Your Brain
Weighing only about three pounds, your
brain acts like a computer that coordinates
all your body functions. Your brain
also controls your emotions and memory,
and your thinking and reasoning skills.
Completely enclosed by your skull, your
brain floats in cerebrospinal fluid.
Only the lower end of your brain, called
the brain stem, is not free to move. |
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| Brain Anatomy Central Nervous System (CNS): Your CNS consists of the brain and spinal cord. Brain Stem: Connects your brain with your spinal cord and controls your breathing and heart rate. Cerebral Cortex: Involved in your thinking, learning and speaking activities. Cerebellum: Like a mini-brain within your brain, your cerebellum allows you to carry out skilled, complicated movements. Cerebrospinal fluid: Protects your brain and spinal cord by acting as a shock absorber. Cerebrum: The largest and uppermost portion of your brain. It consists of the right and left hemispheres, which control thoughts and conscious action. Corpus Callosum: Connects the two hemispheres of your brain and allows both sides to communicate. For example, when your right hand holds an object, your left hand knows it. Midbrain: The middle and smallest subdivision of your brain where hearing and vision messages are relayed. Thalamus: Egg-shaped area that helps you process and recognize information about touch, pain, temperature and pressure on your skin. Limbic system: Emotional part of your brain that is involved in anger, fear, pleasure and sorrow. Hippocampus: Part of your brain that helps with memory.
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After an Injury
After a brain injury, people can experience the following:
- Memory problems
- Thinking, reasoning and concentration
difficulties
- Impaired vision and hearing
- Speech problems
- Motor problems (such as difficulty
walking or the loss of hand,
arm or leg function)
- Fine motor problems (such as difficulty
moving fingers when holding a pencil)
- Behavior problems (such as impulsiveness or depression)
- Paralysis of body parts
- Seizures
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| | | Source: Big Head, by Dr. Pete Rowan. New York: Knopf, 1998. |
Your Spinal
Cord
About as thick as a thumb and 17 inches
long, your spinal cord is actually an
extension of your brain. Through your
spinal cord, your brain can keep in
constant contact with your whole body.
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| Spinal
Cord Anatomy
Spinal
Column: Also called your backbone,
your spinal column is made up of
33 small bones called vertebrae
that fit together and form a protective
tunnel for your spinal cord.
Spinal
Cord: Your spinal cord is really
a large nerve that extends from
your brain stem to just below your
ribs. Its millions of nerve fibers
carry signals to and from your brain
to other parts of your body.
Discs:
Between your vertebrae are discs
made of a tough, crabmeat-like substance.
These discs act as shock absorbers
for your back and also help protect
your spinal cord.
Spinal
nerves: Thirty-one pairs of
nerves coming off your spinal cord
that transmit messages to and from
your body.
Motor
nerves: Nerves that carry impulses
from your brain and spinal cord
to your muscles, glands and other
organs.
Sensory
nerves: Nerves located in the
skin and other sensory organs. These
nerves receive stimuli and send
impulses to your spinal cord and
brain.
Vertebrae:
Small bones with spiny projections
that compose the backbone or spinal
column.
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After an
Injury
A spinal cord injury can cause permanent
paralysis, which is an inability to move
a part of your body because of nerve or
muscle damage. People can lose some or
all body function below the point of injury
as described in the following forms of
paralysis:
Quadriplegia ("Quad" means four
and "plegia" means paralysis): If
your spinal cord is injured near your
neck, messages from your brain won't
be able to go past that point. Paralyzed
from the neck down, quadriplegics lose
some or all function of their arms or
legs.
Paraplegia ("Para" means two and
"plegia" means paralysis): Injury
that occurs farther down the spinal
cord causes paralysis from that location
and below. Paraplegics suffer permanent
loss of leg movement and lower-body
function. |
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It's
a fact. Once your
spinal cord is damaged, it can never be
fixed. And once your brain is injured
and your brain cells are damaged, they can't
be fixed either.
It's not like breaking an arm or a leg.
Those body parts can heal. But a serious
brain injury will rarely heal, and a spinal
cord injury will never completely heal.
Brain and spinal
cord injuries can only be prevented. |
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