Brain Disorders

Traumatic Brain injury:
Is an injury also known as TBI, a form of acquired brain injury, occurs when a sudden trauma causes damage to the brain.
 Causes: TBI can be caused by the head suddenly and violently hitting an object, or when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue.
 Symptoms:
Symptoms of a TBI can be mild, moderate, or severe, depending on the extent of the damage to the brain. A person with a mild TBI may remain conscious or may experience a loss of consciousness for a few seconds or minutes. Other symptoms of mild TBI include headache, confusion, lightheadedness, dizziness, blurred vision or tired eyes, a change in sleep patterns, or thinking. A person with a moderate or severe TBI may show these same symptoms, but may also have a headache that gets worse or does not go away, dilation of one or both pupils of the eyes, and slurred speech.
 Parts of the brain affected:
Traumatic brain injury damages the area of the brain that was affected by the head suddenly hitting an object.

Learning Disability:
It’s a disorder that affects the ability to understand or use spoken or written language.
 Causes:
No one's exactly sure what causes learning disabilities. But researchers do have some theories as to why they develop, including: Genetic influences, Brain development, and Environmental impacts.
 Symptoms:
There is no one sign that shows a person has a learning disability. Experts look for a noticeable difference between how well a child does in school and how well he or she could do, given his or her intelligence or ability.
 Parts of the brain affected:
They are not sure what part of the brain is being affected but they are best to increase the understanding of their biological basis.

Stroke:
A stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is suddenly interrupted or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts.
 Causes:
Blood supply to parts of the brain is suddenly interrupted or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, Spilling blood into the spaces surrounding brain cells. Brain cells die when they no longer receive oxygen and nutrients from the blood or there is sudden bleeding into or around the brain.
 Symptoms:
The symptoms of a stroke include sudden numbness or weakness, especially on one side of the body; sudden confusion or trouble speaking or understanding speech; sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes; sudden trouble with walking, dizziness, or loss of balance or coordination; or sudden severe headache with no known cause.
 Parts of the brain affected:
Blood vessels erupt and can affect other parts in the brain as well. NINDS researchers are studying the mechanisms of stroke risk factors and the process of brain damage that results from stroke.

Alzheimer’s disease:
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age-related, non-reversible brain disorder that develops over a period of years. Initially, people experience memory loss and confusion, which may be mistaken for the kinds of memory changes that are sometimes associated with normal aging.
 Causes:
The cause is the worsening breakdown of the connections between certain neurons in the brain and their eventual death. It is the most common cause of dementia among people age 65 and older.
 Symptoms:
Symptoms of AD gradually lead to behavior and personality changes, a decline in cognitive abilities such as decision-making and language skills, and problems recognizing family and friends. AD ultimately leads to a severe loss of mental function.
 Parts of the brain affected:
The brain is affected by the worsening breakdown of the connections between certain neurons in the brain and their eventual death. There are three major hallmarks in the brain that are associated with the disease processes of AD. Amyloid plaques, which are made up of fragments of a protein called beta-amyloid peptide mixed with a collection of additional proteins, remnants of neurons, and bits and pieces of other nerve cells. Neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), found inside neurons, are abnormal collections of a protein called tau. Normal tau is required for healthy neurons. However, in AD, tau clumps together. As a result, neurons fail to function normally and eventually die. The Loss of connections between neurons is responsible for memory and learning. Neurons can't survive when they lose their connections to other neurons. As neurons die throughout the brain, the affected regions begin to atrophy, or shrink. By the final stage of AD, damage is widespread and brain tissue has shrunk significantly.

