"The Women with a hole in her brain"

We started a new unit in class today, the Nervous System, and we read an article relating to this subject. There is this women who hadn't realized till she was 24 that she did not have a cerebellum, the part of the brain responsible for body control and motion memory. She couldn't walk until she was seven and her speech only become intelligible at the age of six. Cerebrospinal fluid, which cushions the brain and provides defence against disease, took the place of the cerebellum. Problems in the cerebellum can lead to severe mental impairment, movement disorders, epilepsy or a potentially fatal build-up of fluid in the brain. However, in this woman, the missing cerebellum resulted in only mild to moderate motor deficiency, and mild speech problems such as slightly slurred pronunciation.

Now if we were to imagine a situation where a person did not have a thalamus or a damaged thalamus, would it is be possible for the person to survive or much less carry out daily functions? Could it have gone unnoticeable for a long time like the woman above? The thalamus is located towards the middle of the brain, above the brainstem and below cerebrum. It is responsible for sorting out of the data received via the spinal cord and direct it towards the corresponding part of the brain. The thalamus serves a gatekeeper that assures that messages are prioritized and regulated, some even call it the center of our self-identity. Without the benefit of the thalamus, a person is at the mercy of the countless messages flooding the brain, and cannot prioritize. Injury to the thalamus can produce distortions of sensory perception, which we see in many forms of brain dysfunction, but particularly in cerebral palsy and autism.