Man With Tiny Brain Leads a Normal Life

Despite a nearly quarter sized brain, a condition caused by fluid buildup, a 44 year old French man is reported to have lived an entirely normal life, complete with a wife, kids and a job as a civil servant. The man scored about 75 on I.Q. tests, which is below the average of 100 but does not classify him as mentally disabled. Scans of the man's brain showed a tremendous enlargement of his lateral ventricles, which filled most of his skull leaving only a thin sheet of brain tissue.

"If something happens very slowly over quite some time, maybe over decades, the different parts of the brain take up functions that would normally be done by the part that is pushed to the side," commented Dr. Max Muenke, a pediatric brain defect specialist.