"Second, he spent some time questioning the Priests of Beauty, who eventually admitted that when the corpses of the [Whispering Earring] wearers were being prepared for burial, it was noted that their brains were curiously deformed: the neocortexes had wasted away, and the bulk of their mass was an abnormally hypertrophied mid- and lower-brain, especially the parts associated with reflexive action."

https://croissanthology.com/earring