Lorber eagerly stirred the neuroscience community by asking the question
of necessity. One can argue that it is necessary, and otherwise. In
Sharon's case (one of his patient featured in the documentary), she
seemed to have lost more neurons than the typical non-hydrocephalic
person. Buth then again, perhaps there exists dense synaptic sprouting
among those neurons that were retained. Hence, functionality is retained.
The downside of Lorber's research (from a Neuropsychologist's point) is
that there were no explicit indications of the type/kind of
Neuropsychological tests that he performed to assess his subjects. It is
possible that these ex-hydrocephalic people may actually have some
deficits (cognitive, etc.) that can only be detected with the use of
sophisticated and sensitive Neuropsychological tools.
Regards
Math
Dept. of Psychiatry and Behav. Sci.
Univ. of Auckland Medical School
"Verum Foras Ibi"
