The Brain: Neurological Disorders, Injuries, and Drugs

The brain is a wildly complicated organ. Trying to understand its connections and patterns seems impossible. I remember watching a video of a neurologist and researcher explaining the connectome, and the efforts to map the brain and its neural connections. The image shown (see below) that captured this idea was incredible – what seemed to be trillions of colored lines representing these neural networks and communications.

That made it hard to believe that we will ever be able to understand the brain and its functions entirely. It makes sense that every traumatic brain injury can be so similar yet so different and unique in consequence. I’m a lover of football, so I’m guilty of yelling at the refs over seemingly dumb roughing-the-passer calls, but I wonder if we will look back and question why we ever continued to let huge 300+ pound men tackle others and slam their heads to the ground. I think we will see more clearly the effects of traumatic brain injuries. My dad is a Miami Dolphin fan, so I watched live with him the game in which the quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, was tackled and immediately assumed the fencing position (we ended up talking about this shortly in class).

I was surprised to read at how quickly athletes were to report they were symptom free in order to return to play. Reading this after the Tua incident and the NFL reporting pending changes to its concussion protocol makes me think about how serious concussions are especially when it comes to youth athletes and their developing brains. Some of these injuries are life altering. At least we have taken measures in sports to prolong the time that athletes are withheld from play. The last article bridged the differences between the brain and mind and how both play roles in mental disorders. The biological factors as well as social and environmental are often associated with the pathogenesis of such disorders.

In the first paper of brain disorders, I enjoyed learning first about the pathophysiology of Huntington’s Disease. The accumulation of a mutated Huntigtin protein is observed to be the cause due to a hyper-expressed region of glutamine repeats. It baffles me that an errant expression of proteins can have such astounding effects on our cognition. On top of that, it’s interesting that the normally expressed Huntingtin protein has an unknown function. We don’t know what it does when it works, but we know that when it doesn’t, its detriments are drastic. Crazy to think that there is so much for us to research and yet discover in the field of biology and medicine. While reading about Alzheimer’s, I recalled the news released during this past summer that studies implicating beta amyloid protein as the most critical contributor of the disease are potentially fraudulent and exaggerated. The whole scandal seemed complex, and I don’t pretend to understand it entirely; but, it makes me sad that money led to the prescription of medications with questionable efficacy to so many sufferers of the disease. Not only that, but it’s sad that those studies have distracted researchers from potentially furthering the research in other areas. All is not lost, and we still know more about the disease other than beta amyloid, but reading about the incident is still frustrating.

I didn’t know much, if anything, about Tay-Sachs disease. Maybe an irrelevant thought, but after reading about these neurological diseases, as well as others, it’s a miracle that more often than not, our bodies function and develop properly. With so many things to go wrong on a microlevel, it’s amazing that our cellular machinery functions as it does. When it doesn’t, it’s sad to see how devastating that can be. Without the function of one enzyme, all nerve cells can die because of ganglioside accumulation. I wonder what the future holds when it comes to human genome sequencing and treating genetic diseases such as this.

When it comes to drugs, maybe I’m too easily impressed or awed by what we already know, but it’s still fascinating that molecules can have such drastic effects on our bodies. Even the other night, I regretted ingesting caffeine too late in the evening because the effects of the drug continued deep into the night, and I was unable to fall asleep until hours later. The fact that so many compounds found in nature work to alter our body’s chemistry and mechanisms is incredible. I think the YouTube video about drugs and their effects and mechanisms of action presented these ideas well. Drugs can really imitate components in the pathways of the brain – that’s incredible and terrifying.

The idea that pathways in the body are regulated by molecules that bind to receptors much like puzzle pieces fit together is intriguing in that any other molecule with similar properties and shape can induce the same effects.

I have a little brother who suffered from a hemorrhagic stroke when he was a baby which resulted in hemiparesis. However, because it occurred so early in his development, those who meet him would never be able to guess that this was the case. While he is left-handed due to the atrophy of his right side, he is athletic and strong and has adapted to use his entire right side – his fingers being the only sign of a stroke. The left side of his brain is occupied by cerebral spinal fluid, virtually missing. Still, he has good grades and functions completely normal. This evidences the plasticity of the brain; it really is amazing. Still, once matured, these synapses and connections are vital. The effects of drugs on the communications between them via neurotransmitters can be detrimental.

The effects of drugs beyond physiology are important to consider – the costs they have on social relationships and money due to addiction. Although, I feel like the social awareness of their negative effects has increased, increasing the stigma behind their use. Still, the statistics regarding drug usage surprised me. Almost half of Americans above the age of 12 have tried an illicit drug. Millions and millions of people resort to drugs for various reasons, while most likely recognizing the threat they pose to health and addictions.

In reading the paper of drugs in relation to Ayurveda, I agree that the basis of medicine is ancient. It’s insane to read about the expenditures relative to drug discoveries ($5 billion for each effective new drug). The individuality of drug metabolism was a new concept to me. I maybe considered this idea – obviously every individual and their genetics are different – but prescribing medications based on heredity and genetics is what seems to be their claim of medical practice being an art. I do see the future of medicine being more holistic, and it will be interesting to see what changes are made in both practice and drug synthesis and prescription.

The final thought I had in regard to drugs and the pathways in the brain are the other habits that can be associated with addiction. I think of social media in today’s society as a potentially addictive pastime – the way many of us seek instant gratification and entertainment in our various social media applications could surely have addictive effects on the reward system of our brain. It’s interesting how behaviors can also have such an effect on the brain, not only physical drugs.