/sci/ - Science & Math

The neocortex is sort of an extra brain and it's perfectly possible to live without it though on some rather basic level.
The neocortex likely evolved to preprocess and simplify sensory inputs, but it went much deeper over time, being able to provide simplest explanations for what happened.
The neocortex is prone to failure from the lack of heavy metals, especially lead, but certainly also mercury.
Those with a failed neocortex are restricted to a desperate state of not knowing, as it's simply not possible to learn empirically without it.
Often whole populations descend into such state of despair, trying to preserve past knowledge and prevent it from its inevitable decay into complete nonsense.