Can the absence of the corpus callosum increase memory capacity?

Research reveals a structural connection between memory loss and certain diseases symptomized by and associated with cognitive skills degeneration including memory loss. However, the structural degeneration of the part of the brain called the corpus callosum as evidenced by Alzheimers and other diseases is nonetheless not a clinical or irreversible reality. In other words, corpus callosum loss is commonly associated with difficulty in sustaining memory capacity, but the brain, and the human being, is not wholly dependent on the corpus callosum for bulk or sheer memory processing thereof. Research has seen real life examples, such as the most famous example of Kim Peek, where the brain compensates for the lack of corpus callossum by finding other areas of the brain in which to develop memory, meaning that the memory skills can be developed by other parts of the brain, in the cases where the corpus callosum is not present or not functioning within the human being. The ability of the brain to compensate in another area in the event of its structural breakdown in the normal physical area of functioning, be it memory or anything else, reveals a remarkable bit of resilience and adaptation capacity that the brain demonstrates in this regard. The posterior portion of the corpus callosum is called the splenium, and the anterior or back part is called the genu. The truncus, or body of the corpus callosum connects these two regions structurally. There is a thin area called the isthmus that connects the body and the splenium, and the part of the corpus callosum that binds the genu to the rest of the brain, is called the rostrum, which resembles a birds beak. The adaptive nature of the brain is reflected structurally in the manner of binding that takes place within the corpus callosum. The size of the axons reflects the essence of the bundling process, as thinner axons exist in the genu, also known as the knee, holding the prefrontal cortex in position between the two halves of the brain. They are thin because of the need to hold the structure in place in a specific area of the brain relative to the greater mass that the brain represents, where the fibers that ultimately support the posterior of the inner brain from the corpus callossum will be thicker, as revealed in the thicker axons in the midbody of the corpus callosum and in the splenium that interconnect areas of the premotor and supplementary motor regions and motor cortex, the reason that more corpus is dedicated to supplementary motor regions, delivering somasensory information between the parietal lobe and the visual center at the occipital lobe (Hofar and Frahm, p. 989). In effect, the thicker bundling of the fibers supporting motor function, delivering information from the eye to the brain, are thicker because the structure of the brain has adapted to physically strengthen itself to support areas where cognitive processes are sustained, as imperative over the need to protect merely the positioning of a single part. The greater implication is that the brain adaptively supports process more than it supports specific parts, implying that patterned firing and muscle delivery in the brain as a pattern is more important to the brain, as it were, then the maintenance of the position prominence of any one specific structural component. The greater implication then is that the brain can duplicate cognitive processes so that if one area of the brain does not work or does not exist, the patterned impulse delivery commonly associated with that area 1

