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Extraordinary Brain: Woman's Missing Cerebellum Went Unnoticed for 24 Years

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Extraordinary Brain: Woman's Missing Cerebellum Went Unnoticed for 24 Years

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MRI scans of the patient's brain show a large hole where the cerebellum should be.

Credit: Feng Yu et al.

Doctors in China were surprised to find that a young woman who had lived a normal life for more than two decades was actually missing an important part of her brain, according to a new report of her case.

The 24-year-old's strange condition was discovered when she went to doctors because of a monthlong bout of nausea and vomiting. The patient told the doctors she had also experienced dizziness her entire life. She didn't start walking until she was four and had never been able to walk steadily.

When the doctors scanned the woman's brain, they found she had no cerebellum, a region of the brain thought to be crucial for walking and other movements. Instead, the scans showed a large hole filled with cerebrospinal fluid. [ 16 Oddest Medical Case Reports]

"CT and MRI scans revealed no remnants of any cerebellar tissues, verifying complete absence of the cerebellum," the doctors wrote in the report, published Aug. 22 in the journal Brain.

Brain scans revealed the patient's brain was missing the cerebellum, which normally resides on the back of the head.

Credit: Left: Alex Luengo Shutterstock.com - Right: Feng Yu et al.

The cerebellum, which means "little brain" in Latin, is responsible for coordination and fine movements, such as the movements of the mouth and tongue needed for producing speech. People with damage to this brain area typically experience debilitating motor difficulties. Yet contrary to the doctors' expectations, the Chinese woman's absence of the cerebellum resulted in only mild to moderate motor problems and slightly slurred pronunciation, according to the researchers. "This surprising phenomenon," demonstrates the plasticity of the brain early in life, they wrote.

"It shows that the young brain tends to be much more flexible or adaptable to abnormalities," said Dr. Raj Narayan, chair of neurosurgery at North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York, who wasn't involved with the woman's case. "When a person is either born with an abnormality or at a very young age loses a particular part of the brain, the rest of the brain tries to reconnect and to compensate for that loss or absence," Narayan said.

This remarkable ability of the brain is thought to decline with age. "As we get older, the ability of the brain to tolerate damage is much more limited," Narayan said. "So, for example, in a 60-year-old person, if I took the cerebellum out, they would be severely impaired."

This is not the first case of a person found to be missing the cerebellum. In fact, there have been eight other similar cases reported, the researchers said. However, most cases involved infants or children who also showed severe mental impairment, epilepsy and large structural abnormalities in their brains, and most did not survive the condition.

It is possible that more people are affected by this rare condition but they don't get diagnosed or reported, Narayan said. "In the future, it may become more recognized because of brain imaging," he added.

Email Bahar Gholipour. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.

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Extraordinary Brain: Woman's Missing Cerebellum Went Unnoticed for 24 Years

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Doctors in China were surprised to find that a young woman who had lived a normal life for more than two decades was actually missing an important part of her brain, according to a new report of her case. The 24-year-old's strange condition was discovered when she went to doctors because of a monthlong bout of nausea and vomiting.

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What happens when you remove the hippocampus? - Sam Kean - YouTube

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What happens when you remove the hippocampus? - Sam Kean - YouTube

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What happens when you remove the hippocampus? - Sam Kean

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View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-happens-when-you-remove-the-hippocampus-sam-kean When Henry Molaison (now widely known as H.M.) cracked his skull in an accident, he began blacking out and having seizures. In an attempt to cure him, daredevil surgeon Dr. William Skoville removed H.M.'s hippocampus. Luckily, the seizures did go away - but so did his long-term memory!

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What percentage of your brain do you use? - Richard E. Cytowic - YouTube

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What percentage of your brain do you use? - Richard E. Cytowic - YouTube

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What percentage of your brain do you use? - Richard E. Cytowic

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What is dyslexia? - Kelli Sandman-Hurley - YouTube

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What is dyslexia? - Kelli Sandman-Hurley - YouTube

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What is dyslexia? - Kelli Sandman-Hurley

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TED-Ed Blog» Blog Archive » 5 brainiac brain facts (illustrated by TED-Ed GIFs)

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TED-Ed Blog» Blog Archive » 5 brainiac brain facts (illustrated by TED-Ed GIFs)

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The brain is an incredible organ; its complex networks are responsible for everything from determining attraction to detecting pain. It's also extremely GIF-able. Enjoy these five brain facts, coupled with beautifully animated GIFs from some of TED-Ed's favorite animators.

1. We like to think of romantic feelings as spontaneous and indescribable things that come from the heart. But it's actually your brain running a complex series of calculations within a matter of seconds that's responsible for determining attraction.
From the TED-Ed Lesson The science of attraction
2. Playing an instrument is the brain's equivalent of a full-body workout. As you play, your brain simultaneously processes different information in intricate, interrelated, and astonishingly fast sequences.
From the TED-Ed Lesson How playing an instrument benefits your brain
3. The human brain consumes an astounding 3.4 x 10^21 ATP molecules per minute, making it a legitimate energy hog!
From the TED-Ed Lesson What percentage of your brain do you use?
4. As we grow, we install pain detectors in most areas of our body. Just like all nerve cells, these detectors conduct electrical signals, sending information from wherever they're located back to your brain. But, unlike other nerve cells, nociceptors only fire if something happens that could cause or is causing damage.
From the TED-Ed Lesson How do pain relievers work?
5. On a per weight basis, humans pack in more neurons than any other species. That's what makes us so smart!
From the TED-Ed Lesson What percentage of your brain do you use?

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5 brainiac brain facts (illustrated by TED-Ed GIFs)

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The brain is an incredible organ; its complex networks are responsible for everything from determining attraction to detecting pain. It's also extremely GIF-able. Enjoy these five brain facts, coupled with beautifully animated GIFs from some of TED-Ed's favorite animators. 1. We like to think of romantic feelings as spontaneous and indescribable things that come from the heart.

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Lobotomy: Definition, Procedure & History

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Lobotomy: Definition, Procedure & History

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Lobotomy: Definition, Procedure & History

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Lobotomy, also known as leucotomy, is a neurosurgical operation that involves severing connections in the brain's prefrontal lobe, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. Lobotomies have always been controversial, but were widely performed for more than two decades as treatment for schizophrenia, manic depression and bipolar disorder, among other mental illnesses.

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How optical illusions trick your brain - Nathan S. Jacobs | TED-Ed

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How optical illusions trick your brain - Nathan S. Jacobs | TED-Ed

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How optical illusions trick your brain - Nathan S. Jacobs

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Optical illusions are images that seem to trick our minds into seeing something different from what they actually are. But how do they work? Nathan S. Jacobs walks us through a few common optical illusions and explains what these tricks of the eye can tell us about how our brains assemble visual information into the 3D world we see around us.