Evie Gray

Psychology
Body and Mind
Brain functions after Accidents
The brain is a complex and powerful organ that controls all the bodily functions. If
your brain were to shut down completely, all organs would good and slowly follow. Since
the brain has such an important job it has sections pre-programmed that control specific
parts of the body. This means that if one part of the brain is damaged only certain
functions are affected.
The main two sections of the brain are divided into the left brain and the right
brain. Each side of the brain focuses on certain functions on specific sides of the body.
The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and the right side of the brain
controls the left side of the body. The left side of the brain controls most verbal and
logical functions; focusing on listening, reading, writing, speaking and thinking. While
the right brain usually focuses on non verbal and intuition; including filling in the blanks
and recognizing patterns. Although these sides have different functions they work
together to allow the body to perform to its highest capabilities. Contrary to popular
belief people are not left- brained or right- brained, but they equally use each side even
though they may be more artistic or more analytic. People's personality and abilities
arent determined by what side of the brain is used more because each side is
constantly working without your control.
Inside the two hemispheres of the brain, left and right, there are more sections in
order to keep all the duties of the brain organized. Three main parts are the cerebrum,
the cerebellum and the brain stem. The cerebrum takes up most of the space in your
skull and controls thinking, remembering, problem solving and movement. The
cerebellum, located at the base of the skull, controls coordination and balance. The
brain stem underneath the cerebrum and connected to the spinal cord, controls
breathing, digestion, heart rate and blood pressure. Within the cerebrum there are more
sections of the brain that have specific functions. The frontal lobe, located in the front of
the brain, focusing on the thinking aspect controls emotional response, expressive

language, planning, organizing, reasoning, problem solving, word association and

habits. The parietal lobe, located right behind the frontal lobe, focusing on senses it
controls visual attention, touch perception, goal directed voluntary movements, and
manipulation of objects. The occipital lobe, located at the back of the brain, controls
vision and visionary perception. The last section of the brain is the temporal lobe.
Located on the sides of the brain it focuses on perception and it controls hearing ability,
face recognition, object perceptions, characterization of objects and emotions.
There are many ways the brain's functions can be impaired and not perform the
duties they are told to do. Whether it is a bump, bruise, cut or a broken bone they all
affect the function of the brain. The most common type of head injury is a concussion.
This occurs when the head collides with something and causes a loss of consciousness
whether for a long time or a minute. Concussions are common when playing most
contact sports because if someone shoves you or you trip, hitting your head is a risk.
Another type of head injury is a contusion, a bruise located on the brain that is caused
by direct impact. Diffuse axonal injury, also known as shaken baby syndrome, is
another type of brain injury that is caused by fast shaking of the head. There are also
traumatic brain injury which breaks into two different parts. A closed brain injury occurs
when the brain goes from a rapid speed to completely still and the brain tissue is
damaged. An open brain injury is when an object fractures the skull, enters the brain
and injures the tissue.( Novack).
Right after a traumatic brain injury occurs one of two things will most likely
happen. The first thing that might happen is that the brain reacts to the trauma with
biochemical and psychological responses. Then cells flood the brain and perform
secondary cell death. The other thing that might happen is loss of consciousness that
may last a few hours to a few days. When they wake up from being unconscious they
will most likely have post traumatic amnesia and experience irritability and aggression. If
the injury is not too severe the brain will automatically rebalance its levels and become
stable. To determine if an injury is severe there are many requirements it has to meet.
The first thing that has to be determined is the loss of brain tissue and how much was
damaged. This is estimated by how long there is loss of consciousness and the depth of

the coma one is experiencing. The severity of the injury is used to determine length of
impairment and recovery time.(Mount Sinai Medical Center).
Recovery time is a very gray area in the medical field. Although two people may
have the same exact injury the time it takes for them to recover may be completely
different. The one way many physicians measure recovery is by the Rancho Los Amigos
Scale, which works because there is no time limit on it. There are eight stages within the
scale that include: Level one- no response, level two- generalized response, asleep
most of the time with brief moments of wakeness, level three- localized response, when
awake has non consistent responses to commandments, level four- confused and
agitated, level five- confused inappropriate and non agitated, level six- confused but
appropriate, level seven- automatic and appropriate, level eight- purposeful and
appropriate. A patient can take as long as they need to in each level and still progress
normally.
Even though someone may fully recover and make it to level eight there may still
be lifetime effects that they can not get rid of. Some cognitive problems that may persist
are; paying attention, concentrating, remembering new information, remembering
events, think slowly, speak slowly, confused easily, change does not come easy, stick on
a task too long, jump to a solution without thinking about all options, speech and
language problems, and cant process a lot of information at once. Emotional and
behavioral problems can also occur including; restlessness, more dependent on others,
emotional, mood swings, lack of motivations, irritability, aggression, acting inappropriate
in certain social situations and lack of self awareness. Many people mention that after
an accident the patient's personality changes and this is because the brain is damaged
and some functions cant perform to the same ability they use to.
The brain is the most vital organ because it tells the rest of your body what to do.
When damaged the body has to change the ways of doing normal activities to make up
for the brain loss. When this happens the body might not perform the same way it used
to because of the changes it had to make. This means that it might not be as easy to tie
shoes or personality may change.

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