Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic Brain Injury is an aquired injury to the brain caused by an external force. This results in different impairments in the brain, but due to these impairments many different functions are affected as well. There are 6 common areas of the brain that have significantly different effects on certain functions in the human body. These areas in the brain are the Frontal Lobe, the Parietal Lobe, the Temporal Lobe, the Occipital Lobe, the Cerebellum, and the Brain Stem.
Frontal Lobe
The Frontal Lobe is located at the front of each cerebral hemisphere in the brain. One of the main functions of the frontal lobe is decision making as well as controlling behavior. When damaged, problems can arise in emotions, sexual activity and libido, initiating movement, sequencing, attention, problem solving and more. The following video is a woman who has a TBI to her frontal lobe, and she describes some of her experiences of difficulties she encounters. For example, she often forgets why she went into a certain room; she remembers walking there but doesn't remember why. Interestingly, you will notice that even though she has TBI in her frontal lobe, her circumstances are not that severe showing that depending on the injury and the amount of your brain it effects, you can have very different consequential functioning impairments.
Parietal Lobe
Another lobe effected by TBI is the Parietal Lobe, positioned directly behind the Frontal Lobe. This lobe is the main sensory tool for touch, as well as academic skills, hand-eye coordination, spatial orientation, directional understanding and more. This area is where dyslexia is developed. Due to damage of this lobe affecting spacial orientation and direction, one consequence of TBI to this area includes problems with balance. It may seem very easy for someone without Parietal Lobe Damage to stand on their hands with their feet against the wall, but someone with this condition may have great difficulty with this task. The video below is a demonstration of a woman with Parietal Lobe TBI attempting to do a hand stand against a wall and how she struggles to stay balanced.
Temporal Lobe
The Temporal Lobe is located underneath the Parietal Lobe and behind/under the Frontal Lobe. The main importance of this lobe is memory and especially short-term memory. Thus, people with TBI to the temporal lobe may have sufficient memory loss as well as problems with identification, facial recognition, selective attention, spoken word, and more. Also, Traumatic Brain Injury to the Temporal Lobe is the leading cause of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. The following video is not on TBI on the temporal lobe, but it is a blog cast about a woman with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and her problems with it. She keeps a seizure log and talks about how her sleep problems and dream problems all have to do with her Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. She has a 23+ seizure blog playlist about her Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.
Occipital Lobe
Anything seen by the eyes, including dreaming, is due to the work of the Occipital Lobe. This lobe is located at the back of the brain, behind the Parietal and Temporal Lobes. TBI to the Occipital Lobe can cause problems with vision, locating objects, hallucinations, reading and writing, and more.The following video was made by a group of college students to demonstrate the effects of what it would be like to have damage to the occipital lobe, including depth perception and color recognition. They even demonstrate what it would be like to not be able to recognize a book, and trying to identify it by using echolocation like a bat. Although I find this part of the video to be a little out of place, the rest of the video is very informative of the importance of the Occipital Lobe.
Cerebellum
The Cerebellum is at the base of the brain and on top of the spinal cord. It seems that this part of the brain deals with functions that were previously mentioned in all of the lobes including balance movement, coordination and motor skills. Other functions that the Cerebellum controls include equilibrium, fine motor skills, and postural controls, but the most important function of the Cerebellum is motor control. The video below is a speech by a man with TBI to the Cerebellum. He talks about his struggles with the condition; for example, he "dances like a grandpa" and had great difficulty doing karate because of loss of motor control.
Brain Stem
The Brain Stem controls functions that allow us to survive, and often we take it for granted. For example, it regulates body temp and homeostasis, breathing, swallowing, heart rate, etc. We never think about the part of the brain that controls these essential functions of our body, but when damaged it can be very detrimental. One consequence of Brain Stem damage is Vertigo. When I was in high school, I had a friend with vertigo and while walking she would often lost balance and fall and it was very difficult for her to walk straight. Also, she seemed to be very unable to focus her eyes on anything. The following video is of an old man and his experiences with vertigo, and how easily it is to be put off balance.
Traumatic Brain Injury can effect one or more of the previous parts of the brain, and thus can have very detrimental effects to the body.