They Had Good Minds After Losing the Left Half of Their Brains

Although neuroscientists are brain specialists, very many neuroscientists are not very deep and broad scholars of the topic of human brains. A typical neuroscientist may be able to tell you in very great detail about some narrow facet of human brains, and may be able to tell you in the greatest detail about how to use some machine that is used to study brains. But the same neuroscientist may have failed to properly study the topic of human brains in a way that involves learning about every relevant thing you could about human brains. Ask that neuroscientist to tell you what happens when you remove half of a human brain, and you may get an answer that is wrong. Ask that neuroscientist to tell you how reliably chemical synapses transmit nerve signals (action potentials), and you may get an answer that is wrong. Ask that neuroscientist to tell you how quickly a brain electrically shuts down when the heart stops (reaching a state called asystole), and you may get an answer that is wrong. 

Part of the job of properly studying brains is to study very thoroughly all of the most impressive cases of high mental performance despite very high brain damage. Relatively few neuroscientists show signs of having studied such a topic. In order to properly study such a topic, you must study unusual medical case histories.  Very many of the most important and relevant medical case histories are recorded in books, newspapers and magazines. But can you ever recall reading of a neuroscientist searching newspapers for unusual case histories in neuroscience? I can never recall reading of such activity by a neuroscientist. 

Luckily there are some web sites that contain very many of the most relevant examples of such medical case histories that are relevant to the question of whether the human mind is the source of the mind and whether the human mind is the storage place of human memories. One of those sites is the very site you are reading.  In my series of posts labeled "High Mental Function Despite Large Brain Damage," which you can read here, I describe many of the most important case histories that are  relevant to the question of whether the human brain is the source of the mind (keep pressing Older Posts at the bottom right to read the whole series). Now let me provide another such case, one I learned about from searching old newspaper articles for a use of the phrase "half a brain." The 1976 case is one that you can read about using the link here. Below are some excerpts from the newspaper article.

We read of a young man named Bruce Lipstadt who had a hemispherectomy operation when he was five years old, an operation that removed the left half of his brain.  Operations of that type are only done when someone is being plagued by very severe seizures, and the seizures cannot be controlled by medication.  The operation was done because as a young boy Bruce was suffering from 10 to 12 seizures a day. 

We are told that despite having the left half of his brain surgically removed, Bruce can ride a bike, swim and play sports. We are told that Bruce got an A grade (the best grade) in a course on statistics at a university. We are told Bruce's speech is normal. We are told that "although not a genius, Bruce has superior intelligence." We are told that Bruce works as a traffic controller, and that next spring he will get a degree in sociology from a university. 

The 1976 newspaper article here gives us some more details on Bruce Lipstadt. We read that his IQ tests showed his verbal IQ to be 126, well above the average IQ of 100. We read this:

A verbal IQ of 126 in a subject who had the left half of his brain removed is a result that would seem to "make mincemeat" out of claims that the brain is the source of the human mind. One of the accounts above mentions an authority named Sugar. The Bruce Lipstadt case seems to be the same one mentioned in the scientific paper here co-authored by Oscar Sugar MD, one entitled "Development of above normal language and intelligence 21 years after left hemispherectomy."

The newspaper article here tells of a film about a man who had the left half of his brain removed, but who (five months after the operation) could still "sing, distinguish colors, and pass simple tests of reading, writing and arithmetic."

At the 2:59 mark in the Youtube.com video here, we get the table below, which shows some impressive intellectual achievements in patients who underwent a hemispherectomy operation to remove half of their brains:

We have some stunning results. All of these people with half a brain had some college studies. Two had achieved a two-year Associate's Degree. One had achieved a Master's Degree. The top row tells whether the left or the right half of the brain was removed.  The two rightmost columns give details for people who had the left half of their brain removed, both of which had some college studies, and both of which were employed. 

At the 5:03 mark in the video, we have the chart below. It shows the IQ of 7 subjects who had a hemispherectomy operation to remove half of their brains. The dots in yellow are people who had left half of the brain removed. Each column represents a particular type of IQ. The first column is full IQ. The second column is verbal IQ. The third column is performance IQ, something that does tests involving non-verbal tasks and motor tasks, with speed of completion affecting the score. We see that one of the subjects who had the left half of his brain removed had above-average verbal IQ. 

