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Brain Injury and Recovery pp 45–69Cite as

Neural Spare Capacity and the Concept of Diaschisis

Functional and Evolutionary Models

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Abstract

Instances of extensive recovery from brain damage suggest that the brain has spare capacity. In a follow-up of 50 infantile hemiplegics who sustained surgical removal of all neocortex of one hemisphere for intractable seizures or other injuries, Wilson (1970) reported that all but one developed normal speech or recovered it completely irrespective of which hemisphere had been removed (Wilson, 1970, p. 166). Smith and Sugar (1975) carried out a comprehensive neuropsychological follow-up on a patient at ages 21 and 26 who had had left hemispherectomy for seizures as a 51/2-year-old boy. He demonstrated superior language and intellect, including WAIS verbal IQ of 126 and performance IQ of 102, had graduated from a university, and was working as a traffic controller. Normal psychological function also was observed in 279 cases of hydrocephalus with onset before the end of the first year of life (Berker et al., 1983). Most remarkable is one young man in whom a CAT scan shows ventricular dilatation occupying over 95% of the intracranial space. When tested on the Michigan Neuropsychological Battery at age 25, he had graduated from Sheffield University with honors in mathematics, had a verbal IQ of 140 and performance IQ of 130, and had been successfully employed for several years.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Illinois, 60045, USA

    Robert B. Glassman

  2. University of Michigan NHR Project, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48103, USA

    Aaron Smith

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  1. Robert B. Glassman
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department and Neural Sciences Program, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, 63130, USA

    Stanley Finger

  2. The Brain Research Laboratory, Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27695-7801, USA

    T. E. Levere

  3. Programs in Occupational Therapy and Neural Sciences, Departments of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Preventive Medicine, and Psychology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, 63110, USA

    C. Robert Almli

  4. Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, 07102, USA

    Donald G. Stein (Dean of the Graduate School and Associate Provost for Research) (Dean of the Graduate School and Associate Provost for Research)

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© 1988 Plenum Press, New York

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Glassman, R.B., Smith, A. (1988). Neural Spare Capacity and the Concept of Diaschisis. In: Finger, S., Levere, T.E., Almli, C.R., Stein, D.G. (eds) Brain Injury and Recovery. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0941-3_4

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