The story sounds like one you would normally read in sci-fi books. In what could be a very astonishing discovery in science, Chinese medical doctors learned that a 24-year-old woman has been living without a cerebellum.
The cerebellum is a significant part of the brain that controls motor skills, as well as certain cognitive functions including speech.
The woman approached a medical hospital in China complaining about vomiting and nausea for several weeks. When they subjected her to scans, they then found out that her cerebellum was completely missing. Rather, the spot was occupied by cerebrospinal fluid.
Although the woman is able to live quite a normal life despite the missing part of the brain--she is already married and has a daughter--she had some telltale signs of motor impairment over the years. She learned how to stand on her own when she was already 4 years old and walk unassisted past 6 years. She also has some small issues with her speech and language. All throughout her life, she also suffers from dizziness.
Nevertheless, according to a neurosurgery professor in New York Dr. Raj Narayan, this remarkable story, which was first published in Brain, showed how the brain can become very flexible and adjust itself to the abnormalities.
Before her, there were only 8 documented cases of missing cerebellum in the world. One of the earliest reports was published in 1982 about a 4-month female who showed motor and mental retardation because of total absence of a cerebellum. The next one was recorded more than 10 years after, this time about a 58-year-old woman who had normal motor despite partial absence.
Science also recognizes a very rare condition known as cerebellar hyperplasia, which can also occur among animals. It is characterized by a complete absence of the cerebellum or it hasn't fully developed. So far, there is no scientific evidence that determines the real cause of the disorder, which develops while the person was still an embryo.