At the 8:07 mark in the video, we have a chart showing that one of the left hemispherectomy patients (who had the left half of the brain removed) had a way-above-average 130 score on reading comprehension. 

At the link here, you can read the very interesting paper "AN ENORMOUS CEREBRAL TUMOUR" by William E. Conroy M.D. We read of a patient F. H. who was observed in 1889. The patient had an operation to remove the tumor, but died soon thereafter. 

On page 179 we read that an autopsy was performed, and that after the tumor was removed, the left half of the brain was all but gone, being only the size of the palm of a hand:

On page 180 we read that this "enormous" tumor in the left half of the brain produced almost no mental effects. We read that the boy was "intelligent" and "expressed himself well" and "read much with enjoyment" until his eyesight failed. We read that the mental faculties were "not seriously impaired."  We read this:

On page 16 of an 1899 book J. Sanderson Christison, M.D.  states this: "And when we find that individuals have filled the business and social functions of life in the ordinary way, who were either destitute of a corpus callosum (see page 65) or had but little more than half a brain (see page 62), it is evident that external features are not necessarily of fundamental significance." 

On page 47 Dr. Christison says this:

"Dr. E. W. Taylor reports a man, 36 years of age, with extensive destruction of the left frontal lobe of the brain, and yet, says Dr. Taylor: 'When I last saw him the whole impression was that of a clear-headed vigorous man of exceptional intellect, but neurasthenic. A few days before his death he was filling a responsible position, and making decisions of importance with accuracy and judgment.' "

On pages 58-59 Christison says this:

"Dr. Charles Phelps reports a man who died at the age of 25 years with a large abscess in the middle area of the left cerebral hemisphere, while a large proportion of both hemispheres was either softened or invaded with punctate hemorrhages. Yet Dr. Phelps reports that this man 'had absolute integrity of all his mental faculties and special senses without either having aberration or decadence, and was cheerful and slept well.' "

On the same page 59 Christison says this:

"Drs. J. J. Putnam and M. H. Richardson report a business-man, 30 years of age, whose entire left cerebral hemisphere (except the occipital lobe and the lower portions of the frontal and temporal lobes) was occupied by a diseased growth, 'which everywhere compressed the adjoining brain tissues and to a great extent destroyed them,'  and yet in this man 'no notable mental changes were observable.'  'His mind was clear and he read and understood with pleasure, and enjoyed the society of his family and friends,' and although 'he dragged his right leg he walked well, going to church and back half a mile off, and he drove his horse to town eight miles away, four days before his death.' "

On page 61 Dr. Christison says this:

"Dr. W. B. Haddon reports a man, 21 years of age, with an enormous tumor occupying the left cerebral hemisphere, and severely compressing adjacent structures. Yet, although he occasionally had an epileptic fit and stammered slightly from childhood, he had no paralysis. He was somewhat opinionated, but evinced no moral perversion. At the time of his death (in a fit) he was a clerk in the Steward's office of St. Thomas' Hospital, London, and a few days later he would have entered the government examination for a second grade certificate in perspective and drawing, branches in which he was pronounced by experts to be exceptionally proficient."

On page 62 Dr. Christison says this:

 "Andral reports a man who died at the age of 28 years with the whole of his right cerebral hemisphere so completely atrophied that its covering membrane (pia mater) formed a cyst in which there was not a trace of brain tissue. The floor of the cyst was formed by the optic thalamus, the corpus striatum, and the parts on a level with these two bodies. Yet, says Andral, this man  'had received a good education, had a good memory, and exhibited as much intelligence as most men' (19)."

Her Mind Was "Much Improved" After They Removed a Huge Part of Her Brain

 One of the very great investigation failures of today's psychologists and neuroscientists is their tendency to only search scientific papers when writing scientific papers. The fact is that there are huge additional sources of information providing very important cases of medical case histories. Those include newspapers and magazines. It is not hard to search for medical case histories documented in newspapers. For example, the free Chronicling America site allows you to search through more than 100 years of American newspapers. You can use the site by using the link below:

https://www.loc.gov/collections/chronicling-america/about-this-collection/

Another good site for this purpose is the University of California site here:

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/

 Below is one of the very interesting cases I get when using the phrase "brain gone." We get a 1935 account of a woman whose mind was "much improved" after "an operation that removed nearly the entire 'thinking portion' of her brain." We can presume this "thinking portion" of her brain was the prefrontal cortex or the frontal lobes, as those were presumed at 1935 to be the "thinking portion" of the brain.  You can read the account here. We read that the woman's intelligence was average despite this loss of so much of her brain. We read that the woman's power of concentration sharply improved after this removal of most of the supposed "thinking portion" of her brain. The whole story is the opposite of what we would expect under "brains make minds" assumptions. 

