ABOVE: An fMRI brain scan from a study participant who had a hemispherectomy as a child
CALTECH BRAIN IMAGING CENTER
As a treatment for severe epilepsy, some children have half their brain surgically removed. Although these patients may end up with sensory, movement, or language deficits, remarkably, many of the kids are able to fully develop their cognitive and language skills. In a study of six adults who underwent hemispherectomy as kids published yesterday (November 19) in Cell Reports, scientists report that various neural connections between different brain regions were stronger among these patients than in other adults—a possible explanation for how children adapt after the surgery.
“The other hemisphere is already having to handle extra responsibilities before patients get treated,” Lynn Paul, a neuroscientist at Caltech and a coauthor of the study, tells The New York Times. “It continues to do so when you take out the damaged hemisphere.”
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