Potential outcomes of brain injury including behaviour, cognitive, social, emotional.
Long Term Memory 1969 Man Lands on the Moon
What turns a short term memory to long term memory ? What makes memory work better? How come I remember where I was when man walked on the moon but I can’t remember the name of the person I met briefly yesterday? Today short term memory to long term memory follows on from the discussion in Memory 101 What is Memory about three main stages of memory - 1) We take in and form (or forget) memories. 2. We store memories. For a short term or a long term. 3. We recall memories. And that is as simple as I can make a process where billions of cells are all tripping over each other to remember stuff! I am using the term ‘Stuff’ here – this is my very own technical term to describe all the information, events, actions, tasks, senses and on and on – that our brain remembers. In the words of the song “Memories are made of this”.…
How do we remember the detail of our lives? What is memory? How do we know how to do stuff? How do we make memories? What happens to remembering after brain injury? Why can I remember some things and not others? So many questions and it all comes back to Memory. Difficulty with memory is one of the most common outcomes after brain injury. After brain injury the memory process can be interrupted in one or more places causing different kinds, and different levels, of memory loss. Understanding a bit about the mechanics of memory can help to understand the sometimes quirky forms of memory loss after brain injury. Understanding can help you not to personalise or lose patience. As I finally began to write more about What is Memory. One article turned into a suite! Today is the first of the series - Memory 101. Why Memory 101 you may ask? I have noticed important sounding topics are often called “Something…
Brain Injury and Fundamental Attribution Error - impressive party conversation!
I remember during the lecture the presenter outlined the potential impact of brain injury and Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE). I remember the topic of the talk was challenging behaviour after brain injury. I remember the presenter was a Scottish guy who focussed on people with significant behaviour issues after brain injury. I remember while new to me, the theory made sense. So much so, I remember it still… And I remember thinking - Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) - that’s a topic sure to impress at a party! No not really. Today my bumbling attempt to talk about the link between attribution theory and how behaviour after brain injury is responded to. We might all benefit from understanding more about it so help me out here. Sharing knowledge is always a good thing. I am no expert on all of this. What I aim to do is to share some stuff I have picked up. If you are an expert, or if you have some great resources about…
Privacy after brain injury. Messy. Complex. Important. Do you think it is different to privacy for any citizen? I say Yes … sometimes. People can usually choose what remains private. A person with brain injury, or a person with a disability may find this choice - of what is private and what is not – decided for them, not considered, or disregarded. There are times when it is even more messy, more complex, and more important. That is what this article is about – what makes privacy after brain injury messy and what you can do about it. Privacy After Brain Injury This whole privacy thinking was brought to mind through an article sent to me by FFB (Friend and Fellow Blogger ) ExcusesVsLife. The article was this one about Michael Schumacher and the lack of information made public about his brain injury. What really got me thinking (and a bit steamed up) was the flavour throughout the article that we…
Songs and music can help us communicate in many ways - I have met people who lose spoken language after brain injury, yet communicate through music and song. Songs can fill us with emotion, they can motivate us, they can resonate with our lives. And on and on I could go. Is this already sounding a bit sweety twee? It is not meant to - I will try and save myself and I will keep it short (for a change I hear you say!) This all came about when I recently stumbled upon a song that touched me. As I listened I thought I would like to hear about other peoples experiences of songs, and of this song. A week or so ago I went to my second concert by musician Passenger. You may already be a fan, or you might know him through the song “Let Her Go”. Passenger played the song that prompted this article at the first concert…
Fatigue after brain injury: Cognitive fatigue, Brain fog, Mental fatigue, Brain fatigue, Brain exhaustion, Mental tiredness, Foggy brain. I love the last one! All terms that can mean "I'm so tired my brain hurts". Please Remember This: To begin here is the key message I want to make – We can all get foggy brain. Most of us recover quickly and it doesn’t happen too often. After brain injury - foggy brain is not cute, and it is often not a temporary thing. After brain injury 'foggy brain', is more professionally called cognitive fatigue. It does not go away without paying it attention and it can come back over and over again. Introducing Cognitive Fatigue After Brain Injury A few years ago (I just realised - 3 years ago almost to the day!) I wrote a post “I’m So Tired My Brain Hurts.” This has been the source of many letters, and one of the most read articles. Recently it was suggested…
There is nothing new under the sun – just a newer version. Does this apply to strategies about brain injury? Sometimes. I found this list in my many boxes of information collected about brain injury. The list is having its 30 year anniversary (at least). As I reread it I thought – “this still has some good tips”. At first I thought to give it all a 2016 sparkle up. When I went through it again I saw that while some attitudes have shifted, and terminology has changed. While parents have a different role and approach to other supporters. Many of the strategies were still solid. Let me know what you think? How Did the List of Tips About Brain Injury Come About? Australia in the 1980’s - there was little support, or practical information available for people with brain injury and their families, as they began to re-establish their lives. A workshop was organized in Victoria, Australia by a wonderful woman,…
Image Clker.com Kelly
Brain injury + misunderstood + hard to understand = The outcomes of brain injury can easily seem very personal. Every week I receive letters, comments on the blog, messages via Facebook - talking about people’s experience, living with brain injury. This is an aspect of writing ChangedLivesNewJourneys that I really, really enjoy so please keep writing. The foundation of many letters and stories I receive are three points: [ordered_list style="decimal"] Brain injury is hard to understand. Brain injury is often misunderstood. The outcomes of brain injury are often taken personally by others.[/ordered_list] Now I realise I am in danger of becoming a broken- record- reporter. I will accept that risk and write yet another article with the reminder “Please don’t take it personally. It’s the brain injury talking” Examples below are just some of the potential outcomes causing brain injury misunderstood. Today speaking from the brain’s point of view! With my broken record statement - repeated - just as a reminder…
"LobesCaptsLateral" by Sebastian023. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons
Have you noticed the Parietal lobes tend to receive less attention than their flashy neighbour the Frontal lobes and other lobes of the brain? Maybe it’s because they tend to be more on the touchy-feely side of life. That softer sensory side we don’t like to talk about. We tend to prefer those flashy intellectual functions other parts of the brain are better known for. Or maybe it is because what they do is tricky to explain. Or maybe they just sit up there on top of our heads, doing their job, forlorn and forgotten until something goes wrong. Today we give the Parietal Lobes their day in the sun. An attempt at a simple rundown on what they do, and what happens when they are damaged. Quick Parietal Lobe Anatomy Lesson A couple of basics before I launch into the detail: There are two Parietal lobes – a left and a right. They have…
Emotions. Books are devoted to them. Movies rely on them. Life can depend on them. What can happen to our emotions after brain injury? Thinking about emotions after brain injury was brought to my mind after speaking with a woman who has a public speaking role. We discussed her continuing this role despite difficulty controlling her crying after brain injury. Before talking about emotions after brain injury. A moment to think about just how important our emotions are? I heard recently that an ‘emoji’ has just made it into the Oxford Dictionary as word of the year. Imagine - little digital images of faces now recognised by the Oxford Dictionary. My grandmother would be shaking her head in disbelief. Yet it says - emotions are important. The emoji adds emotion to our message written message. Yet rarely do we think about the complex system needed to ensure we have the right emotion, at the right time, and just the right amount…
