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It’s Not Me, It’s My Brain!

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Everyone knows how amazing the brain is, even if you’re not the sharpest tool in the box. However, there is a dark side to this beautiful piece of machinery, and when things go wrong, things get weird. The brain regulates the function of many organs, and it is also the control center of the body. Amazingly, the brain is responsible for thoughts, memory, speech, and movement; however, when an injury to the brain occurs, the consequences can be devastating.

The brain is a very fragile organ, and it can be easily damaged. Conditions like inflammation of the brain can lead to vision loss, weakness, and even paralysis. Strokes can also lead to the loss of brain cells, which will dramatically reduce a person’s ability to think clearly, and brain tumors can put pressure on nerves, ultimately decreasing movement.

Depending on the specific problem, the symptoms of brain conditions and diseases can vary widely. Although the brain does have some capacity to heal itself, sadly, most damage is permanent. Here are a few ways that the brain can turn from a beautiful piece of evolutionary machinery into a bizarre carnival of the absurd.

Attack of the Jibber Jabbers

People who are unfortunate enough to have a stroke usually suffer from receptive aphasia, and this condition can leave a person speaking nonsense. Also known as Wernicke’s aphasia, this condition is traditionally associated with neurological damage to Wernicke’s area in the brain. Although a person believes they are talking coherently, the brain is using inverted or random words. Furthermore, the damaged part of the brain leaves out keywords, pronouns, prepositions, and also substitute words and verb tenses. People who manage to recover from Wernicke’s aphasia say that they tend to find other people’s speech unintelligible. If you have had a brain injury that wasn’t your fault, try contacting injury lawyers with the view to claim head injury.

Motion Blindness

Akinetopsia, or motion blindness, is a sporadic neuropsychological disorder. People suffering from the condition can’t perceive motion in their field of vision, even though they can see stationary objects. Sadly, there is no known treatment or cure for akinetopsia, and sufferers eventually become devoid of all motion. Akinetopsia is classed as a neuropsychological disorder due to the psychological process of understanding sensory information that is disrupted by a change in brain structure, usually lesions. People who have Alzheimer’s disease may also have varying degrees of akinetopsia due to their continuous disorientation.

Hemispatial Neglect

This condition is where a deficit in attention to and awareness of one side of space is observed, usually after one hemisphere of the brain is sustained. Hemispatial neglect typically results from a brain injury to the right cerebral hemisphere, subsequently causing visual impairment of the left-hand area of space. People suffering from this condition not only fail to see the left side of their field of vision, but they are also known to neglect the remaining half of their bodies as well, from washing under their arms to shaving their face. Furthermore, people with Hemispatial neglect sometimes leave half of their food on their plate, and even ignore voices coming from their left!