The hypothalamus is considered one of the most important parts of the brain to preserve, second only to the brainstem.

“if you have to sacrifice any part of your brain and you're sort of prioritizing the last thing you want to sacrifice is the hypothalamus if you're only allowed to keep a couple square centimeters of brain keep the hypothalamus you know I mean we could get into the weeds exactly that's a poor man's problem right yeah right I think that would be important the other thing you'd want to hang on to is the part of the brain that regulates respiration because even with the hypothalamus if you're not breathing you're not gonna get very far but I agree I think he was excluding the brainstem yeah yeah”