Page 152 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

Mysteries of the Mind 133

r. John Lorber (1915–1996), neurology
professor at the University of Sheffield
in the United Kingdom, recalled the time
Din the 1970s when the campus doctor
asked him to examine a student whose head was a bit
Living without
larger than normal. Instead of the normal 4.5-centime-
ter thickness of brain tissue between the ventricles a Brain
and the cortical surface, Lorber discovered that the
student had only a thin layer of mantle measuring
Sources:
about a millimeter and his cranium was filled mainly
“Is Your Brain Really Necessary?” Alternative Science News,
with cerebrospinal fluid.
September 9, 2002. [Online] http://www.alternativescience.
The man had hydrocephalus, a condition in which com/no_ brainer.htm.
the cerebrospinal fluid, instead of circulating around Lewin, Roger. “Is Your Brain Really Necessary?” Science 210
the brain, becomes dammed up inside the cranium (December 12, 1980). Also [Online] http://www.enidreed.
and leaves no space for the brain to develop normally. com/serv01.htm.
Nolte, John. The Human Brain: An Introduction to Its Functional
Such a condition is usually fatal within the first few
Anatomy. Philadelphia: Mosby Publishing, 2002.
months of life. If individuals should survive beyond
infancy, they are often severely retarded. In the case
of the math major from the University of Sheffield, he
had an IQ of 126 and graduated with honors.
Lorber collected research data concerning sev-
eral hundred people who functioned quite well with
practically no brains at all. Upon careful examination,
he described some of the subjects as having no
“detectable brains.”

Dr. Patrick Wall, professor of anatomy at Univer-
sity College, London, stated that there existed
“scores” of accounts of people existing without dis-
cernable brains. The importance of Lorber’s work,
Wall said, was that he had conducted a long series of
systematic scanning, rather than simply collecting
anecdotal material.

Lorber and other scientists theorized there may
be such a high level of redundancy in normal brain
function that the minute bits of brain that these people
have may be able to assume the essential activities of
a normal-sized brain.
David Bower, professor of neurophysiology at Liv-
erpool University, England, stated that although Lor-
ber’s research did not indicate that the brain was
unnecessary, it did demonstrate that the brain could
work in conditions that conventional medical science
would have thought impossible.

The Gale Enc y clopedia of the Unusu al and Unexplained