Freshman year my mom dropped me off back at school after thanksgiving break. While we were unpacking my things her vision started to get blurry and had a really bad head ache. She thought she was getting a minegraine because that wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for her. She was able to drive home but things weren’t getting any better after a few days.
My mom decided to go to the hospital where they performed an EEG screening and a MRI. At the time I didn’t really know what these test did but after talking about them in class I now have a better understanding of what they do and how they help. An EEG shows a recording of the electrical waves sweeping across the brain’s surface and is measured by electrodes that are put on the scalp. A MRI gives a very detailed pictures of soft tissues and can help detect tumors.
After these scans came back they doctors found a mass that was pressing on the back of my moms brain. This mass was pressing against the occipital lobe which explains why her vision was blurred. The occipital lobes primary control is to control vision as we learned in class.
After many other tests and experimental treatment the mass actually started to shrink and eventually wasn’t causing a problem anymore. My moms vision went back to normal and wasn’t having these horrible head aches anymore.
I think that it is interesting because when they knew that my mom was having trouble with her vision they almost knew right away that it had something to do with the occipital lobe. Just like when other problems in the brain arise we can almost pinpoint the are of the brain that is being affected. For example speech is controlled in the Broca’s area, words and pronunciation is processed in the motor cortex, and the Wernicke’s area interprets auditory code.
It is super important for all parts of the brain to work together to function properly. If not we see how the brain has a hard time processing information like in people who have a split brain. People who have a split brain can only do certain things based on what side of the brain controls that function.
When my mom was going through all of the problems with her brain, I really got to see first hand how complex and interesting the brain is. It has so many moving parts that all need to work together. If one thing fails it could have a huge impact on our day to day lives like not being able to see, hear, interpret commands, and store memories.
Sources;
Class slides
https://www.google.com/search?q=occipital+lobe+function&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS772US772&sxsrf=ACYBGNTgO7OiqdsWEqBA7QWUs_08Hc9RdA:1568872988533&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=LlT5du40znz2aM%253A%252C1l0pOeQwYW97OM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQC_JQak13YcIZA9ZKLNO6F1fFcyQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiGiLepm9zkAhVRgK0KHVhVCUgQ9QEwAHoECAUQAw#imgrc=zaMch4f2P0RolM:&vet=1