Read my post here for a discussion of other cases in which intelligence reportedly increased after much brain tissue was removed. 

At the University of California site, using the search phrase "brain gone," I get the interesting account below, which you can read here. We read that after a bad accident, sixty grams was removed from the frontal lobe of the brain of Martin Strabowski. This was about 12 percent of his frontal lobes, because the frontal lobes of the human brain weigh about 500 grams. Despite the removal of this big chunk of the part of the brain claimed to be responsible for thought, the removal apparently caused no damage, because the story tells us that Martin's mind "fully recovered."

Cognitive Effects of Epilepsy Surgery Clash with "Brains Make Minds" Dogma

Epilepsy is a disease causing seizures. When the seizures are frequent, the disruption to a patient's quality of life can be so great that brain surgery may be recommended. In such surgery, large chunks of the brain may be removed. In other cases, the corpus callosum that connects the two hemispheres of the brain may be severed.  The most extreme type of brain surgery is hemispherectomy, in which an entire half of the brain is removed. 

I have already written several posts on the surprisingly small effects of hemispherectomy operations.  Let us look at some reports of the cognitive effects of lesser types of surgery to treat epilepsy. One such type of surgery is temporal lobe resection. A paper tells us this about removal of the temporal lobe: "cognition remains relatively stable in the years following right temporal resection."  Another paper discusses surgery in the posterior cortex of the brain. Using the word "resection" which refers to surgical removal of part of the brain, the paper states the following:

"The results of our study show that posterior cortical resections, either in the dominant or non-dominant hemisphere, do not lead to significant changes in general intelligence....This is in contrast to the outcome after temporal lobe resections. Several authors have shown a significant increase in full scale IQ (FSIQ) after non-dominant temporal lobe resection and only a slight increase or a decrease in FSIQ after dominant temporal lobe resections...PIQ [performance IQ] was almost invariably shown to be improved compared to baseline IQ, regardless of the side of temporal resections. The effect of dominant temporal lobe resections on VIQ [verbal IQ] seems to be somewhat inconsistent, with either decreasing  or increasing scores, whereas right temporal lobe resection regularly leads to increasing scores."

This is hardly what we would expect if your brain is what makes your mind. It seems that taking out parts of the brain (called a resection) often is followed by an increase in scores on IQ tests. 

Another paper states, "The data do not confirm concerns that patients undergoing temporal lobe epilepsy surgery are likely to develop accelerated memory decline over the longer term." Another paper states the following, suggesting no big cognitive effect from epilepsy surgery:

"Pooled data on IQ, executive functioning, and attention indicated few patients show declines post surgery, but a substantial rate of improvement in verbal fluency with left‐sided temporal surgery (27%) was found. Self‐reported cognitive declines after epilepsy surgery were uncommon, and gains were reported in some domains where losses were found on objective tests (i.e., verbal memory and language). Variations in surgical techniques did not appear to have a large effect on cognitive outcomes, except for naming outcomes, which appeared better with more conservative resections. Sensitivity to postoperative changes differed across visual memory tests, but not verbal memory tests. Few conclusions could be made regarding cognitive risks and benefits of extratemporal epilepsy surgery, or of epilepsy surgery in children."

The paper "Neuropsychological outcome following frontal lobectomy for pharmacoresistant epilepsy in adults" here deals specifically with the surgical removal of the frontal lobe to treat epilepsy. Neuroscientists have made more claims about the frontal lobe than any other part of the brain. We have been told that the frontal lobe is some kind of center of judgment and memory, although there are many reasons for rejecting such claims.  The paper (which studied 90 patients) states the following :

"Forty-eight percent of the sample did not show decline on any of the 16 cognitive measures examined in this study. Forty-two showed decline on measures in 1 or 2 cognitive domains. In contrast, 10% of the sample showed declines in 3 or more cognitive domains." 

