Gary Marcus’ The Birth of the Mind keyed me in to the fact that claims of neural plasticity often also suggest that the brain can not completely compensate for alterations structure. This was relevant in his discussion of mental modularity, but it is something to keep in mind whenever you encounter “amazing” instances of people who survive damage to their brain. A case in point, Woman of 24 found to have no cerebellum in her brain:
… woman has reached the age of 24 without anyone realising she was missing a large part of her brain. The case highlights just how adaptable the organ is.
The discovery was made when the woman was admitted to the Chinese PLA General Hospital of Jinan Military Area Command in Shandong Province complaining of dizziness and nausea. She told doctors she’d had problems walking steadily for most of her life, and her mother reported that she hadn’t walked until she was 7 and that her speech only became intelligible at the age of 6.
Yes, a case of the adaptability of the brain. But she still has problems walking steadily, and that’s not a trivial matter for an “upright ape.” The structures of our brains are not coincidence, which can be discarded without consequence.
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