I was wondering, some people manage to survive being shot in the brain, and even go on to live normal lives. How is that possible, shouldnt there at least be some amnesia or loss of function?

On what part of the brain the bullet is in. Some say we ,as humans, only use something like 10% of our brtains. Of course I think we have all met some who use more like .0000001%

I read this story awhile back, forgive me for being hazy on the details, but the basics are correct...

A man was stuff dynamite into a hole in preparation for blasting. He was stuffing it in with a 10 foot metal bar.

As he was pounding the dynamite down, it went off and shot the poll through just under his cheek bone and it exited through the top of his head.

He survived, and was even conscious as he was taken to the hospital. He later healed, and the only difference about him according to friends as that he was a grumpier person ever since...

2pac was shot like twice in the head and recovered in months time.

50 Cent was shot in the face. Other than his speech he's functioning well.

i was on the Sinai Peninsula and witnessed a commander give a soldier a grenade from the '67' war and told him to take the explosives out so he could use it as paper weight
shortly therafter there was an explosion, the soldier blew his legs off attempting to drill a hole in the grenade with an electic drill.
i am certain he was only using ten percent or less of his brain or less
was he an Israeli or an Egyptian in the DMZ?

Originally posted by Illmatic67
50 Cent was shot in the face. Other than his speech he's functioning well.

not to be totally off topic, but was this before he recorded his album? a major speech problem would probably be difficult to cover up in production, but I guess anything's possible.

I remember in the UK a few years back that a man was watching a football game over a wrought iron fence and when his team scored he let go celebration and slipped. one of the metal spikes on top wentthough the bottom of his jaw and up through his skull with the point sticking out the top of his head. I think it was after the game that some one found him and an ambulance took him to hospital were he made a full recocery. (they sawed the iron spkie of the fence about a foot from were it punched his lower jaw)

Originally posted by Trader
I was wondering, some people manage to survive being shot in the brain, and even go on to live normal lives. How is that possible, shouldnt there at least be some amnesia or loss of function?

Sometime, a bullet in the head do luckily dont touch any vital function, and even dont touch the brain (Some people have a brain as big as a pee ).

No, seriously it's really a mystery, but it happen sometime that the bullet even dont touch the brain, but if the brian is touch, there will be some consequences, the brain cannot be damage without loss of functions. (My brain has be touch by a GOLIGHTY bullet called brian and since there, I spell -Brain/Brian-. Hummm, it's typical of dislexia.)

[Edited on 7-6-2003 by Nans DESMICHELS]

...and survived, and without getting anything hurts...
Sometimes the hand of GOD occurs miracles !

Thorfinn,

I think you're referring to the story of 'Phineas Gage'.. an irish immigrant railroad worker who, in the 19th century, was the unfortunate victim of a railway accident that sent a rail spike through his head...

True... he did survive and was able to 'function', that is, he could eat, sleep, clean himself, and do other 'functional' things... but his personality was not just grumpier. As the spike separated his frontal lobes form the rest of his brain, he lost the ability to plan effectively and understand abstract concepts. His 'grumpiness' was a result of his inability to understand the overall efforts at his work place, or even the humor of the people around him. In fact, Gage's case was one of the first ones that tipped psychologists off to the fact that different parts of the brain have different functions.

So, yes, people can live with parts of their brains missing, but only if those parts are not critical to raw life support. And, even in cases where people live after recieving head wounds, they have serious mental impairments...

...and, the whole 10% thing is a number invented by 'psychics' in the 70s, as a way of saying, "you're using 10%, but I'm using 30%". Yes, people may use only between 10-20% of their nuerons at once, but the brain is divided by function, so, in any given day, you will probably use most of your brain cells.