The Brain

 Connor Holyoak

Biol 4500

Curated Paper 2

The Brain

The brain is a highly complex network of neuron cell bodies and axons which interact with each other in order to relay information and instruction for the rest of our body. A single neuron may be involved with a specific function in the body. Neurons are involved with sensory function, motor function, and integration. This means that there are neurons responsible for all our senses including touch, smell, sight, pain, pressure, and temperature. These neurons usually travel from the area of sensation to the brain or spinal cord where they relay their gathered information to integral neurons using chemical signals. These integral neurons are responsible for processing the information that comes through in order to provide actions to react with the given stimulus. They then send their signals to motor neurons in order to react to the stimulus. The fascinating part of this process is how quickly the brain is able to receive and process information. All of this takes place in a small fraction of a second. Because of the complexity of the brain and its functions, there are many ways that its processes can become altered. 

The brain is subject to unwanted changes due to the environment, genetics, and mutations. These can result in a wide variety of symptoms and defects based on the area of damage or alteration. There are several disorders such as Huntington's disease, multiple sclerosis, and parkinsons disease that have relatively misunderstood causes but all result in defects in the brain that cause a lack of motor function or can alter emotions. Although these diseases are all similar in symptoms, the anatomy of the diseases are very different. Multiple sclerosis involves the demyelination of schwann cells in the spinal cord. Huntington’s disease is caused by a mutation in our genome. It is difficult to locate and treat these diseases because they alter the genome. 

There are also diseases that have a clear cause like traumatic brain injuries. After a traumatic event the brain can sustain damage which leads to various symptoms depending on the area and severity of the damage. Damage to the frontal lobe might affect higher thought and movement while damage to the temporal lobe might affect memory and sensory information. There are other brain diseases that can affect mood or personality like obsessive compulsive disorder or anxiety. It is more difficult to trace the cause of these diseases because they are usually caused by an alteration in the genome. These can alter the brain’s emotions in various ways. Obsessive compulsive disorder will cause an obsession over a single thought. Depression and anxiety will often cause sadness that exceeds the normal sadness in a situation. Anxiety can build when these emotions run high. There are even diseases like multiple personality disorder that can cause the individual to express the personalities of more than one individual. These disorders can be very dangerous to the individual and even at times to others around them. I could go on for hours discussing other known brain disorders with various symptoms, however, the important subject here is how the brain should function and how small changes can affect it. 

Again we need to touch on the idea of ayurveda. The brain has an extremely complex control over the chemicals that surround it and the chemicals that are passed between neurons. In fact the function of neurons is directly related to the chemicals that they interact with. They use changes in pH due to channel openings in order to release neurotransmitters in order to signal the next neuron to open its ion channels. This process is complex but very controlled. A change in pH could cause the neuron to remain on or off indefinitely. A change in the genetic makeup of a neuron could be equally devastating to the neuron. It could result in a completely useless cell, unable to receive or transmit signals to other neurons. And these changes can be passed on to other cells which could result in a high number of useless cells. It is very important therefore, for our brain to regulate the balance that keeps our cells functioning properly.