How The Brain Gets Its Information

Each and every time I see a new client I ask a series of questions to gauge where their knowledge base is. One of the more obvious (I think) questions I ask is what organ controls EVERYTHING in the body. Some people get it right away and some take a few hints but most people eventually get it right.

The answer of course is the brain.

What does stump most people though, is when I ask how the brain gets its information. Most people don’t even have an answer, and genuinely since I've started asking this question the closest answer I've gotten is ‘the nerves’, which is…technically right, but not what I was after. 

So, how does the brain get its information?

It’s our 5 senses. Seeing, hearing, taste, smell and touch.

Now unless you’ve skipped every single day of school since birth you’ve probably heard of them before, which makes the answer sound quite obvious. The reaction I usually get when I say it is ‘Oooh yeah, of course’. Most people know it, we just give it that little thought day-to-day that it never comes to mind. 

It’s important to know and important to make sure they work well as the senses are what tell our brain what’s going on, giving it all its information so it can make decisions about what to do next. If they aren’t performing well, the information getting to the brain is sub-par, meaning any output from the brain will be sub-par also. 

The more this goes on, the less efficient our bodies work. The less efficient our bodies work, the worse the information going to the brain becomes. This keeps snowballing until something ends up giving, causing symptoms in the increasingly dysfunctional area(s). It’s an important concept to know as it plainly shows why short term pain relief/pain-only management has drawbacks. There’s so much more going on in the background and it’s silly to ignore.