you are your brain david l. goldin, j.d., m.b.a.© 2013

7/30/2019 YOU ARE YOUR BRAIN David L. Goldin, J.D., M.B.A.© 2013

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/you-are-your-brain-david-l-goldin-jd-mba-2013 1/8

YOU ARE YOUR BRAIN David L. Goldin, J.D., M.B.A.

© 2013 Late in his career, Francis Crick, the Nobel laureate who was one of the co-discoverersof the molecular structure of DNA, announced what he called his "astonishinghypothesis" of the brain and mind: "You, your joys and your sorrows, your memoriesand your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no morethan the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associatedmolecules." Others have since commented on Dr. Crick's hypothesis, some of whom,such as the evolutionary biologist Edwin O. Wilson, describe a genetic basis for apredisposition to religious belief. But there need be no conflict between the religiousand secular positions. Simply stated, whether the gift of a brain comes from God or nature, or both, there can be no doubt it is the brain which processes all of the input andoutput making us who we are. See comments at the end of the article.

Like our star--the Sun--a healthy brain is central to your life on Earth. Your brain is agalaxy of nerve cells and their connections constituting your entire world.

Weighing only about three pounds, the consistency of jello or avocado, and requiring atleast 20% of the oxygen going to your body, your brain is estimated to have 100 billionnerve cells (neurons). The longest living cells in the body, sometimes surviving for aperson's lifetime, each neuron is estimated to have an average of 5,000 to 10,000synapses; accordingly, there are 500 to 1,000 trillion connections or synapses betweenand within the nerve cells in your brain.

The synaptic connections are how your brain processes all of your senses, thoughtsand memories. All of the information coming into and leaving your brain does so aspatterns of electrochemical activity. Your brain is a black box; there is no light, sound or even feeling, such as pain, in the brain tissue itself. What you see, hear, think and feelis caused by the electrical signals passing along fibers, called axons, extending from thenerve cells. The electrical messages are carried across the microscopic synapses toneighboring cells by chemicals known as neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and



serotonin. See video of signals in brain.http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/videos/humanbody/brain.html

How you perceive and act in the world, as well as how you form thoughts andmemories, is determined by the sequences of patterns of the electrochemical activity of

the neurons in your brain. Patterns of activity of neurons in your brain are strengthenedor weakened by your life experiences. The patterns are more readily recognized in your brain as they become more familiar. From conception throughout life, cells that firetogether, wire together. Your individual wiring pattern is what makes you who you are.Because of the unimaginable number of possible combinations and connections of neurons, no two persons are the same--not even identical twins. You, and any braininjury you may suffer, are unique. To lose who you are, no matter who you were, can bea devastating loss. This is the tragedy of Alzheimer's and of other brain diseases andinjuries to the brain.

Memory is described in the National Geographic cover story in the November, 2007,issue (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2007-11/memory/foer-text.html ):

"What is a memory? The best that neuroscientists can do for the momentis this: A memory is a stored pattern of connections between neurons inthe brain. There are about a hundred billion of those neurons, each of which can make perhaps 5,000 to 10,000 synaptic connections with other neurons, which makes a total of about five hundred trillion to a thousandtrillion synapses in the average adult brain. By comparison there are onlyabout 32 trillion bytes of information in the entire Library of Congress'sprint collection. Every sensation we remember, every thought we think,alters the connections within that vast network. Synapses arestrengthened or weakened or formed anew. Our physical substancechanges. Indeed, it is always changing, every moment, even as we sleep."

The National Geographic estimate of 500 trillion (500,000,000,000,000) to 1,000 trillion(1,000,000,000,000,000 or one million billion or one quadrillion), synapses or connections in the brain defies comprehension. If you were to count one connectioneach second around the clock, it would take almost 16 million years, based on the "low"estimate of 500 trillion connections, to almost 32 million years, based on the higher estimate of 1,000 trillion connections, to just count the number of connections ina single human brain. (For those who like math: 60 seconds x 60 minutes x 24 hours x365 days = 31,536,000 seconds per year; 1,000 trillion/31,536,000 = 31,709,792years.) V.S. Ramachandran, Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition andDistinguished Professor with the Psychology Department and Neurosciences Programat the University of California, San Diego, offers the following perception to help usvisualize the size and activity of cells in the brain: A piece of brain tissue, the size of asingle grain of sand, contains 100,000 neurons, two million axons, and one billionconnections.



Gerald Edelman, who won a Nobel prize for his work on the immune system, is thefounder and director of The Neurosciences Institute, a nonprofit research center in SanDiego devoted to the study of the biological basis of higher brain function in humans.Dr. Edelman describes the "awe-inspiring" complexity of the brain in his book, Second Nature: "The number (one million billion) of possible active pathways of such a structure

(a human brain) far exceeds the number of elementary particles in the known universe."

This is an MRI scan of the brain.

No wonder, as described in several of my articles on the website, brain injuries oftencause "invisible" microscopic damage which cannot be seen on standard structuralneuroimaging studies such as CT and MRI scans.* In some instances, especially in"mild" traumatic brain injury, these scans simply do not have the resolution necessary toshow damage to infinitesimally minute neurons and their connections spread diffuselyover various areas of the brain. In fact, CT and MRI scans of brain structure canappear "normal" for a period of time after death.

*Of course, structural neuroimaging scans, CT and MRI, are critically importantbecause they pick up larger scale damage to the brain (that is not microscopic).

The standard of care for anyone treated at a hospital with a head injury is to get aCT scan on an emergency basis. For example, the tragic death of NatashaRichardson in 2008 would almost certainly have been avoided if she had beentaken to a hospital shortly after her fall while skiing in Canada. The bleedingwithin her brain would have shown up on a CT scan and likely could have beenremoved before the pooling blood crushed her brain tissue within the confines of her hard skull.



Functional imaging scans, such as fMRI, PET, SPECT, MR-DTI, MRS and MEG,picture changes in brain electrical activity, metabolism or chemistry, as the brainundertakes various tasks. The functional imaging sometimes shows the existence of microscopic brain damage due to trauma not visible on the structural studies.** Thelimitations of current neuroimaging studies, whether structural or functional, to show

traumatic brain injury, does not prove such damage has not occurred.***

**The admissibility of the functional scans in court to prove trauma to the brain issometimes uncertain. As the technology improves, the use of functional scanswill likely become more commonly admissible in evidence.

***That brain injuries may be "invisible" does not mean they do not exist. Absence of proof is not proof of absence--it may simply reflect the lack of sensitivity or specificity of available technology. Before the Hubbell telescope,multiple galaxies about which we now know, had never been seen before andwere "invisible." The galaxies always existed: Not seeing them before certainly

was not proof they did not exist. Similarly, before the invention of the microscopein the 17th Century, no one had ever viewed a living cell. See "Mild" Brain InjuryLitigation: Making the Invisible Visible. http://www.headlaw.com/Articles/brain-injury-litigation.htm

Concluding Comments

I would like to offer an analogy between your brain and the universe, not to suggest oneexplains or even relates to the other in any significant or scientific way, but to illustratethe magnificence and complexity of both.

Here's a picture of a slice of the heavens above.

[The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - was voted best picturetaken by the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, areas spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light yearsacross.]



!

[This is the Milky Way galaxy, the one in which we find ourselves. It is actually a giant,as its mass is probably between 750 billion and one trillion solar masses, and itsdiameter is about 100,000 light years.]

Imagine the immensity: Light travels186,000 miles or 300,000 kilometers per second;each year light travels 5,865,696,000,000 miles (60x60x24x365x186,000), or 9,460,800,000,000 kilometers. The Milky Way, with 750 to 800 billion, or even onetrillion stars, is but one galaxy among an estimated total of 125 billion galaxies in theuniverse.****

****There may "only" be an average of 100 billion stars per galaxy when all of thebillions of galaxies are considered together. So the estimated number of stars inour universe is calculated as 125 billion galaxies multiplied by 100 billion starsper galaxy, equals 125 followed by 18 zeroes (125,000,000,000,000,000,000),stars in the observable universe.

Imagine the complexity: Three pounds of brain tissue, consisting of more than 100billion nerve cells (neurons), each neuron with 5,000 to 10,000 connections, resulting in500 to 1,000 trillion or more connections in your brain, in each brain of every humanbeing on our planet (with a growing population of 6.6 billion people).

