Yes, and it can also work better than a full one . The operation known as hemispherectomy consists precisely in removing half of a person's gray mass from a person. It seems like too radical a surgery, but sometimes it is the only possible solution to treat epilepsies that do not respond to drugs, such as those caused by Sturge-Weber syndrome , a disease that affects the skin and nervous system; hemimegalencephaly, the enlargement of a cerebral hemisphere; and Rasmussen syndrome , a brain inflammation of unknown cause. And what's even more incredible: it has no apparent effects on personality or memory.
However, there are sequelae, since the patient stops seeing on the side of the intervention and loses mobility in the opposite half. If the left hemisphere is removed, patients have problems with speech. But the younger the person is, the more likely they are to be rehabilitated. The first time a hemispherectomy was performed was on a dog in 1888. Much later, in 1933, the neurosurgeon Walter Dandy dared to leave a human being without half a brain.
