6 ms·
Brain of a White-Collar Worker (2007)
- The_rationalist 5y agoAre 90% of his neurons missing or is the scan giving the illusion of the neurons missing because their is too much cerebrospinal fluid above them? I'm betting for the latter, anyone knows?
- resueman 5y agoThe big dark areas are just fluid. He had some kind of shunt to drain fluid from his brain as a child because of too much pressure. And sometime in the next 30 years there was a problem with the shunt failing, which caused fluid to back up. And the reservoirs of fliud known as ventricles basically grew extremely large from the increasing pressure and squashed his brain.
- voisin 5y agoI know the title here is accurate to the original title, but what does this have to do with the fact that he is a white collar worker? Also, given the exceptionally low IQ, I am not sure it is truly “white collar” work as the term is normally used (normally referring more to knowledge workers). I assume whatever admin work he was doing was more akin to routine factory work with little agency.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoAdmin work is still white-collar work. Basically, if you can get grease or dirt on your clothes, it's blue collar; if you can't, it's white. (Because people didn't wear white shirts in jobs where they could get dirty.)
- amelius 5y ago> Basically, if you can get grease or dirt on your clothes, it's blue collar; There are also orange-collar workers.
- openknot 5y agoWikipedia entry for orange-collar workers: "Prison laborers, named for the orange jumpsuits commonly worn by inmates." [0] The article also defines pink collar workers (service workers in the working class) and purple collar workers (principally white collar workers who occasionally do blue collar tasks, like technicians and engineers; note there's no citation for this). I personally don't think the other colors mentioned in the Wikipedia are useful, since the whole idea of blue vs. white collar seems to be a metaphor of referring to manual labour to office work. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Designation_of_workers_by_collar_color https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Designation_of_workers_by_coll...
- turrican 5y agoWhat are these?
- voisin 5y agoI understand the technical distinction but in common practice it seems to be used more and more as interchangeable with knowledge workers.
- dymk 5y ago
- boopmaster 5y ago
- dymk 5y agoThis seems unnecessarily insulting, and not even technically right. The cavity is filled with liquid, not air.
- boopmaster 5y agoI was referring to the IQ of the subject, which is technically called "Borderline" which technically rests above the designation of "moron" that resides at IQ 74 and lower. Good catch on that fluid not air correction.
- ivansavz 5y agoThis is fascinating. Something like 80% or 90% by volume of this person's brain is "missing" but they are still able to function normally in society. This goes to show the insane levels of plasticity that our brain has, and the great importance of the cortex. I wonder at what age he developed this condition and if he felt any symptoms/signs while it was developing.
- 988747 5y ago80-90% of brain mass are not neurons, but the "supporting" tissue, taking care of things like storing nutrients supply. It is entirely possible to loose that extra mass and still be fully functioning.
- civilized 5y agoPresumably the giant ventricles are not functioning as proper supporting tissue though. So there's still a great deal of stress the brain has adapted to.
- nine_k 5y agoIf most of the "power supply circuitry" can be stripped without much obvious harm, why isn't it more often? More "thinking" tissue with less support tissue could give clear advantages. OTOH if the supporting tissue id not excessive, what are the circumstances when it's important? Will this person have hard time holding breath without fainting? Fasting without fainting? Act well under a high prolonged intellectual load?
- drzaiusapelord 5y agoMaybe this person is just one bad head injury from death where otherwise you and I with a similar injury would heal with hospitalization, or maybe just nurse a concussion for a day or two and be fine.
- rbanffy 5y ago> More "thinking" tissue with less support tissue could give clear advantages. You'll reach thermal and energy constraints. Or, only half-joking here, you'll fall prey of a terrible depression and withdraw from all human company.
- happytoexplain 5y agoI think the point of interest is the CT scans, but even after reading the text (is it a summary or the whole body? I can't tell), I still can't interpret the images. Is the dark area somehow empty space, or what? Also, the title is very strange. For a while I thought it was supposed to be the point of interest. I'm left pretty confused, as a layman.
- dexwiz 5y agoBasically his brain has huge fluid sacs pressing most of his brain matter up against his skull.
- The_rationalist 5y ago
- ninesnines 5y agoIn the main figure, all of the dark grey/black part of the image is cerebrospinal fluid, which usually is present in the 4th, 3rd, and lateral ventricles. These ventricles are usually much smaller than this patient. Usually, where the dark spaces are with this patient you would instead see cortical and subcortical regions. If you look up ‘brain MRI’ you will see a brain that has a lot of grey matter and much smaller dark regions which are the ventricles! Hopefully this makes sense, if not, I can clarify! :)
- happytoexplain 5y agoAh ha, thanks, I was thinking "ventricle" referred to a region of brain tissue - and yet I know what a heart ventricle is, so I feel dumb. Something about the casual objectivity of science writing paired with such dramatic images made me unsure if what I'm looking at is as wild as it seems. And it is!
- ninesnines 5y agoAh no worries I don’t think it’s a normal thing to know and it is a super extreme patient! It’s my job to look at images like this, and even I was confused for a second because it’s such an extreme case!
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- jcreinhold 5y agoFor people not familiar with what a healthy brain looks like in a CT image, here [1] is a reference. Fig. A in the original post corresponds to the same view (axial) of the brain as shown in the first image in [1]. The dark cashew-shaped blobs in the center of the healthy image in [1] correspond to what's labeled LV (for "lateral ventricles") in the original post. These cavities are filled with a fluid called cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) which serves to protect and clear waste from the brain. Other examples of enlarged ventricles can be found, e.g., with a disease called normal pressure hydrochephalus (NPH) (example here: [2]). So, needless to say, this case of ventricular enlargement is extremely severe, even compared to NPH. [1] https://radiopaedia.org/cases/normal-ct-brain https://radiopaedia.org/cases/normal-ct-brain [2] https://i1.wp.com/myneurosurg.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/pe-nph_fig3.jpg?resize=340%2C215&ssl=1 https://i1.wp.com/myneurosurg.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11...
- SquibblesRedux 5y agoFor those curious about the terms "white collar" and "blue collar," there are a couple interesting articles on the differences in America [1] and the difference in Africa [2]. Before one ascribes too much education or status to those labeled "white color," consider this quote from the first reference: “It is a fact with which every union workingman is familiar, that his most bitter despisers are the petty underlings of the business world, the poor office-clerks, who are often the worst exploited of proletarians, but who, because they are allowed to wear a white collar and to work in the office with the boss, regard themselves as members of the capitalist class.” -- Upton Sinclair, 1914. [1] "Blue Collar vs. White Collar Jobs: What’s the Difference?" https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/640951/blue-collar-vs-white-collar-jobs-history-difference https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/640951/blue-collar-vs-wh... [2] "White-Collar Workers" https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/general-labour-history-of-africa/whitecollar-workers/0AC90E375143F3EBD49CB41F824650AA https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/general-labour-hist...
- draw_down 5y ago
- grp000 5y agoI thought this post was some kind of societal joke until people started commenting.
- rbanffy 5y agoIt still functions as a societal joke in that we see a mostly functional (albeit low IQ) white-collar worker whose brain is 90% missing.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- sh4un 5y agoSeen in IT management.
- textcortex 5y agoTitle of the research is misleading. The guy already had issues before hand
- krageon 5y agoAccording to the text, he was more or less problem-free with small weakness issues that recently got worse. Perhaps I'm misreading it.