could be taken over or fulfilled by the brain within another structural component. This is not automatic, or always the case, but in cases such as Kim Peek, the brain has revealed remarkably adaptive qualities, duplicating processes of cognition which conventional structure cannot sustain, allowing for the regions to perform those same processes and thus compensate. Of course, the compensation will manifest in a different form somehow, but the cranial activity does not necessarily ceaseit just ceases in that specific structural component. The brain has a compensatory capacity which is not yet fully understood, but is indicated clearly by cases such as Kim Peek in which humans without the corpus callosum appears to defy conventional wisdom by showing remarkable memory, while not being in possession of the part of the brain that is normally associated with memory building thereof (Caminiti et al, p. 19551). Peeks ailment affected the physical structure of his brain. In 2008, studies concluded that Peek had FG syndrome, a genetic syndrome within the X chromosome, which causes physical anomalies within the brain such as hypotonia (low muscle tone) and macrocephaly (abnormally large head) (Optiz et al, p. 123). It also meant that Peek was lacking in a corpus callosum, yet he managed to accomplish amazing feats of memory such as naming the day of the week a person was born almost instantly based on the date of birth the person gave him, memorizing long books and reading two pages at a time, one with the righty eye and the other with the left, demonstrating that separate cognitive functioning cognitive processes were taking place to process the sensory information passing through the occipital lobe via the two independent visual data sensory structures that each eye actually represents. Since Peek had no use of his corpus callosum, there is evidence of different parts of the brain delivering the auditory information, so that the occipital activity was not taking place as typical of two eyes, meaning there was no actual processing of information from the eye that would break down the sensory input in each eye as would typically take place in the corpus callosum, yet there was a processing of occipital information taking place, ostensibly from other areas that were not conditioned to organize the information from both eyes. The actual eye data processing was taking place, but without the structural management of the corpus callosum, as other areas of the brain were piecemeal breaking down the information from each eye, resulting in Peeks ability to read two pages of a book at the same time, and resulting in the ability of the brain to process different sensory inputs that Peeks brain picked up, but instead of processing them in a conventional functional cognitive manner, instead merely stressed that information ration to provide Kim with remarkable memory abilities, though impaired functional capacities as far functioning and general interaction with the outside world was concerned, such as problems with co-ordination; inability to name colors without first associating the color with an object; inability to read facial expressions and problems with abstract reasoning or humor. The structural managerial function of the corpus callosum is evident in memory loss diseases such as patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild Alzheimer disease (AD). Structurally, this manifests as the precocious involvement of the anterior callosal sub region in amnestic MCI extending to posterior regions in mild 2

AD (Dipaola et al, p. 1136). The structural implications indicate that white matter, or unused areas of the brain and specifically the corpus callosum, arises from certain changes in the corpus callosum brought on by insufficient stretching of corpus callosum bundles. In effect, the degeneration of physical function of the corpus callosum results in the grey matter indicating the onset of memory loss diseases. In short, degeneration of the corpus callosum clinically reveals the onset of clinical memory loss. However, this only applies to rare or unconventional cases where the brain has come to rely on the corpus callosum for memory and processing management. Peek represents a case where the brain from birth had to adapt too quickly to the lack of a corpus callosum by processing information though other structures of the brain, resulting in overpowering yet not regulated capacitive memory function, but a lingering lack of management skills comprising the adaptive cognitive skills which the corpus callossum provides. The connection between corpus callosum degeneration and diseases associated with memory loss is overall associated with the fact that callosal changes seem to proceed in a posterior-to-anterior direction as the diseases progresses (DiPaola, Luders et al. p. NA), which was included in the study examining the grey matter that arose from early Huntingtons disease. Commensurately, the lack of extension of the corpus callosum results in less effective positioning of the corpus callosum in relationship to the brain, giving rise to white matter as the corpus callosum ceases to function fully. However, when the position of the corpus callosum renders that specific structural component inaccessible, unusable, or not present, then the brain will adapt to find other ways to process the memory data which is normally processed by the corpus callosum, in a predictable cognitively functional manner. The fact is the corpus callosum is in charge of synchronizing or balancing or managing the firing of the two sides of the brain. The coordination between the two hemispheres has to be compensated for somehow or take place in another manner if the conventional structure for controlling the two hemispheres is not present or available. It would seem that those born without a corpus callosum somehow develop back channels of communication between the hemispheresperhaps the resulting structures allow the two hemispheres to function, in certain respects, as one giant hemisphere, putting normally separate functions under the same roof, so that brain hemispheres of persons whose corpus callosum is cut during adulthood begin to work almost independently of each other--commonly called "split brain" syndrome (Teffort and Christiansen, p. 110). The fact is that absent the bundle of nerves connecting the brains right and left hemispheres, the brain compensates apparently by making other unconventional connections between the two hemispheres within and as a result of the need for adaptation. Though white matter in the corpus callosum may be evident in diseases which initiate the onset of memory loss such as Parkinsons and Huntingtons, the brain which does not have the use of the corpus callosum over the entirety of its existence will adapt to that loss by utilizing other areas of the left or right hemisphere, in an unpredictable process whose lack of modulation results in higher inherent memory capacity while general cognitive functioning skills related to interaction with the external world are impaired at the same time. 3

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