Causes & Types of Brain Damage

The brain is a highly specialized tissue, far more complex than today’s 21st century supercomputers. Because of this incredible complexity, even minor damage can have extreme consequences.

Causes of brain damage
The brain can be damaged in a variety of ways, and depending on the areas affected and the severity of the damage, it can be relatively harmless to fatal. Following are some of the causes of brain damage.

Genetics – A dysfunctional inherited gene can be passed on to offspring that prevents the full development of a healthy brain.
Blow – A substantial blow to the head can wear down the skull’s defenses (especially at the temple) and therefore allow structural damage.
Anemia – Anemia in the brain can cause serious problems for the cells associated with the brain. A human can survive for up to four minutes without oxygen before brain damage becomes so severe that there is no realistic chance of survival. A stroke is an event where there is a loss of blood to the brain, caused by a blood clot.
Tumors – Cancer is a major non-communicable disease that has become more recognized in the past decade, and today more cases of brain tumors are being detected due to more sophisticated techniques. The continued growth of these cancer cells puts pressure on the brain, which can cause blood clots or direct brain damage due to the pressure of the tumor pressing against it.

Types of brain damage
Aphasia – A type of brain damage that affects the body’s ability to communicate. This can range from an inability to construct sentences aloud or on paper to an inability to recognize speech itself. This type of damage is concentrated in the frontal lobe area of ​​the brain.
Visual atrophy – This is where the information gathered on one side of the brain is rejected and therefore the patient can only function with one eye, because the part of the brain that receives visual information from the other eye Yes, not working properly. In some cases, sufferers may only do half a painting or eat half a plate of food because they are unaware of information about the other half of the environment.
Amnesia – or retrograde amnesia, this type of loss affects memory, caused by degeneration/damage in the frontal lobe. When sufferers have a blank memory of past experiences in their lives.
Agnosia – This is a rare form of brain damage where sufferers still have the full ability to see their surroundings (as opposed to visual agnosia), although they cannot appreciably process their surroundings, i.e. they Fails to recognize a familiar person or object. Difficulty remembering past events involving surroundings, people, or things.
The next lesson takes a closer look at the brain, and how its capabilities can be used to our advantage in everyday life.