How the Busy Brain Works

The challenge I am setting myself today is to see if I can write a simple explanation on how the brain does its work. One that helps understanding of brain injury and cognitive impairment.

Knowing that our brains are so complex increases this challenge.

To begin here is an extraordinary video of a brain at work:

Why should the brain interest you?

Do you really need to know about the brain?
YES,  I believe some understanding helps:

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  • It helps you understand how the outcomes of brain injury come about.
  • It helps make sense of an often confusing combination of cognitive difficulties.
  • It can help you support a person with brain injury more effectively, as you are more able to think through what might happening in the brain.
  • It helps you to not take things personally.

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We know that the brain is responsible for everything we do and if you think about it, that is a huge amount of work. Even when we are sleeping it is working hard:

– it’s working out how deep we should sleep,
– keeping us breathing,
– sorting out when and how to wake up,
– even dreaming takes brain work.

Even when we are doing nothing, the brain cannot take a rest.

We mostly take all this for granted. When the brain is working well, we are not aware of the mammoth amount of work it is doing. We hardly give it credit.

The Brain at Work

So how does the brain do all this work?

This short simple video gives a few basics as an Introduction to the Brain

If we simplify the working steps – and I mean really simplify them – there are 4 main steps the brain takes to keep us going and not get into a tangled mess.

1. Our brain takes in all messages from every part of our body

The brain receives messages come from every part of the body and from within the brain itself.
Think about what your body needs to do to function:

your heart and other organs need to work, all your senses (such as your ears, skin, eyes, give information about what’s going on in the world around you, your muscles, arms and legs need to move.

All this and more is received and managed by the brain.

2. Our brain looks at each message and decides what to do with it

Once the messages arrive, the brain needs to be very quick and very efficient in the management of information to get the right action at the right time.

To do this the brain quickly:

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  • Makes a decision about what needs [typography font=”Cantarell” size=”20″ size_format=”px”]attention[/typography] now, what can wait till later, and what should be ignored.
  • [typography font=”Cantarell” size=”20″ size_format=”px”]Processes information at the right speed[/typography], and then coordinates that speed with other messages arriving, or needing action.
  • And finally makes sure we are awake enough ([typography font=”Cantarell” size=”20″ size_format=”px”]Arousal[/typography]) to act on that message. Some decisions are acted upon when we are asleep, some are pretty much automatic, and some need us awake and ready. [/unordered_list]

3. Our brain does something with the message

Once the brain receives the message and makes a decision about how it is to be treated, the busy brain then needs to sort out how to act on the message. To make this kind of decision there are several helpful processes the brain uses:

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  •  [typography font=”Cantarell” size=”20″ size_format=”px”]Association[/typography] – it looks for, and links the information to a past experience to help you remember what to do with it. For example your brain might link the smell of burning while driving the car with trouble telling you stop now.
  •  [typography font=”Cantarell” size=”20″ size_format=”px”]Memory[/typography]– it remembers the information long enough to be able to act on it, and decides how long the message needs to be remembered. (More on memory in future posts). I might only need to remember the name of someone I meet for a short term, but I might need to remember how to get my breakfast for the long term.
  •  [typography font=”Cantarell” size=”20″ size_format=”px”]Problem solving[/typography] – the brain looks at what problems might come about because of this message. It then works out what the different solutions might be; and gets feedback on progress as it is carried out.
  •  [typography font=”Cantarell” size=”20″ size_format=”px”]Organisation and Planning[/typography] – as well as problem-solving the brain is making a plan for each message. It collects information from each part of the brain that need to be involved, and gets each part organised to respond in the right way. As part of planning and organising the brain needs to make sure all steps are included and in the right order. ([typography font=”Cantarell” size=”20″ size_format=”px”]Sequencing[/typography])

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4. Our brain tells the relevant parts of our body and mind what it needs to do about the message.

Finally the brain needs to carry out the response which might include any or a combination of communication, behaviour and feelings.

OK, so this might sound simple after some of the earlier steps but think about  how much is involved just in communication for example;

Communication is not just speaking, the brain needs to co-ordinate all the cognitive and motor tasks to enable communication to happen:

  • Cognitive tasks might include how to name things properly, knowing the rules of conversing, using appropriate words, finding the right words.
  • Motor tasks include getting the vocal chords working, enabling control of the breath, making sure the muscles of the mouth work.

“Me, My Brain and I”

As part of the audiovisual information I wanted to show you here, I went looking for a video by Dr David Suzuki called “Me, My Brain and I”.  I have found this useful to understand more about the effects of cognitive changes.

Well I did not find an online clip, but I did find an amazing catalogue of films that reminded me of an earlier post on Movies and Brain Injury. “Me, My Brain and I” is listed in this catalogue along with many others about the brain, the mind, psychology, all kinds of stuff.

While the site appears to be more about providing audio-visual information for educational facilities it does give some insights into what is available out there.  [box type=”download” style=”rounded” border=”full”]Catalogue of Film about the Brain, Mind and Psychology[/box]

And Finally:

Hmmmm is that as simple as I hoped? My challenge was much harder than I thought – any comments or questions?

Apart from seeing how incredibly busy the brain is,  have I  made some links to the outcomes of brain injury?

Do some of the cognitive terms make more sense?

The words in bigger type are the words you might come across when finding out about brain injury and particularly cognitive impairment. More on these in coming posts.

 

 

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