Although I am a discreet person and don’t normally share my life experiences I felt like I should use this blog post to relate my person experience with MRI and fMRI testing while measuring the brain. A topic we have discussed in this course so far is Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Functional MRI (fMRI). We discussed this topic when we were studying “Measuring the Brian under Lesson 2.” According to our lesson an MRI is a detailed testing tool that is done to help doctors see parts of the “brain as well as other body parts as small as millimeters to determine what’s wrong.” While fMRI’s are a little different and look at different locations in the brain that require different amounts of blood and oxygen to function and work properly. Many people who experience “strokes or brain injuries are giving an MRI to check for blood vessel problems in the head.”
An example of an event that illustrates this topic is an accident that occurred to my paternal uncle about three-four years ago. My uncle was out one night and was punched in his face and fell straight onto his back while hitting the back of his head on the concrete. The cops were called and they found him lying on the ground passed out cold. They immediately called for an ambulance and my uncle was brought to the hospital until he regained consciousness but since he was out at a local bar they assumed he passed out from acute alcoholism and they did not know what really happened to him. He was treated for acute alcoholism and released that same night.
However, the next day he returned home to my parents’ house and seemed fine but then he stopped coming out of his room and complained of a persistent headache, had very slurred speech, and extreme confusion along with dizziness. He refused to go to the doctor so my mother took initiative and called the ambulance to take him back to the hospital. When he was taken back to the hospital they immediately sent him to get an MRI. They found that he had bleeding on the brain and needed emergency surgery. They then rushed him to another hospital’s trauma center because this bleeding was occurring from the night he was knocked to the ground when his head hit the cement. They found from the MRI and CT scan that the occipital lobe was deeply affected after the surgery.
Having taken courses in both Anatomy and microbiology in the past I have learned a lot about the body and know that the occipital lobe affects many important normal day to day functions of the human body. I did not know prior to this life experience that the most traumatic brain injuries result in damage to the occipital lobe. “Most traumatic brain injuries occur to people who have accidents such as car accidents, firearms, and falls.” After he recovered from surgery he was sent to a Traumatic Brain Injury rehabilitation center and still resides there till this day. He has a team of doctors that include a general physician, a neuropsychologist, a psychiatrist, a physical therapy doctor, a speech therapist, a social worker, along with a team of nurses. All of them constantly work with him while making realistic plans for his future.
Thankfully, there are tests that can be done to see underneath the skin even if the person appears physically fine. My uncle appeared normal on the outside but his behavior, loss of appetite, slurred speech, and confusion, is what helped determine initially that something just was not right with him. They knew once they seen how delusional he was that some type of area in the brain was being affected and sent him immediately to get an MRI. If this was “early days of Psychology they would have to waited for a person to die to study the brain.” Luckily that is no longer the case and they have advanced testing that can produce results to see what is affecting our cognitive psychology.
References
- “Intracranial Hemorrhage Evaluation with MRI .” Intracranial Hemorrhage Evaluation with MRI: Practice Essentials, Goals of MRI in the Evaluation of ICH, Pathophysiology, 7 Dec. 2017, emedicine.medscape.com/article/344973-overview.
- “Intracranial Hemorrhage Evaluation with MRI .” Intracranial Hemorrhage Evaluation with MRI: Practice Essentials, Goals of MRI in the Evaluation of ICH, Pathophysiology, 7 Dec. 2017, emedicine.medscape.com/article/344973-overview.
Amanda,
I am terribly sorry to hear about what happened to your paternal uncle but am glad to hear that he will be receiving ongoing support and medical care to aide in his recovery process. At the risk of delving too deeply into both you and your uncle’s personal life, I couldn’t help but to notice that some of the symptoms you had described in your post appear to align with damage to other regions of the brain, separately or in addition to, the occipital lobe as you mentioned.
I know that his doctors are obviously far more knowledgeable than a college junior who is a Psychology major but some of these conditions that you have mentioned appear to be symptoms associated with damage to the cerebellum or brain stem. Specifically, you mentioned the symptom of slurred speech which doesn’t really correlate with the occipital lobe since we know that the occipital lobe is responsible for visual processing and reading. Also, the dizziness correlates more with damage to the cerebellum and/or brainstem but not so much with the occipital lobe.
