# Is The Human Brain Really Necessary? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 23, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-human-brain-really-necessary/220580 "2003-12-23T02:26:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-human-brain-really-necessary/220580/21 "2003-12-24T12:15:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by hyjyljyj \* > \*\*The OP: “Is The Human Brain Really Necessary?” > > It sure helped in formulating this thread… \*\* That’s debatable…😛 ---
**Author:** ![dinty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@dinty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dinty)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-human-brain-really-necessary/220580/22 "2003-12-24T19:42:07Z")
Is the brain really necessary? Not in my wife’s case. She has been happily going about her business without one for over 50 years.😃 ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-human-brain-really-necessary/220580/23 "2003-12-24T20:02:50Z")
The title of this thread sounds like the title of a PBS documentary I once saw part of, “Is the Brain Really Necessary?” which discussed Lorber’s work. Ah, here’s a page on [urbanlegends.com](http://urbanlegends.com) that mentions it: > **[Urban Legends Store](https://shop.urbanlegends.com)** > > Shop exclusive music from the Official Urban Legends Store. On the site that the OP linked to … I have to say, it seems like much of this may have been exaggerated. I’d be interested to see if the mathematics-degree guy whose “skull was lined with a thin layer of brain cells to a millimeter in thickness” has had this confirmed more recently with a higher resolution scan, and how he is doing today (if he is still alive, that is); that article seems indicate that Lorber found this guy sometime before 1980, so this was probably at least 25 years ago … Also, the person who wrote that page described a CAT scan as a “measurement of radio density.” What? Aren’t CAT scans basically a series of x-rays taken along different axes, pieced together to give a 3D picture of the area being scanned? ---
**Author:** ![netscape\_6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8c91f0/32.png) [@netscape\_6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netscape_6)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2003, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-human-brain-really-necessary/220580/24 "2003-12-25T08:23:16Z")
I remember reading that only 1/10 of brain cells are for thinking, the rest are supporting cells. They keep enviroment just right so the neurons don’t die. So if your neurons were tuffer your brain could be 10x smaller. Has anyone ever measured the ratio of neurons to support cells in normal people born with missing brain mass? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-human-brain-really-necessary/220580/25 "2003-12-26T01:02:42Z")
My point was that if a normal brain only needs a few millimeters thickness of cerebral cortex, then having the brain reduced to one mm thickness is not necessarily that serious a loss, if it’s all cortex and especially if the neural density is concentrated, as discussed above. The cerebral cortex is the very thin part of the brain where the actual higher thought processes are carried out. Which is to say, the part of the brain that we Dopers use to Dope on these message boards. I was astonished to read up on brain physiology and discover that the vast bulk of the brain is not used for cerebration. It’s fibrous neural tissue whose purpose is mainly to support the cortex. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-human-brain-really-necessary/220580.md?page=1)