Planet Mobility "Types of Brain Injuries"

Types of Brain Injuries
About the brain. The brain has been described as a three pound universe. It has come to be thought of in those terms because quite literally; we live in our brains. The brain is our personal, private universe. It is through our brains that we experience ourselves and the environment. It is though our brains that we understand our relationship to others. Scientists think of the brain as the organ of reason, language, complex social relations, and morality. It is, after all, what makes us distinctly human. The brain can be thought of as a sensory processor. Our experience of ourselves, and our environment is dependent on the brain's ability to receive, process, store, retrieve and transmit sensory information. The ability to think, see, smell, feel, remember, and behave appropriately is dependent on an intact brain. Even minor brain damage can result in permanent impairments in these functions. Such impairments can interfere with normal everyday activities. The ability to recognize familiar faces, to count, to read, to remember, and many other higher functions is dependent on the intact brain. Damage one part of the brain and a person speaks fluent gibberish; injure another and he no longer recognizes his own brother. The degree and location of the injury will determine the type and extent of functional impairments. Brain damage can turn a person into a non person. Brain damage, whether from surgery, strokes, tumors, disease, toxins, near drowning, electric shock, lightning strike, or head injuries can rob a person of a sense of self. It can turn a person into a mere shadow of his or her former self At the very least brain damage can seriously compromise quality of life. While brain damage may strike a single individual, in reality it is the family that bears the brunt of its destructive impact.