Who Needs A Brain, Anyhow?

Have you ever taken the time to question, really question, where and what your consciousness is? Common sense, and medical science, tell us that it’s in our head. Despite the fact that many cultures have believes otherwise, it is not only our belief but also our experience that consciousness resides in the head. Think to yourself “I AM HERE” as ‘loudly’ as possible. Did you feel it in your head? See? case closed.

What if I told you that there are people running around with only smallest fraction of a brain floating around inside their skulls, and they function just fine. Would you be so certain then?

Read on.

Virtually everyone who subscribes to the modern western worldview, myself included, believes that the brain is where thought occurs, and that it controls most of the functions of the body. The brain is a very pricey bit of equipment from an evolutionary standpoint: it is fragile, complicated and consumes a full 20% of the calories burned by the body, but as the bodies command center, this seems like a fair trade-off.

There is a common folk saying that most humans only use 5% of their brain, mostly spouted by people who want some money in order to teach you how to use your whole brain (and have horrible seizures I suppose, but that doesn’t sound good in the advertising copy). Once again it is commonly understood that though only a small portion of your brain is active at any give time, each portion has an assigned task, and the whole brain is utilized. (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_028.html)

But it appears that at least some of the brain is redundant. The two hemispheres of the brain appear to be near clones of each other. In a procedure called a hemispherectomywe actually remove fully 50% of the brain. If this is done at a young age the patient will generally suffer no negative cognitive side effects, nor any deficit off coordination or any other measurable problem related to brain function. I am inclined to wonder if they burn 10% fewer calories than would otherwise be expected.

This is, however not unprecedented in the body. We have two eyes, two hands, two kidneys. There are a lot of redundant organs, and even though the brain is expensive, Its not all that shocking that some of it is there as a backup. One would however expect that having only 50% of their brain would at the very least reduce someones cognitive ability, which does not appear to be the case.

So if you can make do with 50% of your brain, how much do you actually need? This is where the worldview that I share with most of Western medicine starts to break down.

Neurologist John Lorber, who was a specialist in the treatment of the condition hydrocephalus, found that often despite having only a small fraction of the mass of a normal brain, hydrocephalus sufferers were not cognitively impaired. Quite disturbingly he found several individuals who had only 5% of the brain mass of a typical adult their size who seemed to have no cognitive symptoms at all. He actually sites four individuals who fit this description, one of whom has a honors degree in mathematics.

This is not crank science or random rumor-mongering on the Internet. Lorber’s research has been published in several respectable journals, most notably “Science” (Issue 210, page 1232). The Science article requires a subscription to read, but a good summery can be found online.

Even though there are only a few cases of this happening, it completely destroys any notion that I had that we understand the brain. If you can get away with having only 5% of the brain mass normally needed, then why have we evolved with so much to spare? What about all of those highly specialized subsections like the visual cortex that have essentially been crushed out of existence? I find that this shakes my belief structure to the very core. I once believed that the brain was the seat of consciousness, the center of being the way that I believed in gravity. Now I am forced to wonder if I have been mislead. If the brain is doing the thinking, then why is it able to function so well when only a small portion of it remains? Why wasn’t it just evolved that way in the first place? Mother Nature is not wasteful by design.

These findings are not new. There are recorded cases in medical literature that go back hundreds of years. The science article I sited is from late 1980. Yet it appears no one is even studying this condition, or at least if they are nothing is being published. I would think that a phenomenon that its so deeply at odds with the current models of the brain would attract more attention.

But 5% is really nothing, If your brain were a pizza, then the people I am talking about would be doing fine on about 1/3 of a slice instead of the whole pie that most of us have. This simply seems impossible to me, which drives me into the deeply unsettling waters of metaphysics. If it is not our brain, or at least 95% of it that makes us able to think and act could it be some sort of external entity like a soul? Before you dismiss the idea, think about how little 5% is.