Brain reorganizes and works almost normal after a part of it was removed

Brain has once again proved its ability to change itself and reorganize. That ability is scientifically called as neuroplasticity. A boy had epilepsy due to tumor at the age of six. Doctors removed a part (right occipital and posterior temporal lobe) of his brain. The occipital lobe maintains visual processing and temporal lobe maintains auditory processing, visual memory and language comprehension. The doctors examined his brain after 13 and 36 months of the surgery. They mapped the regions of the boy’s brain by showing him faces, scenes, objects and words. The examination using fMRI shows that his brain has reorganized itself.

(Brain. Photo Courtesy: Pixabay)

The post-surgery tests show that the boy has IQ level (118) above average. His object recognition and visual perception skills are at normal level for his age. These results indicate that left side of the brain took over the tasks normally done by the removed part of the brain. The boy is still not able to see on the left side, because of the missing right part of the brain. The boy is still young and his brain can improve further using its neuroplasticity ability. I hope that the doctors will train and examine him after sometimes and provide us more discoveries. 

(Parts of a brain - Wikimedia)

A similar case study was reported in a book ‘The Brain That Changes Itself’ by the author, Dr. Norman Doidge. He wrote about a lady, Michelle Mack, who born without left hemisphere of the brain. When she was in a fetus, the blood supply from the left carotid artery might have blocked and inhibited the growth of the left hemisphere. Her right hemisphere of the brain carried out the functions, like speech and language, of the left hemisphere. Michelle has extraordinary memory and calculation skills. She also cannot see from her right side. But she has ‘supercharged hearing’ ability. To know more about her and similar case studies, I highly recommend you to read that book.