Biologically, the size of the brain is not a good predictor of intelligence. In a sample of wild animals, for example, the average size of the brain, measured from museum specimens' craniums collected from rural and urban animals over the last century or so correlates with living around people. In this study, both the city vole (of the meadow variety) and the city mouse (of the white-footed array) had larger capacities of cranial that their rural counterparts (Matzel " Sauce, 2017).
In this case, it was evident the country mouse is less smart than the city mouse. In the past, people thought there is a direct link between intelligent and big brain. However, such notion is not true. For example, there are some animals (such as whales and elephants) with larger brains than human beings. However, that does not mean they are more intelligent than people. Perhaps, it is the size of the brain relative to the size of the body that makes the brains of human being bigger. To be sure, the size of the parts of the brain can be used as a reasonable indicator of skills (DeSilva " Lesnik, 2008). For example, the size of brain alone of a dog does not make it more successful. However, its domestication (the ability to live in a world of people) has led it to subtle changes in the brain with a stunning result.
Concept of Phrenology
Primarily, phrenology refers to a pseudo-medicine that focuses on the human skull's measurement, based on the concept that brain is the mind's organ and that certain areas of the brain have localized specific modules or functions. Phrenology believes that there is a set of a variety of faculties in the human mind (Wardle, 2014). A different area of the brain represents each of these faculties. Such areas of mental faculties are said to be proportional to the propensities of a person. As a result, the organ’s importance was derived from their relative size. According to this belief, the cranial skull (in the same way as the glove on the hand) play a crucial role of accommodating the various sizes of such areas of the brain (DeSilva " Lesnik, 2008). For this reason, it is possible to determine the capacity of a person for a given trait of personality simply by measuring the skull’s area that overlies the corresponding brain area. Worth noting, there is a clear distinction between phrenology which mainly focuses on character and personality, from craniometric which studies the size, shape, and weight of the skull and the physiognomy that deals with the study of the features of the face (Wardle, 2014).
How it Relate to Size and Function Argument
In practice, the study of phrenology tries to relate the size and function of the brain. It argues that bigger brains function better than the smaller ones. Phrenology is one of the methods used for feeling and observing the skull with the aim of determining the psychological attributes of an individual. According to Franz Joseph Gall, the brain is made up of twenty-seven individual organs that are used in the determination of personality (Wardle, 2014). Gall believed that the first nineteen of such organs exist in other species of animals. In this exercise, phrenologists were charged with the responsibility of running their palms and fingerprints over their patients’ skulls to feel for indentations or enlargements (DeSilva " Lesnik, 2008). Often, the phrenologists used a tape measure to take measurements of the overall size of the head. Emphasis was put by the phrenologists on individuals drawings with specific traits for determining the person's character. From relative and absolute skull sizes, the phrenologists would assess the temperature and character of the patient. The feeling of the skull was enough to determine the overall natural weaknesses and strengths of an individual using the knowledge of positions of organ and shape of the head (Matzel " Sauce, 2017). In summary, the phrenology assumes that the size of brain varies directly with its functions.
Information about Einstein’s Brain
For sure, the information about Einstein’s brain is helpful in drawing some conclusions about the intelligence of a person. The physicist brain Albert Einstein has been a subject of much speculation and research. Precisely, the brain of Einstein was removed within a very short time (seven and half hours) of his death. In their articles, DeSilva and Lesnik (2008) note that the reputation of Einstein as one of the twentieth century's foremost genius made his brain to attract attention. In the brain, some apparent regularities and irregularities were used for supporting a variety of ideas concerning the correlations in the neuroanatomy with mathematical or general intelligence (Wardle, 2014). These conclusions are useful in the prediction of relative intelligence of an individual. According to scientific studies, regions involved with spatial and numerical processing are larger, while the ones involved in language and speech are smaller (Wardle, 2014). In Einstein's brain, there was an increased number of glial cells that made him more intelligent than others (Matzel " Sauce, 2017).
Definition of Aphasia
By definition, aphasia refers to a disorder of communication that results from either injury or damage to the brain's language parts. In particular, it is more common in elderly persons especially the ones with stroke. It gets in the way of the ability of a person to understand or use words. However, the intelligence of a person is not impaired by the communication disorder. Normally, persons with aphasia find difficulty finding the right words for completing their thoughts as well as speaking. In some cases, they are also faced with the problem of reading and comprehending words that are written, understanding conversations, writing words, as well as using numbers. Usually, aphasia is caused by brain injury or stroke with damage to either one of several parts of the brain. Moreover, brain infection, tumor, or dementia such as disease of Alzheimer may also be responsible for the cause of aphasia. In some cases, the type of communication disorder is a symptom of other neurological problems including epilepsy (DeSilva " Lesnik, 2008). The three major types of aphasia include Wernicke’s aphasia, Broca’s aphasia, and conduction aphasia.
Wernicke’s Aphasia
In this aphasia type, there is an impairment of the ability to grasp the meaning of sentences and spoken words. However, there is no effect on the ease of production of connected speech. For this reason, the terms ‘receptive aphasia' or ‘fluent aphasia’ can also be used for referring to the Wernicke’s aphasia (Wardle, 2014). Often, writing and reading are severally impaired. Just like other forms of aphasia, people can have completely preserved cognitive and intellectual capabilities that do not relate to language and speech. Individuals with Wernicke’s aphasia normally speak produced several words, and often, they speak by the use of grammatically correct sentences with prosody and normal rate (Matzel " Sauce, 2017). However, in some cases, they pepper their sentences using irrelevant or non-existence words or what they say fail to make sense. Probably, these people do not realize that they are using non-existent or wrong words.
Broca’s Aphasia
The type of aphasia is also known as expressive or non-fluent aphasia. People with this type of disease normally have the problem of speaking fluently. However, it is possible to preserve their comprehension relatively. In this case, the speech of patients is limited mainly to short utterances of a few words due to the difficulty they have in producing grammatical sentences. Often, finding the right words or producing the right sentences if a laborers task. In their article, Matzel and Sauce (2017) explain that majority of people find it hard to use verbs than nouns. In particular, a speech may be understood relatively well by patients suffering from Broca’s aphasia especially when the structure of grammar of the spoken language is simple. However, understanding sentences with the more complex construct of grammar may be difficult (DeSilva " Lesnik, 2008). With this type of aphasia, individuals may be limited to writing but read. Just like in the other aphasia types, cognitive and intellectual capabilities that are not related to language and speech may be fully preserved.
Conduction Aphasia
Associative aphasia (or conduction aphasia) refers to an acquired form of language disorder. In fact, it is characterized by the fluent production of speech but poor repletion of the same speech, and intact auditory comprehension. Patients who suffer from this type of disease can understand what they hear (Wardle, 2014). However, they find it difficult encoding the phonological information of the purposes of production. Normally, patients have problems when it comes to the repetition of phrases especially when their complexity and lengths increase. Such deficit in language is load sensitive as patients stumble over some of the words they attempt to pronounce. For this reason, frequent errors are normally displayed by patients during spontaneous speech such as transposing or substituting sounds (Matzel " Sauce, 2017). Also, they are much aware of such errors, but they will find it hard to correct them in the speech.
The Area of the Brain that is involved
The Wernicke's aphasia is involved in the left posterior temporal brain area. Usually, the patients with such type of aphasia have profound comprehension deficits of language. Simple sentences or single words have affected the disease due to the damage in the areas of the brain that are essential for processing the spoken language and words. Conversely, the Broca’s aphasia is caused by the injury to language in a speech in the areas of the brain such as the left hemisphere inferior frontal gyrus (Wardle, 2014). Often, brain trauma may be responsible for such damage, but it can also occur due to stroke. Studies suggest that the area of the brain that is involved in the conduction aphasia is the left supramarginal gyrus or the left superior temporal gyrus. Classically, the explanation for the conduction aphasia includes that of the disconnection between the areas of the brain responsible for the production of speech (Broca’s area) and that of the comprehension of speech (Wernicke’s area) as a result of the damage to the deep white matter tract (arcuate fasciculus). Because the ventral stream pathway is not disrupted by the lesion, speech can still be comprehended by the patients (Matzel " Sauce, 2017).
Patients that have suffered an amputation or a stroke can provide evidence that there is neuronal plasticity within the brain. For example, a stroke occurs when there is a loss of blood supply in the part of the part. As a result, the brain stops to function correctly (Matzel " Sauce, 2017). In particular, the process stops the working of the part of the body that the brain controls. The brain plasticity or the neuroplasticity is a general term encompassing both the synaptic and non-synaptic plasticity. Neuroplasticity is the changes in the synapses and neural pathways that result from the changes in thinking, behavior, emotions, neural processes, environment, and the injury of the body that is caused by the stroke or amputation. It occurs on several levels that range from changes in cellular due to learning, as well as the large-scale variations involved in the cortical remapping while responding to injury (DeSilva " Lesnik, 2008). There is neural plasticity within the brain evidenced by the subcortical and cortical rewiring of the neuronal circuits in response to the injury and training.
Regarding the phantom limbs, a person will have to continue feeling sensation or pain within a body part that has been amputated. The scenario is strangely common, and it occurs in about sixty to eighty percent of the amputees (Wardle, 2014). The concept of neuroplasticity as an explanation for this involves engaging the area around the removed limbs of the cortical maps in the postcentral gyrus. As a result, the activity within the cortex’s surrounding area become misinterpreted by the region that was formerly responsible for the amputated limb. Also, patients that have suffered a stroke helps to provide evidence that there is neuronal plasticity within the brain (Matzel " Sauce, 2017). When a person suffers a stroke, the cortical homunculus plays a significant role in representing the body in the brain. Specifically, there are two types of such homunculus; one for the motor and the other for the sensory maps. In this concept, the area taken up on the neurological maps does not depend on its size but how innervated it is.
Conclusion
In general, it may take a longer time to recover from a stroke than just the process spent in the active rehabilitation of inpatient. For this reason, integrative medical practice for an inpatient that recovers from a stroke may involve working with a physician to address various issues such as spasticity, assessments of neuropsychology, gait disorder, and the difficulty in swallowing (Matzel " Sauce, 2017). Other practices will include addressing the issues of vestibular (inner ear disorders), bladder and bowel dysfunction, and the difficulties in bathing, dressing, as well as other daily activities. Both families and patients should consider immediate planning for discharge from rehabilitation of inpatient as soon as possible (DeSilva " Lesnik, 2008). Additionally, there is a need for the application of standardized guidelines of clinical practice for rehabilitation care of stroke inpatients for the provision of more efficient and effective medical practice to improve quality and functional ability of life therein.
References
DeSilva, J., " Lesnik, J. (2008). Brain size at birth throughout human evolution: A new method for estimating neonatal brain size in hominins. Journal of Human Evolution, 55(6), 1064-1074. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.07.008
Matzel, L., " Sauce, B. (2017). Evolution, brain size, and variations in intelligence. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 40. doi: 10.1017/s0140525x16001722
Wardle, J. (2014). Diving into the complexity of integrative medical practice. Advances in Integrative Medicine, 1(2), 67-68. doi: 10.1016/j.aimed.2014.07.001
