Brain Pathways: A “Global” Environment

Dr. Carrie Steffens, Ph.D.December 13, 2011

Many ways to think about a “global environment”

• Sometimes we consider things on the scale of the world or earth as a whole

• Sometimes we look at a smaller environment that works independently as it’s own system

• All of this appeals to me because of my experiences as a scientist

• What I’ll be talking about today is science, but in my own personal experience

The Body as a “Global Environment”

• All of you have been to the doctor and understand that when you are sick (i.e. have a sore throat) the doctor looks at much more than just your throat

• Your body must be considered as a whole because there are many parts and systems that are working together to keep you healthy

• There is a problem that exists sometimes where there appears to be an issue with one part of the body, but the complication is actually at a completely different location

Brain to Hand Conversations

• The brain is “talking” to all of your body parts at the same time through different types of message carrying pathways

• One of the most important of these pathways is the flow of oxygen – carrying blood through the heart to the brain and all of the other body parts

• Because the brain is the command center of the body, a serious problem occurs when the brain does not get the oxygen it needs

Blood flow video

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYIhuGOOvH8

Solving Problems involves a “global” perspective

• As you saw in the video, when there is damage to the brain, the problem can actually be “seen” in another part of the body

• In my case, this is observed with my left hand• My brain did not get enough oxygen for a

short period of time, and as a result my left hand does not work properly

Definition of Global

• 1:of, relating to, or involving the entire world • (example of skype: solving problems at a

different location)• 2:  being comprehensive, all-

inclusive, or complete ***our focus

Identifying the Problem

• My doctors knew very quickly that even though we saw a problem with my left arm and my hand that the problem was actually in my brain

• Document camera can show you how my hand wants to behave if I let it do what it wants

• My brain is constantly sending a message to my hand to contract the muscles

• This gets worse in a stressful situation – any time you are not relaxed and your body knows something out of the ordinary is going on

Video of Hand Opening

• Under normal, relaxed, non-stressful conditions, my hand will open almost completely

• Sometimes I need to use my other hand to open it all the way. This action sends a message back to my brain, and this type of reverse message is often targeted as a therapy option

How Does this Apply?

• So how does this apply to what you are doing here today and how we can use technology to fix our problem?

• I’m going to tell you a little story about something that happened to me while I was working on getting better in the hospital

Carrie’s Wheelchair Story

• For safety reasons, when you are a patient in the hospital you always need to be transported in a wheelchair.

• If there is a student that can come up to help me explain what they have learned about how a wheelchair works, that would be really helpful

• Clairification: 4 movements can be made using a wheelchair: forward and reverse (requires the use of both hands simultaneously), right and left (requires independent or directed use of one hand or the other)

The Story Continues…

• My wheelchair problem occurred because (can you guess what happened when I tried to move myself forward?) – instead of making myself go straight using both hands, I could only use my right hand

• This would cause my wheelchair to start turning and continually bump into the wall

• My doctor saw this happening and thought my brain was causing me to go the wrong direction, but didn’t realize that the real problem was simply that I couldn’t use my hand!

Compensation

• When one part of the body or one part of a working system cannot function any more, another part tries to take over those responsibilities so that everything continues to work right

• Definition of Compensation:“Something that constitutes an

equivalent”

Examples of “Help” by Compensation

• Something trying to become an equivalent of something providing a function for the body can come from different sources– Inside the body example: new blood vessels

formed in my brain to create new pathways around the spot where it was blocked

– Externally: we can use devices or machines to help us do things that body parts can no longer do for us, for example…a WHEELCHAIR!

The Challenge

• Design a wheelchair that can be used by a person who can only use one hand!