Six Strange Brain Disorders

“The brain is a monstrous, beautiful mess.”

A quote from William F. Allman’s 1989 book, Apprentices of Wonder. Inside the Neural Network Revolution, He continues by saying, “Its billions of nerve cells – called neurons – lie in a tangled web that displays cognitive powers far exceeding any of the silicon machines we have built to mimic it.”

With great cognitive power comes the risk of something up there performing incorrectly, or getting damaged in some way.

Take my brain for example… all the wires clearly do not connect. I’m sad, I’m happy, I’m lethargic, I have energy, I want to live forever, I want to give up. And that’s all happening in the span of ten minutes. I can tell you the name and artist of a song in three notes but I stopped being able to help my kids with their math homework in the fifth grade. The portion of my brain that stores useless information is massive, the part that keeps my focus on one thing is teeny tiny.

Squirrel…

Medications Help

Luckily, for someone like me, there is a vast array of different medications one can take to help regulate minor conditions. For some, whether it was from a tragic accident, a birth abnormality, or just plain ol’ bad luck, they have conditions that there is no cure for. Some disorders are so complex that scientists and doctors still haven’t figured out the cause after decades of research.

Below are six brain-based, strange, spooky, syndromes and disorders. Some you may have heard of while others might be brand new to you.

Prosopagnosia

According to the National Library of Medicine, Prosopagnosia is defined as the inability to recognize known and new faces. It is also known as facial/visual agnosia. Bodamer first used the word prosopagnosia in 1947 in a landmark paper that described the cases of two patients with face recognition deficits. The word comes from Greek prosopon, meaning face and agnosia, meaning lack of knowledge. Normally, an individual can recognize and remember 5000+ faces throughout their lifetime.

Hemispatial Neglect

The syndrome of hemispatial neglect is characterized by reduced awareness of stimuli on one side of space, even though there may be no sensory loss. Although it is extremely common, it has proven to be a challenging condition to understand, and to treat.

Cotard’s Syndrome

The National Library of Medicine describes Cotard’s syndrome as “a relatively rare condition that was first described by Dr. Jules Cotard in 1882. Cotard’s syndrome comprises any one of a series of delusions that range from a belief that one has lost organs, blood, or body parts to insisting that one has lost one’s soul or is dead.”

Capgras Syndrome

Capgras syndrome, also known as ‘delusion of doubles’, is a delusional misidentification syndrome. It’s characterized by a false belief that an identical duplicate has replaced someone significant to the patient. The imposter can also replace an inanimate object or an animal. There was a time when it was believed that Capgras syndrome mainly affected women but through further research it was found to affect both men and women. The syndrome has been found in both psychiatric and non-psychiatric cases, including patients with brain damage.

Aphantasia

According to the Cleveland Clinic, “Aphantasia is when your brain doesn’t form or use mental images as part of your thinking or imagination. Experts don’t define aphantasia as a medical condition, disorder or disability. Instead, it’s a characteristic, much like which hand you naturally use to write. Available research indicates it’s simply a difference in how your mind works.

There are two forms of aphantasia, Congenital and Acquired. Congenital means that you’ve had it your entire life. Someone who has it may not even be aware of the fact that most people can conjure up images of things in their mind’s eye. Acquired aphantasia usually originates from an injury or prolonged illness.

Alien Hand Syndrome

The National Library of Medicine states that, “Alien Hand Syndrome is characterized by intermittent and involuntary movements of a single limb that is not associated with motor dysfunction. AHS may be the initial presentation of serious underlying pathology, such as stroke localized to the non-dominant parietal lobe, corpus callosum damage, or neurodegenerative disease.”

Alien Hand Syndrome is sometimes referred to as “Dr. Strangelove Syndrome”. In the 1964 film of the same name, directed by Stanley Kubrick, Peter Sellers’ character appears to have alien hand syndrome, as he cannot stop himself from doing the Nazi salute.