[angryoldfatman]

Ramius wrote:

Tougher cases are like Terri Schiavo were there was (mercifully, IMHO) actually no brain left. No possibility of having had awareness for all of those fifteen years.

RushingWater wrote:

I thought the brain image for Terri Shiavo was hollow, i.e. the brain atrophied or something. I wonder if there are comparisons with his brain scan and her brain scan.

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Terri suffered brain damage, but a static brain scan uninterpreted by an uninvested expert (e.g., Terri's scan as interpreted by the public after being shown by George Felos) can't tell you anything about a person's functionality.

Example: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12301-man-with-tiny-brain-shocks-doctors.html#.VLSQXmc3M1I

Below is the brain scan of a man who could not only walk and talk, but also held down a full-time middle-class job.

[angryoldfatman]

The scan on the left was the man’s brain, the right one is a normal brain for comparison.

[William Tell]

Thanks for the posting.

I recall hearing of a case many decades ago of a similar development.

As an infant, a girl received a shunt to prevent hydrocephalus. She, too, I believe underwent a follow-up study which revealed that her shunt had evidently failed some time early in her childhood.

Despite the fact that her brain, as in the case you posted, occupied just a small volume of the skull, she led a normal life and received a college degree with a B+ average.