Okay, I saw the PBS special (Nova?) and read the PBS link in which they talk about the Italian boy who is fully functional without any cerebellum at all. Is there anywhere I can read more on this, as this is about the hardest non-pornographic Google search I’ve ever done! (ba ba baba, ba BA BA BA…)
If you google “born without a cerebellum” in quotes, you’ll find links to several points of interest. I can’t find one specifically about the Italian boy, though, but it seems that people can be fully functional and cerebellum-less.
The medical term for this is cerebellar hypoplasia. Perhaps that will aid your search.
I saw a thing about a teenage girl who had (I think) some sort of seizure disorder and they took out half her brain and she appears to be doing quite well. Amazing thing, the brain.
Are you talking about the Turkish family that walks on all fours? One of them could walk upright very slowly and unsteadily, and his cerebellum was missing.
Its my understanding that those fully functional but apparently without cerebella actually have cerebella but that these cerebella are severely displaced, for example, stretched around the inner lining of the skull or something like that.
-FrL-
It should be mentioned here that the cerebellum is only one part of the brain, a small piece near the back specialized for motor control. All of the “higher thought functions”, whatever those are, seem to be handled by the much larger (in humans) cerebrum. And it’s not inconceivable that part of the cerebrum might adapt to wholly or partially replace a missing cerebellum.
I think I found him.
bwaaahaaaahaaaa. That’s not nice. bwaaaahaaaahaaaaa~