A woman who had been having trouble with speech and balance throughout her life was discovered to be missing a cerebellum in her brain. So far only 9 people have been able to live without a cerebellum as most people without this part of the brain die in childhood. This woman discovered that she was missing a cerebellum at age 24.
The cerebellum is an important part of our brain located underneath the right and left hemisphere. It contains about 50% of the brain's neurons even though it only makes up about 10% of the brain's total volume. The cerebellum is also in charge of controlling voluntary movements, balance, and is involved in speech. According to researchers, it appears that the woman's brain has worked to compensate for her missing cerebellum and she is experiencing less movement and speech impairment than they expected.
If the parietal lobe was missing in a person's brain the same way that the cerebellum in missing in this woman's brain, then that person would have trouble processing pressure, visualizing spaces, and understanding the spoken word. The right side of the parietal lobe integrates sensory information such as touch (mainly processed in the somatosensory cortex part of the lobe), spatial sense and navigation. A person may have trouble finding their way around, even in places that are familiar to them. They may also have trouble feeling temperature and pressure so it is important for people with damaged or missing parietal lobes to stay away from hot stoves since they may be damaging themselves without even knowing it. Several parts of the parietal lobe process language, so a person missing a parietal lobe may have trouble understanding what they and other people are saying. Other parts of the brain could take over the spacial sense, language, and feeling pressure, but while missing the parietal lobe a person will most likely to have a varying amounts of disabilities in these areas.
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