The Complexities of the Brain

I've been wanting to write a blog post about the complexities of Jameson's brain for a while but the timing was never quite right. I've recently been in touch with a new doctor at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore who is looking at little man's MRI scans to help diagnose him, and because of that I decided to dedicate a blog to helping people better understand the differences in Jameson's brain and why he is the way he is. (...or at least try)

Above are two MRI scans of the brain, one is a typical person's brain and one is Jameson. The largest section towards the top is the cerebeum, it is what people usually think of when they think of a brain. The area below that where the arrow is pointing is the cerebellum, it controls movement and coordination. The long thin section in the middle is the pons, it connects all the way down to the spinal cord. As you can see, the areas where the cerebellum and pons are for Jameson are much smaller than on the typical person's brain. The medical terminology for this is hypoplasia, meaning it never fully formed and is smaller than it should be. So because these structures are not fully formed and they are what helps the body coordinate movement, it explains a lot about why little man is still unable to control his body. Things like holding his head, sitting and walking are just going to be a lot more difficult for him since his brain will have to figure it out differently than a typical person would.

Why Jameson's brain formed this way is still a mystery. Most likely, it has to do with a larger genetic disorder that spontaneously happened when he was just a little tadpole. We may never know for sure, but the more scientists continue to research the complexities of the brain and how it works and grows, the closer we'll be to helping kids and adults with neurological disorders.

I hope that wasn't too much of a science lesson, feel free to ask questions if you ever have any. We appreciate everyone's love and support as we continue to learn about the many intricacies of little man. :-)