One of the remarkable things that has been discovered recently is the fact that the brain can be tricked, which may not sound like good news, but is, especially for hundreds of American amputees back from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr. Sanjay Gupta answers questions about the new brain therapies.

For centuries, doctors believed that brain injuries were pretty much irreversible. In our second chapter of our special series "The Brain That Heals Itself," we have living proof that the old thinking about the brain is not the last word, not by a long shot.

Read the rest of this entry »

Just a few years ago, the idea that the human brain could heal itself would have been unthinkable. But medicine has made some incredible discoveries about our brains, about how they work, discoveries that are giving new hope to a lot of people, people with serious brain injuries, people like Michelle Mack.

BROWN (voice-over): Michelle Mack was born with half-a-brain. And her life has turned medical thinking upside down. She can speak normally, graduated from high school, and has an uncanny knack for numbers and dates.

WALLY MACK, FATHER: Say, two years from now, 2011, April 17.

MICHELLE MACK, BORN WITH HALF-A-BRAIN: Wimpies.

This is where I need to think also.

CAROL MACK, MOTHER: OK.

M. MACK: I need to think. That will be on a Sunday.

BROWN: When Michelle was born, her parents knew something was wrong. But it took years for doctors to figure it out.

W. MACK: And we went through test after test after test.

BROWN: The prognosis, she would live, but her life would be limited.

C. MACK: There wasn't a group I could turn to. Michelle didn't have cerebral palsy. I knew that. She didn't have Down syndrome. I knew that. And there was - I had no - no place to turn, because the doctors themselves had said, whatever you have got, you have got. And that's it.

Read the rest of this entry »