Elsewhere the paper states, "The vast majority of patients who undergo frontal lobectomy for treatment of pharmacoresistant epilepsy demonstrate good cognitive and motor outcomes." Using the term "frontal lobectomy" for the removal of the front part of the brain, the paper also states, "Interestingly, there was a subset of patients who demonstrated clinically meaningful improvements in confrontation naming (15% of sample), verbal intellectual function (11%), or memory (10%–17%) following frontal lobectomy."  The paper says, "Existing studies that have examined change in intellectual functioning following frontal lobe surgery have had mixed results, with some studies reporting no change on intelligence measures and others reporting apparent improvements."

Referring to removal of one of the two temporal lobes in the brain, page 122 of the book here tells us "experimental ablation studies in monkeys have failed to reveal any significant or consistent behavioral change after unilateral temporal lobectomy." 

Another relevant paper is the paper "Determinants of IQ outcome after focal epilepsy surgery in childhood: A longitudinal case-control neuroimaging study." We read the following:

"Fifty-two children (28 boys, 24 girls) were evaluated for epilepsy surgery and reassessed on average 7.7 years later...). Pre- and postsurgical assessments included IQ tests and T1-weighted brain images...Applying a ≥10-point change threshold, 39% of the surgically treated children improved, whereas 10% declined."

We are not told in this paper how large was the matter removed from the brains of these children, but it is known that epilepsy surgery typically involves removing large parts of the brain, sometimes as much as 50%. Again, we have a result that is inconsistent with claims that the brain generates the mind. 

Another relevant paper is "Neuropsychological outcomes after epilepsy surgery: systematic review and pooled estimates." The paper was a meta-analysis that reviewed 23 other papers on the cognitive effects of epilepsy surgery. Four of the studies dealt with IQ changes. The paper states, " Epilepsy surgery was associated with an average 11% loss and 16% gain in IQ for combined left and right surgical groups."  The wording of the paper's summary of findings about verbal memory decline is ambiguous, so I won't quote it. But I will note that the paper reports significant percentages of subjects having an improvement in verbal memory, with many others having a decline.  The paper states this:

"For visual memory (six studies), average loss was 21% (95% CI 13 to 31) for left sided surgery and 23% (95% CI 18 to 29) for right sided surgery and average gain was 15% (95% CI 10 to 21) in left sided surgery and 10% (95% CI 7 to 13) in right sided surgery. In one study involving children where side of surgery was not reported, gains in verbal and visual memory were 10% and 25% of children, respectively and risks of loss were 5%."

Summarizing four studies dealing with changes in executive function after epilepsy surgery, the paper states this:

"Left and right sided surgery were associated with a loss of 1% and 0% respectively (one study) and a gain of 9% and 4% (one study) in mental flexibility. Left and right sided surgery were associated with an average loss of 10% (95% CI 4 to 23; 3 studies) and 21% (two studies) respectively and an average gain of 27% (95% CI 10 to 55; 2 studies) and 16% respectively (two studies) in word fluency. In left and right sided surgery, two studies reported an average loss of 6% and 2% respectively and an average gain of 10% and 15% respectively in attention."

Summarizing three studies dealing with "overall subjective change in multiple abilities," the paper finds that "Regardless of side of surgery, average overall loss was 9% and average overall gain was 18%."

Overall, the results reported above are in conflict with dogmas that the brain is the source of the human mind and the storage place of human memories. Epilepsy surgery typically involves removing large chunks of the human brain, as much as 50%.  The studies mentioned above do not show the kind of big mental damage we would expect under such a dogma. The studies often mention improvements in mental function that are inexplicable under the dogma that the brain is the source of the human mind. 

Postscript: An article discusses the case of patient EG: "When EG went in for an unrelated medical scan, she discovered she was missing her entire left temporal lobe...Despite missing a large chunk of her brain, EG was living a totally regular life... She could read normally, had a better-than-average vocabulary, and even spoke Russian as a second language."  A scientific paper describing her says, "She performed within normal range on all language assessment tasks...EG performed within normal range on both general cognitive assessments."

Below is a news story from 1951 referring to an increase in IQ after the removal of half a brain: