Girl born with half a brain retains full vision

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17489-girl-with-half-a-brain-retains-full-vision.html

by robg • 17 years ago

22 11 17 years ago

newscientist.com

upinsmoke• 17 years ago

fascinating read. thanks.

dryicerx• 17 years ago

Brain == FPGA ?

uptown• 17 years ago

I thought they all came that way...

insert_nick• 17 years ago

It's called neuroplasticity. I've read "The brain that changes itself" by Norman Doidge and it uncovers a whole new world.

santacruz• 17 years ago

hacker news

pmichaud3• 17 years ago

The brain is remarkable in children. I lost my right eye in an accident when I was 7, and of course I can't see from that side, but I /do/ have perfect depth perception. I use shadows, relative object sizes, and parallax to get the data I lose without binocular vision.

pygy• 17 years ago

When I was an intern, I witnessed, helpless, a newborn losing most of his left hemisphere in the first hours of his life because of a massive meningeal hemorrhage (he's hemophiliac). He was only left with an atrophic, gliotic frontal lobe (and an intact right hemisphere).

It was 5 years ago. Today, he can walk, use both hands, speaks two languages and has a normal mental development. He's paretic (reduced force) on the right side and a bit temperamental, but he should live a quasi-normal life (he will have some difficulties at sport).

That's just amazing :-)

baddox2• 17 years ago

I'm sure your depth perception is perfectly adequate for anything you'd need it for, but I doubt it's truly as good as someone with two eyes.

pmichaud3• 17 years ago

Well... I'm a pretty accomplished painter, and I can play ping pong with the rest. I was a boxer in high school. How good do you want it to be?

Girl born with half a brain retains full vision

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