Medical Photographs Present Man with 90% of His Mind 'Lacking'?

“You do not want most of your mind to guide a standard life,” is a sentiment that usually accompanies a extensively shared set of medical pictures that allegedly present a 44-year-old man who was “lacking 90% of his mind.”

Since 2007, the pictures have been posted to social media platforms like Reddit, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, together with the under Reddit put up, which had acquired greater than 46,000 upvotes as of this publication.

The pictures are genuine and genuinely present the mind of a 44-year-old man with an extra quantity of fluid in components of his mind that will have presumably displaced different mind matter. They have been first revealed within the medical journal, The Lancet, in 2007.

Nonetheless, it is unknown whether or not this extra fluid prompted 90% of the person’s mind to go “lacking,” as some posts on social media counsel.  

Snopes reached out to a number of neuroscientists and researchers for help with deciphering the pictures and we’ll replace this text when a response is acquired.

Within the meantime, we have rated this declare as a “Combination” of fact/falsehood.

The pictures have been first revealed in a July 21, 2007, problem of The Lancet in an article titled “Brain of a white-collar worker.” 

The case report describes the mind of a 44-year-old married civil servant and father of two who went to docs after two weeks of experiencing gentle weak spot in his left leg. Mind scans confirmed extreme dilation of the lateral ventricles, two c-shaped areas within the mind, one in all which is present in every hemisphere. The dilation had prompted the fluid-filled areas to turn into larger than normal.

When he was simply 6 months outdated, he was recognized with hydrocephalus, a situation related to the buildup of extra fluid within the mind. Its trigger was unknown. He was given a ventriculoatrial shunt, which is described by Johns Hopkins Medicine as a tool used to empty and redirect cerebrospinal fluid.

At 14, he developed ataxia, a neurological situation associated to poor muscle management leg weak spot. His signs have been resolved after docs “revised” the shunt.

Although his IQ was under common, the person reportedly had a historical past of in any other case regular neurological growth

He was recognized with non-communicating hydrocephalus, an obstruction of the cerebral spinal fluid move within the mind. Docs carried out a ventriculocisternostomy, a process that enables for extra fluid to empty out of the mind. His Leg weak spot ultimately improved over time.

The unique case report revealed in The Lancet reads:

A 44-year-old man offered with a 2-week historical past of gentle left leg weak spot. On the age of 6 months, he had undergone a ventriculoatrial shunt, due to postnatal hydrocephalus of unknown trigger. When he was 14 years outdated, he developed ataxia and paresis of the left leg, which resolved completely after shunt revision. His neurological growth and medical historical past have been in any other case regular. He was a married father of two youngsters, and labored as a civil servant. On neuropsychological testing, he proved to have an intelligence quotient (IQ) of 75: his verbal IQ was 84, and his efficiency IQ 70. CT confirmed extreme dilatation of the lateral ventricles (determine); MRI revealed huge enlargement of the lateral, third, and fourth ventricles, a really skinny cortical mantle and a posterior fossa cyst. We recognized a non-communicating hydrocephalus, with possible stenosis of Magendie’s foramen (determine). The leg weak spot improved partly after neuroendoscopic ventriculocisternostomy, however quickly recurred; nonetheless, after a ventriculoperitoneal shunt was inserted, the findings on neurological examination turned regular inside a number of weeks. The findings on neuropsychological testing and CT didn’t change.

Claims that the person was “lacking” 90% of his mind seem to have originated with information publications overlaying the work of Axel Cleeremens, a cognitive psychologist who reportedly lectured concerning the case throughout the 2016 session of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness convention in Buenos Aires.

As some publications reported, “nearly all of the person’s mind was slowly destroyed over the course of 30 years by the build-up of fluid within the mind, a situation often called hydrocephalus.” Nonetheless, as is proven within the case report textual content above, there isn’t a point out of any a part of the mind being “lacking.”

Cleeremans confirmed to Snopes by way of e mail that it’s not true to say this particular person is lacking 90% of his mind, however “no person is aware of precisely what number of neurons have been destroyed by hydrocephalus.” He wrote: 

This situation, wherein the cerebrospinal fluid that fills the ventricles of the mind usually fails to correctly evacuate and thus accumulates, is understood to destroy the cell our bodies of neurons in addition to the white matter, that’s the connections between neurons.

However a lot of the neurons on this affected person’s mind are in all probability compressed into the very positive residual layer.

So the affected person has misplaced many neurons, and people neurons which can be left are compressed towards the cranium.

Cleeremans added that the pictures don’t present different components of the mind that ought to be seen, together with the hippocampus and thalamus. From his perspective, the case ” illustrates the placing resilience of the mind and its capability to adapt and rewire itself within the face of this progressive lack of neurons and neuronal connections.”

Lastly, Cleeremans stated that the media on the time oversimplified the story to counsel that an individual can operate correctly with solely 10% of their mind. 

In a 2015 interview with Quartz, Cleeremans discussed the idea of consciousness and the way an individual could be taught it over time, moderately than being born with it, and used the Frenchman’s story for instance. Cleeremans revealed his principle in 2011 within the peer-reviewed journal, Frontiers in Psychology.

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