It has beenclaimed on this board, and elsewhere, that children born without brains survive (occassionally). I find this claim extraordinary-how can any organism survive without a brain? Also-being able to exercise the higher functions (thought for example) without a brain. Can anyone provide any info on this? 
Anencephalics die in utero, or their life expectancy is hours to days.
Those who ae diagnosed with anencephaly yet live for years don’t actually have it. They have microcephaly, not anencephaly.
Jellyfish manage just fine.
QtM can undoubtably provide more details than I can, and the info is probably buried there on one of the links from the site he gave, but once in a while there are people who are born “without a brain” and still appear to be normal. It’s not that they are really born without a brain, but their brain is rather deformed. Normally our brain is folded up into that shape that everyone recognizes because it looks a lot like a cauliflower. In these people, the brain doesn’t look like that at all. Instead, it’s more like just a thin layer on the inside of the skull. If you look at an x-ray of their head, your first reaction is HOLY CRAP THEY DON’T HAVE A BRAIN HOW THE HECK DO THEY EVEN WALK AROUND :eek: because most of the area where you expect to find a brain is just filled with fluid. But they really do have a brain, which is why they are able to function.
You’d think that someone with such a serious defect wouldn’t be able to function at all, and often they can’t, but sometimes they actually do quite well. I’ve read that their IQs tend to peak at about 130, which ain’t all that shabby for someone who basically has a skull full of water. In fact, from what I’ve read, a lot of times the condition isn’t even discovered until the person has a head X-ray or dies and has an autopsy.
Here’s an example:
From here: Where Is Consciousness? I've Lost It!
I think they are usually called “hydrocephalic” not “anacephalic” but QtM can correct me on this if I’m wrong.