Is Your Brain Really Necessary?

The reason for the apparently absurd question in the title is the remarkable research conducted at the University of Sheffield by neurology professor the late Dr. John Lorber.

When Sheffield's campus doctor was treating one of the mathematics students for a minor ailment, he noticed that the student's head was a little larger than normal. The doctor referred the student to professor Lorber for further examination.

The student in question was academically bright, had a reported IQ of 126 and was expected to graduate. When he was examined by CAT-scan, however, Lorber discovered that he had virtually no brain at all.

Instead of two hemispheres filling the cranial cavity, some 4.5 centimetres deep, the student had less than 1 millimetre of cerebral tissue covering the top of his spinal column. The student was suffering from hydrocephalus, the condition in which the cerebrospinal fluid, instead of circulating around the brain and entering the bloodstream, becomes dammed up inside.

Normally, the condition is fatal in the first months of childhood. Even where an individual survives he or she is usually seriously handicapped. Somehow, though, the Sheffield student had lived a perfectly normal life and went on to gain an honours degree in mathematics.

Professor Lorber (who was a member of the committee sitting to decide who should be awarded the Nobel Prize) identified several hundred people who have very small cerebral hemispheres but who appear to be normal intelligent individuals. Some of them he describes as having 'no detectable brain', yet they have scored up to 120 on IQ tests.

No-one knows how people with 'no detectable brain' are able to function at all, let alone to graduate in mathematics, but there are a couple theories. One idea is that there is such a high level of redundancy of function in the normal brain that what little remains is able to learn to deputise for the missing hemispheres.

Another, similar, suggestion is the old idea that we only use a small percentage of our brains anyway - perhaps as little as 10 per cent. The trouble with these ideas is that more recent research seems to contradict them. The functions of the brain have been mapped comprehensively and although there is some redundancy there is also a high degree of specialisation - the motor area and the visual cortex being highly specific for instance. Similarly, the idea that we 'only use 10 per cent of our brain' is a misunderstanding dating from research in the 1930s in which the functions of large areas of the cortex could not be determined and were dubbed 'silent', when in fact they are linked with important functions like speech and abstract thinking.

The other interesting thing about Lorber's findings is that they remind us of the mystery of memory. At first it was thought that memory would have some physical substrate in the brain, like the memory chips in a PC. But extensive investigation of the brain has turned up the surprising fact that memory is not located in any one area or in a specific substrate. As one eminent neurologist put it, 'memory is everywhere in the brain and nowhere.' But if the brain is not a mechanism for classifying and storing experiences and analysing them to enable us to live our lives then what on earth is the brain for? And where is the seat of human intelligence? Where is the mind?

Lorber's discovery is far from isolated. In researching my book 'Alternative Science' I found literally scores of such cases of scientific discoveries that are well-attested with strong direct laboratory evidence, and yet are ignored by conventional science. Many more such examples are also given on the Alternative Science Website.

Copyright Richard Milton 1994-2005

Richard Milton is a writer, journalist and broadcaster and author of five books including the controversial 'Alternative Science'. His Alternative Science website at http://www.alternativescience.com contains many extraordinary examples of hard scientific evidence for anomalous phenomena being ignored.

---

Down Scrolling Text to Find Patterns

I believe a program can be written to scan text... Read More

Active Aerial Minefields

Is it possible to build an active aerial minefield to... Read More

MP Apprehension of High Strung or Drunken Soldiers

Recently scientists have discovered the hydrogen sulfide gas caused mice... Read More

N400 Brain Wave to Assist in Learning and in Performance

In any important task you need to stay alert and... Read More

Where Do Insects Go When It Rains?

Have you ever wondered where insects go when it rains?... Read More

God Created Man, 5000 years ago?

Well it is written that God created man 5000 years... Read More

The Quantum Theory of Holy Languages

The quantum theory of holy languages (QTHL) encompasses the three... Read More

How Can DNA Testing Help an Immigration Case?

DNA testing is routinely used in immigration cases to prove... Read More

Submarine Propulsion and Internet web sources

Let us discuss the patent for the Submarine, which is... Read More

Augmented Reality and 3D 360-Vision

We need a better vision system for the battlespace; an... Read More

Aerodynamic Changes Need To Be Made In MAVs; Micro Air Autonomous Vehicles

Aerodynamic changes need to be made in MAVs. Micro-Air Autonomous... Read More

Cloaking a UAV in Flight

If you will recall the Klingon Space Craft and Warship... Read More

Transducers - The Remarkable Changers

Complex control systems all make use of signals that can... Read More

Locusts To Help Make Energy From Bio Waste, part III

If we bring the locusts to a feasting area of... Read More

Flying a Beach Ball UFO

Recently some NASA Scientists were able to fly a MAV;... Read More

New Energy Bill: Reducing Our Dependence on Foreign Oil

The U. S. economy is feeling the brunt of skyrocketing... Read More

Increasing Lightening Storm Intensity and Direction Control of Strikes

Using four UAVs in formation with one C-130 Hercules Aircraft... Read More

Welcome to the Eye Science

Thousands of dyslexic students, across the UK, are referred of... Read More

UAV Mini - Torpedo Bombers for Eliminating Hydro Cushioned Water Craft

UAVs can carry cargo, some of the very tiny UAV... Read More

Creation

CREATION OF ANIMATE FROM INANIMATE: - We have touched upon... Read More

Bi-Location

BI-LOCATION (PADRE PIO & PYTHAGORAS): - I have some experience... Read More

Treating Chronic Mutational Hepatitis B with Chinese Medicine Vitalliver (Vigconic Suppositories)

Research Method:Quantitative determination by contrasting HBV-DNA of cases before and... Read More

Aerodynamics of a Flying Disk or Flying Sphere

Aerodynamics of a flying sphere. It has been said that... Read More

Gerald Hawkins

There is something about the Hawkins clan that I like.... Read More

747 Onboard Laser Might Cause Mistake and Identity

Remember when the Russians shot down a Korean Airlines 747... Read More

A Tuned Bio-Field and a New Definition of Consciousness: Part 1

I rarely hear about the role of the Heart or... Read More

UAV - Terrain Following Technologies

There are many technologies being used today such as ultrasonic... Read More

Get Hot on Combustion

Energy in the form of heat is obtained when fuel... Read More

Positive Effects of Carbon Dioxide for Plant Growth

Many articles have been written about the negative effects of... Read More

How A Light Bulb Works and Other Interesting Tidbits

Light Bulb ScienceEver wonder how a light bulb works? I... Read More

The Fall and Fall of the p-Zine

The circulation of print magazines has declined precipitously in the... Read More

Life on Mars, Warm Water Under our Ice Caps, Evidence, Microbes under Our Feet

Well many people out there are asking is there really... Read More

Enemy UAV Defense is under consideration

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles should be shot down from the air... Read More