Question:
A few questions:

If human brains consume 18% of energy even tho they are only 2% of body,what is the energy used for?And how does this compare to all brains in mammalsand/or just in primates?Are there specific brain activities which consume more energy(besides keeping cool)?Does hair insulate and regulate energy consumptionrelated to environmental temperature in humans?

SOme brain injured people end up usingdifferent areas of their brainsmore extensively than regular folks.Some even end up out in the extremes of idiot savantism.Might some kind of virus or disease or other injury to a brainor "group of brains"(yeah right, you can picture the gary larsen cartoon heheh ;-)set up a selection process of specificindividual's who may be able to bypass the injuryby compensation with development into otherwiseless used functions of the brain.I guess i am wondering about bottlenecks andfrontal lobe development kinds of situations.

Answer: "A Significant Discovery: New savant-like artistic and other skills indementia patients

A particularly intriguing recent finding regarding savant skills is a1998 report by Miller and coworkers who described five patients withfrontotemporal dementia (FTD) who acquired new artistic skills withthe onset of dementia of this particular form. Consistent withcharacteristics and traits in savants, the creativity in these fiveolder, adult patients was visual, not verbal; the images weremeticulous copies that lacked abstract or symbolic qualities; episodicmemory was preserved but semantic memory was devastated; and there wasintense, obsessive preoccupation with the art skills. Imaging studiesshowed a predominance of dominant-hemisphere (left-brain) injuryconsistent with the savant studies outlined above.

The authors of this study hypothesized that selective degeneration ofthe anterior temporal and orbitofrontal cortex (particularly in theleft hemisphere) decreased inhibition of visual systems involved withperception, thereby enhancing artistic interest and abilities. Kapurcalled this process "paradoxical functional facilitation" and hespeculated it is this process which accounts for unexpected behavioralimprovement in some persons following brain injury. This wouldrepresent a particular form of brain function compensation inundamaged areas of the cortex and other areas and could be part of theright brain compensatory process in savants as well as in these fivedementia patients.

In an expansion of that work, Miller and coworkers describe sevenadditional such FTD patients who acquired or sustained new visual ormusical talents despite the progression of their dementia. NoAlzheimer's patient with that form of dementia observed during thesame period exhibited similar talents (approximately 10% of patientsevaluated for Alzheimer's dementia received a diagnosis of FTD). The12 FTD patients with these newly emerged or sustained savant-liketalents were compared on SPECT imaging and neuropsychological testingto FTD patients without such talent. Nine of the twelve showedasymmetric left-sided SPECT deficits, one bilateral abnormalities(left on MRI, right on SPECT), while two has asymmetric right-sideddysfunction (one of whom was left-handed). The talented groupperformed better on tasks assessing right frontal lobe functions, butworse on verbal abilities. The authors conclude "Loss of function inthe left anterior temporal lobe may lead to the 'paradoxicalfunctional facilitation' of artistic and musical skills. Patients withthe left-sided temporal lobe variant of FTD offer an unexpected windowinto the neurological mediation of visual and musical talents.