday.

Scans of the 44-year-old man’s brain showed that a huge fluid-filled chamber called a ventricle took up most of the room in his skull, leaving little more than a thin sheet of actual brain tissue.

Wow. The human brain never ceases to amaze me at its ability to survive even the most extreme conditions.

Properly functioning ventricles in the brain act as reservoirs for cerebral spinal fluid (CSF). CSF constantly flows through the brain and spinal cord. CSF acts is an isotonic solution that acts as a cushion for the brain. Since the brain itself has no bones or supportive structures, it would crush itself if not suspended in the CSF solution. It also provides basic immune function, as it is filled with microglia (CNS immune cells).

The man in the article, however, had complications with his ventricles at a young age. Hydrocephalus, abnormal accumulation of CSF in the brain, can be cause by several different manners but is typically a blockage of the ventricles. As with the case above, typical treatment is a shunt to drain fluid.

What is remarkable is that this man continued to suffer from hydrocephalus long after the shunt was removed, presumably unnoticed by the man or his doctors. Given the extended period of time and slow buildup of fluid his brain had adequate time to adapt to the shrinking neuronal real estate. The article mentions the man lead a perfectly normal life. He had a family and kids, held a steady job and only had a slightly sub-average IQ (75, average being 100). As witnessed in his MRI scan, his actual brain mass was a mere sheet surrounding the overly bloated ventricle.

This is a striking display of plasticity in the human brain. His brain has obviously lost huge amounts of mass and yet has retained functionality. Over the years as his brain slowly shrank, brain regions were forced to take up the responsibilities of other regions lost to ventricular pressure while retaining their original purpose. I would be fascinated to see a body mapping on his brain to see where everything ended up. Because the process was slow, the brain was more than capable of migrating functionality to surviving locations in the brain. Amazing really

And this is good news for DN. The largest problem with computer simulations currently is sheer computing power. There are more neurons in a human brain than stars in the universe. One couldn’t begin to dream of computing that many elements. News like this, however, clearly show that quantity is not necessarily required for higher intelligence. The brain is more than capable of handling higher intelligence required to function in our society with only minimal brain mass.

I feel that the traits and attributes of the neurons themselves emerge to form intelligence, not the shape and structure they form. My theory is that we have evolved a set of traits and parameters that favor neural plasticity, regardless of the superstructure the neurons form. Articles like this one excite me because it shows that quantity and structure are not necessarily required.