How To Stop A Zombie?

Dr. Steven Schlozman, has written extensively about the brain function of undead zombies (as opposed to voodoo victim zombies). He's co-director of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and, much more importantly, on the advisory board of the Zombie Research Society ( http://www.zombieresearch.org/home.html ).

His self-appointed mission is to use zombie fiction to help teach people about the way the human brain works. One of the useful points he makes is that, contrary to the idea that the brain stem (medulla oblongata) must be destroyed in order to destroy a zombie, their behavior indicates that several parts of their brains are still functioning in a coordinated way. They hear noise, stagger toward it and attack the target on sight. These are sure signs that the zombie frontal lobe is active enough to process sensory input through the thalamus. Of course, the frontal lobe must be damaged because the zombie acts on base impulses, like pursuing and eating other people. Other brain damage accounts for the lack of motor coordination and general poor manners.

The good news here for zombie apocalypse survivors­—and defenders of the logic of zombie shows—is that damage to other parts of the brain could put a zombie down for good. So any nitpicking over the effectiveness of arrows and blunt instruments to destroy the undead could be unfounded. That's not to say that these weapons are better than a firearm. Guns are the best brain destroyers out there, but there's more than meets the eye there, as well. Many parts of the brain can take damage while the body stays functional.

So the last stop of a zombie headshot enthusiast (with plenty of free time) must be forensics journals. It turns out there are three kinds of people who are keenly interested in the way gunshots can lead to "immediate incapacitation": police accused over pulling the trigger too many times, military snipers and zombie genre nuts. In most zombie-scenarios a wounded zombie still poses a massive danger and ammunition is likely in short supply, so knowing what part of the brain needs to be destroyed to prompt an immediate shut-down is useful. In this, the 1995 study "Penetrating gunshots to the head and lack of immediate incapacitation" by German researcher B.L. Karger is required reading. As is "Forensic neuropathology: a practical review of the fundamentals" by Hideo Itabashi.

Karger lays down the basics ("immediate incapacitation is possible following cranio-cerebral gunshot wounds or wounds that disrupt the upper cervical spinal cord only") and Itabashi backs the conclusions with specifics, and nauseating color photos. Itabashi says that immediate incapacitation is "very likely" in head shots by a rifle or shotgun at close range, or handguns with calibers larger than 9mm. Nothing too surprising there, but the locations of the wounds is of interest to zombie hunters. Itabashi says that hitting the brain stem or severing the spinal column between the second and third thoracic vertebrae (in the neck) will produce an instant kill, which follows the canon of typical zombie scripts. But he also includes a third location in the brain as a place where damage results in immediate incapacitation— and it's located frontal lobe. The primary motor cortex exists on both sides of the brain. It sends signals, via neurons, to the muscles of the body. Destroy this and you have a harmless zombie.



[1] Source: Reuters - Alison McCook ,"Many Elderly Have Preventable Eye Problems", Published Fri Dec 10, 1:27 pm ET
(http://link.reuters.com/hec69q Ophthalmology, online December 3, 2010.)