The picture above shows a large empty space where this man’s brain should be. The dark area occupying most of his head and labeled “LV” is fluid instead of brain. Amazingly, with just a little bit of gray matter on his inner skull, he has lived 44 years before anyone noticed his head is almost empty.

The man’s IQ is a somewhat low 75, but he has managed to lead a normal life and holds a job in France as a civil servant. More of the story is available here.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,290610,00.html

and you are surprised..

just goes to show how little of our brains we use

Thanks goodnes he had a backup with his little head, the one that does the real thinking.

geeessssshhhhh, don't do that, you scared the crap outta me, i thought i was looking in a mirror.

My nephew has a very similar problem. His brain is smaller than normal, and there is excessive fluid around his brain, putting pressure on his brain and preventing it from developing normal. It's such a rare problem he has, they're not sure what to do about it. He also had a rare heart problem at birth and needed open heart surgery. He's a trooper though, he's a little delayed in learning, but he'll catch up over time and once he gets older, I don't think his brain problem will be noticable. He's very smart despite his delayed learning.

I always knew there was something about civil servants. Have you lately visited a DMV or a social security office

That's about right.

I always knew I had two brain cells and every morning I needed a big pot of tea to kick start them that is what it is

..from my experiences he's not the only one running around with no brain....

thing is his brain was normal until he got married. Poor fella

Very interesting, I always enjoy these kinds fo stories, I remember one where a kid had his head blow nearly off with a shotgun, the cops found him still alive. He was able to relearn how to function mostly normal with a similar IQ afterward.

I guess it sucks tho, he was mensa material before it happened.

I wonder how much surface area he has on his brain - with the grey matter - on the inner skull. Is it all wrinkled, or is it smooth?

My understanding of the beliefs of modern scientists was that most of our total brain matter (by weight, or by volume, or by # neurons) is found in supporting glial cells which are not so directly involved in information processing. (I could be wrong, it was many years ago I studied this).

But if that was the case, this should not be too much of a surprise. If he has slightly wrinkled grey matter lining the inside of his skull, he could have almost as much 'useful information processing brain cells' as anyone else - he'd just be missing the support cells.

(Which is still amazing and incredible in its own way)

or maybe that the physical size of the brain is not as significant as has been suspected.

That's going to be the title of my autobiography.

How a brain develops the neural connections are most important in making a functioning brain.

The animal kingdom should show us that size is relative.

Its much like how some very good(effective)software can run on pretty slow computers. Its depends on how efficient the software is . . .

Again an IQ of 70 is mild retardation, just to put it into perspective.

And tests themselves are variable, I wonder if a battery of tests where used to determined his IQ of a single test.

Many times a single test can show a higher or lower score.

Cases like these help us understand the ends of the spectrum.