• Question: do you know a lot about brain activity

    Asked by meek2006 to Psychiatry Ward Team, Neel - Psychiatrist, Home Treatment Team, Early Intervention Team, Ed - Mental Health Nurse, Arts Therapy Team on 24 Jan 2019.
    • Photo: Sheffield Psychiatry Ward Team

      Sheffield Psychiatry Ward Team answered on 24 Jan 2019:

      Hi! Emma here 🙂

      As a medical student you will lots of stuff about the brain, as well as the other organs in the body!
      It’s in quite a bit of depth and often related to diseases and what can go wrong. For example, you will learn about normal brain activity and then what happens when brain activity is abnormal.

      As a psychiatrist you then have to do a few more exams after you graduate that goes into even more detail about the brain. However, as a doctor you are always learning! It’s impossible to know everything about anything and we often use our colleagues for help and guidance. For example just the other day I spoke to a radiologist for further information about a brain scan because they know a lot more than me about that and I had some questions. Similarly, other specialties will ask Psychiatrists for help if they aren’t sure.

      We present interesting or tricky cases to each other quite often to get lots of opinions and learn from each other.

    • Photo: Neel Halder

      Neel Halder answered on 25 Jan 2019:

      Brain activity can mean a few things. There are recording devices like EEGs that can monitor brain activity when you sleep or if you’re having epileptic fits. There are other scans that can see the blood whooshing around the brain as you think or do different tasks. Or there is looking at your thoughts and feelings which can be done with careful questioning and listening. All people working in mental health know various aspects of the brain and mind. I always think it is fascinating that the brain can house all your memories and your personality and pretty much defines who you are. I couldn’t think of a more interesting career learning about how it works and what makes people do what they do.

    • Photo: Arts Therapy Team

      Arts Therapy Team answered on 28 Jan 2019:

      Personally not enough! but there is more understanding about neuroscience and evidence to show how engaging in art – even doodling or colouring – can help calm the brain, help us to focus . it is similar to mindfulness . observational drawing helps as we have to really concentrate on looking as well as creating our own drawing.
      We also know that seeing a picture in a gallery can improve our mood.
      With the right treatment our brains can relearn pathways and so overcome difficulties .
      I also remember a talk saying that thinking about playing the piano activates the same bits of the brain as actually playing!
      we use ideas like visualisation – eg imagining being in a calm place
      do you learn anything about it in your studies?

    • Photo: Home Treatment Team

      Home Treatment Team answered on 28 Jan 2019:

      Hi, Julie here! Depends on what you mean by brain activity! We know about how the brain works and did learn biological structures however the brain is a huge area to learn about!

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