Multiple Sclerosis:
An unpredictable disease of the central nervous system, multiple sclerosis (MS) can range from relatively benign to somewhat disabling to devastating, as communication between the brain and other parts of the body is disrupted. Many investigators believe MS to be an autoimmune disease, in which the body, through its immune system, launches a defensive attack against its own tissues. In the case of MS, it is the nerve-insulating myelin that comes under assault. Such assaults may be linked to an unknown environmental trigger, perhaps a virus.
 Causes:
The Immune system launches a defensive attack against its own tissues.
 Symptoms:
Most people experience their first symptoms of MS between the ages of 20 and 40; the initial symptom of MS is often blurred or double vision, red-green color distortion, or even blindness in one eye. Most MS patients experience muscle weakness in their extremities and difficulty with coordination and balance. These symptoms may be severe enough to impair walking or even standing. In the worst cases, MS can produce partial or complete paralysis. Most people with MS also exhibit paresthesias, transitory abnormal sensory feelings such as numbness, prickling, or "pins and needles" sensations. Some may also experience pain. Speech impediments, tremors, and dizziness are other frequent complaints. Occasionally, people with MS have hearing loss. Approximately half of all people with MS experience cognitive impairments such as difficulties with concentration, attention, memory, and poor judgment and depression is another common feature of MS.
 Parts of the brain affected:
The communication between the brain and other parts of the body is disrupted.

Seizures:
The normal pattern of neuronal activity becomes disturbed, causing strange sensations, emotions, and behavior or sometimes convulsions, muscle spasms, and loss of consciousness.
 Causes:
There are many possible causes and there are several types of seizures. Anything that disturbs the normal pattern of neuron activity, from illness to brain damage to abnormal brain development, can lead to seizures May also develop because of an abnormality in brain wiring, an imbalance of nerve signaling chemicals called neurotransmitters, changes in important features of brain cells called channels, or some combination of these and other factors. Having a single seizure as the result of a high fever (called febrile seizure) or head injury does not necessarily mean that a person has epilepsy. Only when a person has had two or more seizures is he or she considered to have epilepsy.
 Symptoms:
Strange sensations, emotions, and behavior or sometimes convulsions, muscle spasms, and loss of consciousness.
 Parts of the brain affected: brain damage to abnormal brain development, abnormality in brain wiring, an imbalance of nerve signaling chemicals called neurotransmitters, changes in important features of brain cells called channels, or some combination of these and other factors.

ADHD:
Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurobehavioral disorder that affects 3-5 percent of all American children. It interferes with a person's ability to stay on a task and to exercise age-appropriate inhibition (cognitive alone or both cognitive and behavioral). There are several types of ADHD: a predominantly inattentive subtype, a predominantly hyperactive-impulsive subtype, and a combined subtype. ADHD is usually diagnosed in childhood, although the condition can continue into the adult years.
 Causes:
Experts do know that ADHD has a strong genetic component. In addition, they think that genes that control the levels of certain chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters seem to be different in those with ADHD.

 Symptoms:
Some symptoms of ADHD include failure to listen to instructions, inability to organize oneself and school work, fidgeting with hands and feet, talking too much, leaving projects, chores and homework unfinished, and having trouble paying attention to and responding to details.
 Parts of the brain affected:
There are many causes of ADHD, and each of them has a biological basis. Genetics play a role, neurology. There are at least four areas of the brain that are associated with ADHD. They include the frontal lobes, the inhibitory mechanisms of the cortex, the limbic system, and the reticular activating system. Each of these areas of the brain is associated with various functions.

Facebook: friend or foe?
Jamie Chamberlin writes an article entitled Facebook: friend or foe? Discusses about Children and teens’ overuse of social media and how it links to lower grades, poor health and symptoms of potential mental health problems. "Young kids look at technology the way I look at air, It's not just a tool to them, they sleep with it, they wake up with it, and it's part of their world" Said Rosen. Parents should monitor their children online activities, daily use of technology and involvement in the media. Larry D. Rosen, PhD, professor of psychology at California State University has conducted many experiments on the effect of Facebook. Rosen witnessed the study habits of 279 middle-school, high school and university students in 15-minute blocks. Rosen documented the time each student spent studying before he or she checked Facebook or paused to send a text message to a friend. Students who went back and forth between studying and such interferences had poorer grades than those who did their schoolwork until they were complete, said Rosen. Rosen also stated that children and teens who use Facebook or online communication reported more sick days, more stomach aches, more depression and worse behavior in school. Facebook can be beneficial for children but if a child is online too often, it can do more harm than good. This article tells parents to determine whether to monitor their children social network communications or construct rules on how long they may be allowed online. Thus, linking to overuse of Facebook does cause lower grades, poor health and symptoms of potential mental health problems.