# Alive without brain?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alive-without-brain/164513>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 27, 2003, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alive-without-brain/164513 "2003-03-27T13:30:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![raisinbread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@raisinbread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raisinbread)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2003, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alive-without-brain/164513/21 "2003-03-28T01:38:52Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Eirik \*  
> **In demontrating an MRI, the host of the show was found to be missing a large chunk of his brain, IIRC about the size of a couple golf balls.**

Are those metric golfballs or English golfballs? Without knowing I am unable to visualize the situation.

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**Author:** ![Caesar\_s\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/73ab20/32.png) [@Caesar\_s\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caesar_s_Ghost)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2003, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alive-without-brain/164513/22 "2003-03-28T01:51:36Z")

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“Brain and brain. What is brain?”

I’m sorry, it’s the first thing I thought of when I saw the title.

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**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2003, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alive-without-brain/164513/23 "2003-03-28T03:00:43Z")

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**Anencephaly** is a congenital malformation which occurs in one out of every thousand newborns. Affected children are missing the forebrain and most or all of the hindbrain, and usually die within hours or days. [Here](http://www.anencephaly.net/anencephaly.html) is a short description of the condition, and also a [discussion](http://www.aap.org/policy/04790.html) of the ethical implications of harvesting the infant’s other, normal internal organs for pediatric transplants.

I also found a few pictures of anacephalic infants, but you really don’t want to see them.

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**Author:** ![Eirik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b19c9b/32.png) [@Eirik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eirik)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2003, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alive-without-brain/164513/24 "2003-03-28T05:29:05Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by raisinbread \*  
> \*\*Are those metric golfballs or English golfballs? Without knowing I am unable to visualize the situation. \*\*

As I remember it, there was a MRI section though the approximate center of the head, and the entire frontal lobe was apparently missing, just a black space in the front of the skull. Kinda strange.

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