Boy’s brain finds new ways to learn after surgery

Functions normally after radical procedure

A young boy’s brain, affected by seizures that started when he was 4, reorganized remarkably after surgeons removed a portion of his brain when he was almost 7 to regain many of his abilities, neuro scientists reported Tuesday.

Although the parts removed — a third of the right hemisphere — give the brain the ability to recognize faces and objects, his brain overcame that and developed normally for a child. His case vividly demonstrates the “plasticity” — or ability to change — in the brain, accordingto the study, led by a team at Carnegie Mellon University and published in Cell Reports.

Tanner Collins of New Stanton is now “a typical, average 12year-old,” said his dad, Carl Collins, still grateful to the babysitter who was there when Tanner had his first seizure.

A tumor was causing the seizures. The extensive surgery was decided upon only after years of medications, which made the boy drowsy and interfered with his schooling. Surgeons at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh determined precisely what brain tissue was affected and removed it, taking out the occipital lobe and part of the temporal lobe.

“My wife [Nicole] and I are both nurses,” Mr. Collins said. “We did as much research as we possibly could.” They knew their son would have some deficits after the operation, called a lobectomy.

Stephanie Strasburg/Post-Gazette Tanner Collins, left, 12, and his mother, Nicole Collins, center, help Tanner’s sister, Peyton, 17, bake a cake Tuesday for her graduation party.