10 Magical Game Of Thrones Details Explained With Science

10. What's In Hodor's Head?

Hodor.

Despite his extremely limited vocabulary, Hodor is apparently otherwise completely compos mentis - able to express emotion, respond to instructions and understand the world around him.

As well as being a gist to internet memes, Hodor also appears to be suffering from something called Expressive Aphasia. This is a condition caused by damage to the Broca's area of the brain which is responsible for speech.

It is named Broca's area after Paul Broca, the French neurologist who discovered the effects of damage to that particular area of the brain. In 1861, Broca met a patient with almost exactly the same symptoms as poor Hodor - a 51-year-old man named "Tan" because that was the only word he could say. After Tan's death, Broca discovered damage to the inferior frontal gyrus responsible for the condition.

Expressive aphasia can be caused by stroke, malnutrition and head trauma. Given Hodor's size, we can probably rule out the second option, but he does have a scar on the side of his head indicating a past head wound (or, you know, covering Kristian Nairn's facial tattoos).

Hodor.