A child walking around with half a brain…
Who’s ever heard of such a thing?!
Not me.
I studied the brain in college.
I learned about Phineas Gage, a man who survived a horrific accident in which an iron rod was driven completely through his frontal lobe.
I understood how brain trauma affected personality, behavior, memories, speech, emotions, and sensory/motor function.
I read about cerebrovascular accidents and the resulting deficits depending on the location of the bleed within the brain.
I listened to lectures about the use of electroconvulsive therapy for depression, corpus callosotomy for seizures, and we even covered the use of lobotomies in schizophrenic and manic-depressive patients.
Yet I don’t ever recall learning about hemispherectomies.
I mean I suppose it’s possible that I missed my professor’s brief explanation of this radical procedure because a cute guy was sitting across from me in my neuropsychology class, but I honestly have no recollection.
)
