>> JUDY FORTIN: The brain is one of the most miraculous features of the human body – think
of it like your personal command center.
Without it, you can’t make a decision, pick up a fork, feel attraction, shed tears, or
ride a bike.
As part of the Central Nervous System, the brain has billions of nerve cells arranged
in patterns that work together to control thought, emotion, behavior, movement and sensation.
>> DAVID W. WRIGHT, MD: The brain is divided into two halves, the left hemisphere and the
right hemisphere.
The left hemisphere controls reasoning skills, speaking, writing, number and science skills
as well as movement of the right side of the body.
The right hemisphere controls the left side of the body and factors into more complex
functions like insight, imagination, music and arts skills, and awareness of three-dimensions.
Each hemisphere is further broken down into small sections called lobes.
The main lobe is the frontal lobe.
It’s responsible for memory, judgment, and behavior.
If your loved one’s brain injury occurs in the frontal lobe, you might see behaviors
that were not common or typical of the person prior to the injury.
Part of this frontal lobe is also responsible for movement of extremities, trunk and eyes.
Right behind the frontal lobe is the parietal lobe, which is primarily involved in sensation,
movement and sense of space.
The temporal lobe sits alongside of the frontal and parietal lobes.
These are important for language, emotion, and assisting in our memory skills.
Your loved one’s language may be affected if he or she is injured in this part of the
brain.
The occipital lobe interprets what we see.
Information comes in through the eyes, it goes to the back part of the brain in the
occipital lobe, and then is distributed throughout the brain so that we can interpret what we’re
seeing.
At the base of the brain are the cerebellum and the brainstem.
The cerebellum is most important for our coordination and timing, so if it is damaged our movements
may be clumsy or uncoordinated.
The brainstem connects the spinal cord below to the rest of the brain above.
The brainstem controls our automatic functions like breathing, blood pressure and arousal.
If part of this brain is damaged, it can cause your loved one to be in a coma or minimally
conscious state.
The brainstem is protected by the top of our spinal column, or backbone, while our brain
is covered by the bones of our skull and protective fluid.
The brain, spinal cord and nerves work together as the main part of our Central Nervous System,
which, as we’ve learned, connects the activities of the human body to the information received
from our nerve cells, our mind and our environment.
An injury to the brain or spinal cord will disrupt these connections, and may cause a
wide variety of impairments or disabilities that can impact your loved one.
>> JUDY FORTIN: Chapters three and four will provide more detail to help you understand
how those impairments and disabilities will affect your loved one physically and emotionally.
You may already understand that the most basic definition of brain injury is damage to the
brain that can affect a person physically, emotionally and behaviorally, and can also
change the way he or she thinks and acts.
The care team may call your loved one’s brain injury by several names, including acquired
brain injury.
The medical field typically refers to brain injury as either traumatic or non-traumatic
brain injury.
Traumatic brain injury results from a violent force or trauma to the head, such as an injury
from a motor vehicle accident, fall or physical blow.
If your loved one has a traumatic brain injury, you’ll want to navigate to Chapter Three
now.
A non-traumatic injury is not caused by any external force to the head.
Strokes are the leading cause, followed by brain tumors, brain infections, lack of oxygen
and toxic poisoning.
If your loved one’s injury has been referred to as non-traumatic, move to Chapter Four
now.