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Trauma Informed Support –
Understanding the Brain

To better understand Trauma Informed Support, it will be useful to know a little about how our brains work.

In this module we will look at

  • Brain anatomy- the different parts of the brain and what they do.
  • Traumatic Brain Injury- what this means
  • Physical effects of brain injury

 

What are the different parts of the brain?

The brain controls everything we do and how our body functions. In the video below we will find out more about the different parts of the brain and what each part controls.

 

 

Interesting facts about the brain

Did you know, the brain:
  • Is made of approximately 86 billion nerve cells, called neurons. These are very fragile cells.
  • Weighs about 1.5kg which is 2% of our total body weight.
  • Is contained in the skull, which provides protection, and floats in a fluid called cerebrospinal fluid. The cerebrospinal fluid provides a cushioning for the brain and with out it the brain would sit heavy in the base of the skull and bang from side to side.
  • Consumes 20% of the bodies energy and uses 20% of the bodies oxygen supply. Cells will only survive 2 to 3 minutes without oxygen.

  • Think about this information, what might this mean for the brain when affected by a physical trauma/injury?

Left brain, right brain

The brain is divided into two hemispheres, left and right, and is joined by communicating cells called the corpus callosum. Each hemisphere controls different functions.

  • Click here to see the left brain and right brain...

    Left Brain vs Right Brain

The lobes of the brain

The brain then divides into 6 main sections, 4 of which are called lobes. Each lobe controls particular body responses, functions and actions, but at the same time different lobes may do different parts of one function.

  • Click here to see the sections of the brain...

4 lobes are better than none

Click on each tab below to reveal a more complete list of functions for each lobe.

  • Frontal Lobes

    • Personality
    • Awareness
    • Problem-solving
    • Planning
    • Decision making
    • Making judgments and reasoning
    • Regulates how we act upon our emotions and impulses – emotional expression, behaviour
    • Abstract thinking
    • Social skills
    • Organization
    • Concentration/attention
    • Initiation.

  • Parietal Lobes

    • Ssense of touch
    • Size, shape and colour of objects
    • Spatial and visual perception, e.g. how far an object is away from you
    • Numbers and math’s
    • Reading
    • Writing.

  • Occipital Lobes

    • Visual reception and interpretation, makes sense of what we see
    • Reading by recognizing what we see.

  • Temporal Lobes

    • Understanding language
    • Organization and sequencing
    • Memory, retrieving information and visual memory
    • Musical awareness
    • Hearing
    • Learning
    • Feelings.

  • Cerebellum

    • Coordinates voluntary movement
    • Coordination
    • Balance.

  • Brain Stem

    • Transfers information between brain and body
    • Reflexes
    • Heart beat
    • Breathing
    • Swallowing
    • Digestion
    • Temperature control
    • Blood pressure
    • Sleep, circadian rhythm
    • Sweating
    • Alertness, consciousness

Brain injury

One in every 45 people in Australia live with a brain injury. Some people are born with a brain injury, others acquire a brain injury. An Acquired brain injury (ABI) refers to any type of brain damage that occurs after birth.

An ABI is a significant thing and it can happen suddenly. A person is just going about their day-to-day activities and, all of a sudden, there's a trauma and life changes.

  • Causes of brain injury

    • A stroke, either a bleed or clot in the brain
    • Disease or infection.
    • Traumatic event

  • The main causes of traumatic brain injury

    • A car accident or being hit by a car
    • Being hit by something or someone, which may be as a result of an assault/violence
    • Firearms injury, often associated with attempted suicide
    • Falls
    • Sports injuries

As we saw in the diagrams each part of the brain deals with different aspects of what we think, feel and do. When the brain is injured a person will lose function. Where in the brain that injury occurs will determine the effect it has on a person’s abilities and daily life.

Effects of traumatic brain injury

There are some general things that a person with a head injury might experience:

  1. Fatigue, get tired quickly and easily
  2. Difficulty coping
  3. Feeling irritable and/or distressed, heightened emotions
  4. Not always self-aware. In other words can have trouble seeing what’s changed or they may even deny the injury.

Trauma Informed Support training quiz

Thank you for taking part in Anglicare’s Trauma Informed Support Training. Please complete the short quiz below to finish the training.

 

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