Science

AMA

I have a feeling this condition might be much more prevalent than assumed.

To my knowledge there's no evidence he was missing 90% of his brain—he may have had a normal number of brain cells that were being severely compressed by the fluid in his skull.

I wouldn’t say Trump‘s life was normal

The debunked myth of using 10% of our brains has been rebunked!

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The man's skull was full of liquid, with just a thin layer of brain tissue left.

This came out to be 84, which is slightly below the normal range … So, this person is not bright — but perfectly, socially apt," explains Axel Cleeremans.

When he learned about the case, which was first described in The Lancet in 2007, he saw a medical miracle — but also a major challenge to theories about consciousness.

Last month, Cleeremans gave a lecture about this extremely rare case at the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness conference in Buenos Aires.

[There's a] second lesson perhaps, if you're interested in consciousness — that is the manner in which the biological activity of the brain produces awareness ... One idea that I'm defending is the idea that awareness depends on the brain's ability to learn.

These cases are definitely a challenge for any theory of consciousness that depends on very specific neuro-anatomical assumptions.

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