Traumatic Brain Injury Flashcards
what is the brain’s structure described as? what does it act as?
- described as a delicate structure hidden inside the skull
- acts as protection
what is the cerebrum?
- area that controls muscle functions, as well as speech, thought, reading, writing and learning
what is the cerebellum? where is it located?
- brain structure that coordinates movement and balance
- located just below the cerebrum
what is continuous with the spinal cord?
- the brain stem
what does the gyrus help with?
- helps with initiation of movement (sends impulses down to spinal cord)
what does the gyrus deal with?
- deals with sensations so can feel when someone touches you as it receives information from the legs, arms, etc
what does each lobe have?
- each lobe has a different function
what are the four lobes?
- frontal
- temporal
- occipital
- parietal
what is the most commonly injured lobe?
- frontal lobe is the most commonly injured
what is the frontal lobe involved in?
- involved in reasoning, motivation and judgement
what is the temporal lobe involved in? (2)
- memories
- ability to think
what is the occipital lobe involved in?
- visual functions
what is the parietal lobe involved in? (2)
- perception
- sensations
what is the deeper layer of the brain? what does it connect?
- sub cortical layer
- connects structures to the spinal cord
what structures are connected to the spinal cord? what does this allow?
- basal ganglia
- cerebellum
- modification of movement and coordination
what happens when the head is hit in any direction?
- there is impact on certain areas
what happens if the side of the skull is hit?
- causes bruising an contusions
why does the injury affect layers differently?
- because different densities of areas/ layers rotate at different speeds
where does tearing and shearing injury occur?
- occurs at different areas throughout the brain
what effects does a diffuse axonal injury have?
- widespread effects
where do diffuse axonal injury more commonly occur?
- at the grey white matter junction
- where the axons have an insulation on them where the insulation change
where else may diffuse axonal injury occur? what happens here?
- may happen at the midline structures
- where the brain stem comes into the cerebrum
what motion is caused in diffuse axonal injury? what does this cause?
- twisting motion
- tears through the brain stem and corpus callosum
what are the three secondary effects of traumatic brain injury?
- excitable amino acids
- additional cell death, which may cause swelling
- person may have trouble getting oxygen to the brain
are dead cells recovered in the brain?
- no they’re not recovered
- instead the brain compensates
what happens after traumatic brain injury in recovery to the wires?
- need to substitute and teach wires how to connect in different ways
what disappear out of the brain in the recovery stage?
- amino acids down regulate and disappear out of the brain
what decreases in recovery? what does this decrease over time?
- swelling decreases
- over time, this can help decrease functional ramifications of the injury