The cerebellum is responsible for the coordination of voluntary movement, balance and equilibrium and memory related to reflex motor acts. This means that symptoms such as the loss of ability to coordinate fine movements or walk, dizziness/vertigo, slurred speech (scanning speech) and inability to make rapid movements are all very much possible, even probable, to occur when there is damage to the cerebellum.
The brain stem, however, might be even more likely to cause the symptoms you mentioned in your post. The brain stem, also capable of being damaged by trauma to the back of the head/neck, is very crucial for many functions. These include everything from breathing, heart rate, and swallowing to symptoms like difficulty with organization/perception of the environment, problems with balance and movement, dizziness and/or nausea (vertigo) and sleeping difficulties. Also affected when the brain stem is damaged are levels of alertness and functions that are attributed to the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system controls sweating, blood pressure, digestion and temperature. It would make sense that symptoms such as decreased vital capacity in breathing which is important for speech and difficulty swallowing food and water (dysphasia) would result from damage to this area.
Damage to the occipital lobe, however, tends to result in blindness to part or all the visual field. Usually people may experience blind spots, or they might even misperceive pictures/objects or colors. Depth perception and ability to visually “track” objects are also affected by traumatic brain injury to this region of the brain.
Since we are aware that the occipital lobe, cerebellum and the brain stem are positioned in the posterior (rear) region of the brain and are connected via the vertebral arteries, it does make sense that bleeding in and around these regions of the brain could cause issues with the functions attributed to the occipital lobe, cerebellum and brain stem, simultaneously. Previously, I was unaware of this but your uncle’s predicament both confused me and fascinated me as to why he would experience such symptoms despite the damage being said to have occurred within the occipital lobe but through your post and our lessons in class, I have learned new information and wanted to share this.
According to a clinical review article that I found on the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) website, traumatic vertebral artery injury (TVAI) presents a clinical challenge since it is hard to detect. The same article states that TVAI is frequently associated with head and neck injury and is being detected with increasing frequency due to improved imaging of the trauma patient. The key presenting complaints of symptomatic TVAI are due to ischemia of the cerebellum, brainstem and the primary visual cortex and the most commonly reported symptoms include: headache, neck pain, sensory and gait disturbance, dizziness, nausea and vomiting, altered consciousness, and speech and visual abnormalities. This seems to correlate very well with the symptoms your uncle has presented, and it is my hope that damage to this area has been considered by the doctors who are working with him.
Unfortunately, I was not able to find a lot of clear and concise information about how best to screen for and treat an injury of this type, but it seems that modern imaging technology should be able to provide a lot of insight and there are several different methods of treatment that have been considered effective, though each depends on the patient and their presenting symptoms.
It is not my intention to cause concern or worry but the confusion that I felt when trying to make sense of the symptoms and the location of your uncle’s TBI made me really want to know more so I consulted several references online, which I will list below and I combined the information that I found there with the knowledge I have gained from a neurology course that I am currently taking. I hope that this information will be of some use to you and your family as I am sure you’re also looking to make sense of this terrible situation. I’m glad to know that research has gone as far as it has in these areas such that injuries like your uncle’s will be better diagnosed and treated and hope that provides comfort to you and your family also. Psychology and Neurology are both fascinating to me and I never cease to be amazed by the depths of both bodies of knowledge.
Wishing the best for you, your uncle and your family.
Works Cited:
Brain Injury Alliance of Utah. (2017). Cognitive Skills of the Brain. Retrieved from BIAU.org: https://biau.org/about-brain-injuries/cognitive-skills-of-the-brain/
deSouza, R. M., Crocker, M. J., Haliasos, N., Rennie, A., & Saxena, A. (2011). Blunt traumatic vertebral artery injury: a clinical review. European Spine Journal, 20(9), 1405-1416. Retrieved 2 24, 2018, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00586-011-1862-y
Freberg, L. (2016). Discovering Behavioral Neuroscience: An Introduction to Biological Psychology. Boston: Cengage Learning. Retrieved 2 11, 2018, from https://books.google.com/books?id=duouBgAAQBAJ
Mayfield Brain & Spine. (2018). Anatomy of the Brain. Retrieved from MayfieldClinic.com: https://www.mayfieldclinic.com/PE-AnatBrain.htm