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As someone who’s never even broken a bone — not even as a kid when I used to climb (and fall out of) trees, jump off swing sets and wrestle viciously with my friends — it’s tough for me to imagine undergoing major surgery. Brain surgery is about as major as you can get, if you want to get really radical, we can talk about the hemispherectomy, in which one half of your brain is removed. Imagine my surprise, then, to learn that hundreds of people have undergone this procedure, and not only lived to tell the tale, but can walk around and talk and do a lot of the things people with all of their brains can do. This left me with lots of probing questions, which Scientific American was only too happy to answer.
Q: If you have half your brain removed, can you keep stuff in the empty half?
A: No, the evacuated cavity fills up with cerebrospinal fluid within a day or so.
Q: Please don’t talk about “evacuated cavities” anymore, it gives me the willies.
A: If you say so.
Q: So people who have this insane procedure done are, like, normal afterwards?
A: Well, not quite. You do lose the use of one hand and one eye on the side of your body opposite where the brain was removed.
Q: But not your opposing leg? So you can still run around and play field hockey?
A: You can still run around and play field hockey with one arm and no depth perception. So theoretically, yes.
Q: Why on earth would anyone have a hemispherectomy done?
A: Well, it’s not like plastic surgery, silly. It’s really a procedure of last resort, but it’s been known to help serious seizure disorders, and sometimes it’s the best way to treat brain cancer.
Q: Does removing half you brain make you … hmm, how can I put this … stupider?
A: No. Actually, some young patients have reported doing better in school after the procedure. (This might have something to do with their no longer having seizures for twelve hours a day, but still.)
Q: Are you a doctor or something?
A: This blogterview is over. But check out this article or this webpage if you want to know more.
Scarecrow had no brain. Tin Man needed a heart.
posted by Andrej on 5-25-2007 at 7:32 am
beat me to it!
posted by Mpyre9 on 5-25-2007 at 8:03 am
The visual effects are actually a bit more complex. The left side of the brain controls the right half of the visual field of both eyes, while the right side of the brain controls the left half of the field in both eyes. If you lose one side of the brain, you still have the remaininig visual field in both eyes controlled by the other side of the brain. Because of this, you will actually have depth perception, but a highly restricted visual field in the eye opposite the side of the brain affected.
posted by Stevo on 5-25-2007 at 8:22 am
Actually, the eye that loses its sight is on the same side as the hemisphere that gets removed. In neurology terms, eyes and ears have “ipsilateral” wiring.
posted by GCAW on 5-25-2007 at 8:27 am
If I had to have this done, my favorite joke would be to start every sentence with:
“You know, I’ve got half a mind to…”
posted by Mark R. Brown on 5-25-2007 at 8:39 am
I have met many, many folks with half a brain (or maybe even less) and they still had vision in both eyes and used all their limbs.
their brain was the only nonfunctioning part of the body as far as I could tell.
posted by al hott on 5-25-2007 at 9:04 am
Scarecrow, of course, the Scarecrow. (Dumb, dumb, dumb.) Now let the blogger-with-half-a-brain jokes begin …
posted by Ransom on 5-25-2007 at 9:46 am
This is also usually done on only young kids because their brains still have plasticity. That means that the side not removed can usually handle the functions of the removed side. Adult brains no longer have that ability. The pioneer of this procedure was Benjamin Carson. You should read his book, Gifted Hands.
posted by Katherine on 5-25-2007 at 9:57 am
I’ve had half a brain most of my life and still am smarter than most.
The body can rebuild.
Clint
posted by clint on 5-25-2007 at 10:01 am
Why is the left testical always bigger than the right?
posted by foobarbara on 5-26-2007 at 12:27 am
I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy
posted by Slappy on 5-27-2007 at 8:29 pm