“The brain is one of the largest and most complex organs in the human body. The brain is made up many specialized areas working together as well as nearly 100 billion nerves that communicate in trillions of connections. “This is a phenomenon in itself that an organ no bigger than the size of a melon can control all the nerves in our body and tell us exactly what to do. Another phenomenon to discuss is how the brain operates at such a high successful rate each and every day, but the reality is the brain does have its deficiency’s. The study of Neuropsychology examines damage to the brain in certain areas. This damage deals with the relationship between cognitive, emotional, behavioral and brain functions. About half a year ago, I had an experience with brain damage in my family and got to experience Neuropsychology first hand.
During Easter weekend last year, my family came up to visit me as usual. We would go to church Sunday morning in Pasquerilla, and then have a nice Easter brunch at the Nittany Inn. On this particular Easter, my dad picked me up from my apartment and we went off to church, and everything seemed normal as I didn’t question anything. It was after church as we proceeded to go to brunch did my family notice a difference. When we got in the car, he started to repeatedly ask us “Where am I going?” and “Where am I?”. This wasn’t particularly too odd because normally dads will be dads and ask the same question over and over again just to mess around with you. But, then he asked my mom multiple times “Did we check out of the hotel?” after he clearly gave my mom the room keys to go check out. Along with this, he kept checking the back of the car to see if they were all packed not realizing that the trunk was filled and they were ready to go home. It only got worse as he mistook the pineapple on my plate for eggs, was not eating anything, and began getting up from his seat to walk around and just stare up at the ceiling blankly. It was at this point that my family and I knew something was definitely wrong. Fifteen minutes into brunch we left, and rushed to Nittany hospital. In Nittany hospital they put my dad into stroke alert and began performing tests on him. Luckily, my father did not have a full on stroke, but he did experience what is called Transient Global Amnesia. TGA is a sudden, temporary episode of memory loss and can often be associated with neurological conditions such as strokes or amnesia. The symptoms resided themselves within 24 hours, but their is still a portion of the day that my dad does not remember at all and for a slight second he could not even remember who I was. I think it is safe to say that we can classify Transient Global Amnesia as a study in Neuropsychology. Below is a link demonstrating more information on TGA as well as how the brain looks while undergoing this amnesia scare.
https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/brain,-spinal-cord,-and-nerve-disorders/brain-dysfunction/transient-global-amnesia
The image above shows the progression the brains takes as Transient Global Amnesia happens. Over time, blood vessels that head to the brain get clogged ultimately causing this neurological condition. The doctor showed us similar images to these and further explained how this cloggage messes up memory and some body motions.
Reference to opening brain statement:
https://www.webmd.com/brain/picture-of-the-brain#1
This is a very interesting blog post about your personal experiences. The fact that you have seen this first hand makes it intriguing. I had never heard of Transient Global Amnesia before. I thought this related closely to our discussion of damage to the brain, in class. We learned about other conditions due to brain damage like aphasia. In comparison to the cause of aphasia, Transient Global Amnesia is due to blood vessels clogging the brain. I also think that the images further enhance my knowledge on the topic! I am glad to hear that your dad is ok after all that!
-eve