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From: ray@rochester.UUCP (Ray Frank)
Newsgroups: net.sci
Subject: Re: darwinism
Message-ID: <90@rochester.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18-Jul-85 13:54:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: rocheste.90
Posted: Thu Jul 18 13:54:01 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Jul-85 17:09:46 EDT
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Organization: U. of Rochester, CS Dept.
Lines: 29

> 
> I unfortunately missed the TV show in question, but have been exposed to
> a little neurobiology.  I believe the key word here is YOUNG.  Many
> functions and the connections that allow them are established AFTER 
> birth.  The connections in the visual cortex that allow visual acuity
> are NOT made in blindfolded or dark raised animals, or for that matter,
> in children with cataracts.  It is quite reasonable that normal function
> can be established with a much smaller number of brain cells than is
> normal.  There is undoubtedly a great deal of redundancy in the normal
> brain.  It probably does come in handy, since brain cells don't divide,
> but do die off constantly throughout life.  However, since most of us
> didn't start out with 5% of our cerebral cortex we would definately notice
> the loss of 95% of our brains.  It will be interesting to see how these
> people fare as they age.  No mention was made of how old they are now,
> does anyone out there know?

I saw this TV show. It was to me quite amazing.
If memory serves me correctly the people studied (those with 5 or 10% of their
brain left intact) were in their thirties and were functioning perfectly.
The reason they were asked to participate in this study was because they were
know to have had the disease as young children and survived it because of the
advent of a shunting technique that alowed the liquid to drain from the brain.

Again if memory serves me correctly, these people were born with normal brains
with no symptoms of the disease till their early years, ie several months to
several years. Till a remedial cure was found (shunting) most if not all victims
died by 4 or 5 years of age. I suppose by this time so much of the brain was
destroyed that death was inevitable.