Living with half a brain?

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http://www.livescience.com/health/09072 ... ision.html

And surprisingly the brain is the most adaptable cell in the body.

Not that I'm saying everyone will recover or have brains that will adapt to serious injuries especially if it involves death.

yeah I've seen that on House :p

I first read about this sort of thing when I was a lad and grabbed every oddball science book I could. There's a famous case of a bloke who worked on the railroad in the USA back in the 1890's (I believe), he was tamping an explosive charge with the blunt end of a railroad spike when the charge went off and drove the sharp end through his head. When the surgeon removed the spike, he got off the operating table and put his shirt back on, and was getting ready to walk out of the room before the astonished surgery team could stop him. He lived, but had a complete change of personality and in some author's opinion suffered a lobotomy from the injury. What's totally amazing is that he lived through the experience at all ...

I remember that case; he also developed quite the foul mouth...

Wish I could remember some of the details ...

This sort of story just goes to show how little we truly know about our brains. I've also heard about the man who got impailed (it was in a book I had but it's not here now...) and another story about a woman who had a large brain tumour and had to have about 3/4 of her brain removed. Afterwards, very little was different, but as her long term memory part of the brain had been removed, it moved into the short term memory part so she has no short term memory which is quite challenging for her.

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