Your brain is like a city with a bunch of roads running through it. Every day those roads are either reinforced or left to degrade. When you practice and get good at something, think of it as building a 4-lane highway, its quick and easy and we want to take that route. Learning new things, building a new skill is like walking through the forest and creating a new path. Its slow and takes a lot of repetitions to build the pathway.
One obstacle to maintaining the roadway is not using it, it needs the attention or the road will degrade. But another obstacle is external forces, like brain trauma
Think of it this way; a traumatic brain injury is like a hurricane coming through your city and causing a lot of roadway destruction, causing so much havoc that your city may never be the same, and some roadways irreparable.
A concussion is like a large tree falling over the road, it can slow some things down significantly – especially if that roadway isn’t very built up, and you’ll need time and some help to get that roadway cleared and traffic back to normal.
Subconcussions are like leaves falling in your roadway, hardly noticeable with one single leaf falling down, but as the years go by those leaves are accumulating and are slowly clogging up the path. This decreases the efficiency of the path you worked to create.
The city that is your brain is under constant construction. Each day we attend to or abandon different roadways. Each of us choose which roadways we build depending on our discipline and values, but those of you who are exposed to subconcussive forces have specific roadways vulnerable to “blockage”.
This includes,
- Ability to keep target in focus with movement [1]
- Processing speed [2]
- Balance [3]
This is where you may experience an intangible slowing down, whether its processing speed or reaction time. The leaves have accumulated over the years and its slowing down your brain traffic.
I can’t stop hurricanes, or the leaves from falling.
But I can help you build roadways.
Because you want to build highways in the areas that are important to you. If the leaves do start to build up, or a tree falls, more traffic will quickly move through a 4-lane road than a rugged trail.
Knowledge is only potential power. We must take action to see results. What roadways are most important to you, and what are you doing today to build that highway?
To learn about how to build roadways for situational awareness performance check out my courses.
REFERENCES
- Landers, M. R., Donatelli, R., Nash, J., & Bascharon, R. (2017). Evidence of dynamic visual acuity impairment in asymptomatic mixed martial arts fighters. Concussion, 2(3), CNC41.
- Silberstein, R. B., Song, J., Nunez, P. L., & Park, W. (2004). Dynamic sculpting of brain functional connectivity is correlated with performance. Brain Topography, 16(4), 249-254.
- Hwang, S., Ma, L., Kawata, K., Tierney, R., & Jeka, J. J. (2017). Vestibular dysfunction after subconcussive head impact. Journal of neurotrauma, 34(1), 8-15.