Both are true estimates of the enormity of the wondrous mystery within each of us, and surrounding all of us, which we daily take for granted in our lives.

And, of course, we are now learning there may be multiple universes.

http://www.space.com/18811-multiple-universes-5-theories.html



You are your brain.

Each of us is given only one brain; there are no brain transplants. When you suffer abrain injury, it may change who you are whether the injury is "mild" or severe. If it isnecessary for you to bring a legal action to recover for your losses and damages,please consider this approach: Be completely candid at all times from the outset of your case to its completion. Who you were and who you are now is what matters most.

Judges and juries want to learn about the brain. They want to know why and how your brain is injured and how and why that affects you, the brain injury survivor. Your job is tobe honest and truthful; your credibility is the foundation of your case.

It is your lawyer's job to teach those who will decide your case about the brain and tohelp them understand and appreciate the reality and severity of your brain injury. Once

the jurors learn about the brain and appreciate your credibility, they can empathize withyou; they will truly know what it feels like to be in your shoes.

It is up to your lawyer to inspire the jury to do justice. Justice for those injured by thefault of another means fair monetary compensation. That is the law. Justice, in the formof a money verdict for you, is the only way to make up for the harm caused to you.Civilized society does not allow revenge or "an eye for an eye."

No matter how unsatisfactory, all that justice can provide for you is money. There is noway to return you to the person you were before your brain injuries.

And by helping you, the jury in your case can also protect the safety of the community,requiring those responsible for your condition to be fully accountable in moneydamages. It is up to your lawyer to impress upon the jury that, as the voice of thecommunity, full justice for you makes all of us safer.

Those who will decide your legal case can be trusted to do so fairly when they areeducated about the brain and understand and believe the great loss each of us wouldsuffer if we had your brain!injuries.



End Comments from page one, above:!

There is a seemingly opposite way to look at this: “You are not your brain.”http://bigthink.com/think-tank/you-are-not-your-brain (It’s like trying to find the

value of money in the chemical composition of a dollar bill; or trying to find thedancing in the musculature of the dancer.) If this view is more appealing to you,there is still no denying a healthy brain is a prerequisite for everything you do,think or feel.

Should the dichotomy be of interest to you, here is a discussion of the twopositions. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/apr/29/neuroscience-david-eagleman-raymond-tallis. Even those who do not believe the neuroscience tells itall, basically agree to the underlying reality of the central importance of the brain:

“Yes, of course, everything about us, from the simplest sensation to the

most elaborately constructed sense of self, requires a brain in some kindof working order. Remove your brain and bang goes your IQ. It does notfollow that our brains are pretty well the whole story of us, nor that the bestway to understand ourselves is to stare at ‘the neural substrate of whichwe are composed.’"

My article attempts to explain some of the workings of your brain and compares theunimaginable complexity of your brain to the unfathomable enormity of the cosmos inwhich you live. You only have one brain and one planet to live on. All of life on Earth isgrasped by you through sequences of patterns of electrochemical messages firing andwiring in your brain. Regardless of how culture, religion, or other forces in society affect

you, your experiences are processed by the 500 to 1000 trillion! connections(synapses) in your brain. The mystery of how the brain does this may be no moreunderstandable than is the origin of the universe. Both mysteries are worth your attention. From a litigation perspective, damage to the neurons in your brain, whether visible or invisible, may change who you are, a frightful loss for anyone.

The Brain - is wider than the Sky - For - put them side by side - The one the other willcontain With ease - and You - beside -

The Brain is deeper than the sea - For - hold them - Blue to Blue - The one the other will

absorb - As Sponges - Buckets do -

The Brain is just the weight of God - For - Heft them - Pound for Pound - And they willdiffer - if they do - As Syllable from Sound -

(Emily Dickinson, c. 1892)



David L. GoldinSymphony Towers750 B Street, Suite 3300San Diego, Ca. 92101619-235-6344619-236-7474 (fax)

[email protected] www.headlaw.com! NOTICE: This is a privileged and confidential communication intended only for

the person named above. If you are not that person, then

any use,dissemination, distribution or copying of this email or the information in it is

strictly prohibited. You are requested to notify us immediately so we can resend this

to the person who should be reading it.

you are your brain david l. goldin, j.d., m.b.a.© 2013

Documents