Rare Aesthetic Condition Causes Man’s Scalp To Look Like Brain

Doctors from the Hospital Universitario de Santa Maria in Brazil draw attention to the unusual scalp of a 21-year-old patient in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.

The Brazilian man wasn't born with this bizarre scalp condition, which makes his head look like the surface of a brain. It happened when he was 19 and his scalp skin "grew thicker, forming many soft, spongy ridges and narrow ruts."

Image From: nejm.org

The man has a condition called ‘cutis verticis gyrata,’ which is when the scalp has "ridges and furrows resembling the brain's surface," the doctors wrote in the article. Though it's exceptionally weird looking, doctors say it's "an aesthetic condition" more than a medical problem.

The doctors in the article wrote that the patient had intellectual impairment but there were no other symptoms of any sort, therefore they didn't do anything to amend his scalp.

The condition "can be associated with some rare genetic conditions, but most commonly occurs by itself," said Dr. Josh Zeichner, who is an assistant dermatology professor at Mount Sinai Medical Center.