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It's kind of ironic that dysfunction teaches us
about brain function. Essentially knocking that area out,
informs us of why that area is important. And it's stroke.
Similar to treat brain trauma, is that stroke
in becoming increasingly big problem, especially in an aging population.
Hundreds of thousands of it happen per year.
It's one of the most common causes of death in the elderly.
And so, the brain, as you're getting a sense
does a lot of work. And actually it only weighs a few pounds,
but it takes up around 20 percent
of the blood that is coming out of our heart. It requires an immense amount
energy to do what it does. And so, when a
vessel get occluded, very rapidly
that area of brain is going to die. Now again
when we see those strokes, they can tell us some fundamental lessons about how
the brain works.
What exactly do you mean when you say the vessel gets occluded?
What clogs up these arteries? That's a great question. Oftentimes it's atherosclerosis.
Similar to when you have a heart attack, a plaque has formed
in the vessel. Just like and reforms in your heart and oftentimes
it ruptures and a clot forms inside that vessel and occludes the blood flow.
And so that's why things like clot busters
are very useful for preventing a brain injury
by getting there quickly. So what are some of those fundamental lessons that
stroke has taught us?
Well if you have a stroke, there are four main vessels that go up to your brain.
And if
one of those a goes out, you can have
a stroke that usually affects one side of your brain
If one side of your brain is injured,
that usually means that the opposite side of your body is going to be
affected.
So if I had a stroke in the right side of my brain, very often my left hand would be
paralyzed. And it's this notion of
lateralization. And again the brain
sub-specializes its function by crossing a lot of things over.