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Brain Structure And Function Overview…
In both my second and third books, I had discussed how so
much in Zachary could be understood based on brain structure and function alone
– if I assumed little or no communication among the various parts of
the brain! Over time, I had no doubt that some of Zachary’s neural connections
among the various parts of the brain had started to “rebuild”, however, there
was in my opinion, absolutely no denying that assuming little or no
communication among the various parts of the brain seemed to explain a great
deal of what we saw in children with autism.
As mentioned in my third book, one of the major keys to
“rebuilding” those broken neural connections absolutely involved the computer
since almost the entire brain appeared to be activated while on the computer.
In my opinion, we had made a very grave error in attempting to teach these
children – we had assumed they could only handle so much sensory input at once
in the learning situation, and as such, we provided things like “a flashcard” –
one at a time – stimulating only limited parts of the brain – when the key, in
my opinion, was truly in stimulating as much of the brain as possible – at
once.
If you thought about that, it made perfect sense. It all
went back to the “use it or lose it” theory. The more you used your
brain, the more neural connections it appeared to form and as such, the key to
rebuilding severed connections had to lie in activating as much of the brain as
possible – at once! This was why a computer, I now believed, was a medical
necessity for children suffering from autism!
The following was the “basic brain overview” chart I had
provided in both my second and third books. I truly believed it was critical
that parents come to memorize these simple charts because, within this
information were the keys not only to teaching our children and understanding
them, but also the keys to dealing with behavioral problems and/or
“meltdowns”. For more on this issue, again, I encouraged all parents to read
the books I had previously written. There was simply too much information to
repeat here and I wanted to keep this book focused more on matters of
“communication”.
The human brain had two hemispheres (left and right) joined
by a mass of fibers in the middle, known as the corpus callosum. This mass of
fibers, the corpus callosum, allowed the two hemispheres to speak to one
another. The two hemispheres of the human brain were further subdivided into
regions called “lobes”. Specifically, the brain had four lobes:
|
Frontal Lobe |
Temporal Lobe |
Parietal Lobe |
Occipital Lobe |
|
Location
most
anterior, below forehead) |
Location
side of
head, above the ears |
Location
at the back
and top of the head |
Location
most
posterior, back of the head |
|
Function
motor
activity
motor
planning and execution
activity in
response to environment
memory as
it related to habits and other motor activities
olfactory
cortex
language
production
higher
functioning (i.e., concept of self, imagination, etc.)
controls
emotional response
assigns
meaning to words (i.e., word associations)
|
Function
auditory
and olfactory processing (hearing and smell)
memory
acquisition
emotion
understanding of language
voice
recognition
face
recognition
categorization of objects
some visual
perception
ability to
distinguish between truth and a lie |
Function
somatosensory processing
spatial
processing
visual
attention
touch
perception
manipulation of objects
goal
directed movement
3 dimension
identification
integration of sensory information that allows for the understanding of
single concepts (integration of
the parts into the whole) |
Function
visual
processing |
Such were the basic functions
within these major sections of the brain. The following provided a basic view
of what happened if damage occurred to one of these areas.
Science now knew a great deal in
terms of what we saw if specific parts of the brain were damaged. The
following provided a brief summary of this information.
|
If Frontal
Lobe damaged - results in
paralysis
difficulty
problem solving and sequencing
inability
to produce/express language
lack of
flexibility or spontaneity
persistence
in thoughts (i.e., obsessive – compulsive)
inability
to focus or attend to one thing at a time (attention deficit)
changes in
social behavior
variability
in mood/emotions
|
If Temporal
Lobe damaged - results in
selective
attention in terms of sight and sound
difficulty
understanding spoken word
issues with
interest in sexual behavior
short term
memory loss and interference with long term memory
emotional
issues (i.e., increased aggression)
difficulty
in face recognition
categorization issues
persistent
talking if damage to right lobe
|
If Parietal
Lobe damaged – results in
inability
to recognize self
inability
to attend to more than one object
lack of
awareness of body parts and/or surroundings (somatosensory issues)
difficulty
in focusing visual attention
reading
difficulty
difficulty
with spatial processing (i.e., math)
difficulty
with eye-hand coordination and/or drawing of objects
difficulty
differentiating left from right
difficulty
locating words in terms of writing
difficulty
with associations (i.e., naming of objects) |
If Occipital
Lobe damaged - results in
problems
with vision in terms of
identifying
colors
locating of
objects in one’s environment
illusions –
including hallucinations
inability
to recognize words (issues with reading/ writing, recognition of
symbols/drawings etc.)
difficulty
with objects in motion |
Although I would not attempt to cover
all parts of the brain, there were a few other key areas that also helped to
explain so much.
Other Key
Parts To The Brain That Resided Outside Of The 4 Lobes Included:
|
Amygdale (part of
“limbic system) |
Involved in the
processing of emotions (perceiving emotions in others) |
|
Basal Ganglia |
Involved in the
regulation of movement and the learning of skills, controlled intensity of
mental activity, timekeeper, conscious and subconscious task sequencing |
|
Brain Stem |
Located in the upper,
back neck area and responsible for “life functions” including heart rate,
breathing, digestion, swallowing, reflexes to sight/sound, regulation of
body temperature via sweating (autonomic nervous system), blood pressure,
alertness levels, sleep, balance (vestibular issues) |
|
Cerebellum |
Motor coordination and
motor learning, some memory for motor reflex functions. Also known to be
involved in coordination of higher executive functions, language and
emotions, tracking of moving objects |
|
Corpus Callosum |
Major link between the
left and right hemisphere - allowed the two hemispheres to communicate |
|
Hippocampus (part of
the “limbic system) |
Involved in long term
memory formation (damage here would prevent one from making “new memories”) |
|
Hypothalamus |
Maintained body
temperature, etc. |
|
Medulla |
One of many parts of
the brain stem involved in control of “life functions” of breathing, heart
rate, etc. |
|
Midbrain |
Visuomotor functions,
visual reflexes, auditory relays, motor coordination |
|
Pons |
Auditory and vestibular
functions (balance), sensory and motor. Area of the brainstem between the
medulla and the midbrain, that linked the medulla and the thalamus! |
|
Spinal Cord |
Input-output of sensory
information to/from the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and
the peripheral nervous system (everything else outside of central nervous
system) |
|
Thalamus |
Acted as a “gateway”.
Sent information to specific parts of the cerebrum and controlled
information flow to cerebral cortex (the 4 lobes). A gateway between
sensory (except olfactory) or motor neurons in the peripheral nervous system
(anything outside the brain and spinal cord) and the central nervous system
(brain and spinal cord) |
|
CNS = central
nervous system |
Included the brain and
spinal cord only |
|
PNS = peripheral
nervous system |
Included those parts of
the nervous system not included in the CNS. |
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