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MODULE 10: The Brain
PART 2 OF 7
History revisited: Stina’s very first recorded illness (the Intro to the Human Body module) was unexplained recurrent fever in childhood. The fever set-point lives in the hypothalamus — the same region we now tour on her scan.
Slide 1 Transcript
PATIENT CHART
STINA
THIS PART
Ages 45
PRESENTING WITH
Brain fog, pressureThe force exerted by gases in the respiratory system, affecting airflow and gas exchange. headache
TESTS ORDERED
MRI – found white matterThe outer portion of the spinal cord made of myelinated nerve fibers that transmit signals. hyperintensities
DIAGNOSIS
Neuroinflammatory White-Matter Injury
CHART CLUES
COLLECTED AS YOU GO
Age-Excessive White Matter Hyperintensities (WMH) on Brain MRI
Childhood Recurrent Fever Traced to the Hypothalamic Set-Point
Positional Pressure Headache — Intracranial Pressure / CSF Space
An Intact BBB Should Seal the Brain — Yet the Spots Appear
Chronic IL-1β/IL-6 Loosen BBB Tight Junctions — Microglia Activate
WMH + ‘Brain Fog’ Are One Finding — Neuroinflammatory White-Matter Injury
Chart Clue #10 — the Brain as Another Target Organ
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Story1
When Stina was small, the fevers came without warning — no infection the pediatrician could find, just a thermostat that seemed to flip on its own. Decades later, looking at the regions of her own brain on a screen, she finally had a name and a place for that thermostat. The radiologist’s spots were scattered across the wiring, but the story of her illness had a home address in the brain long before the white matter ever lit up.
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Slide 2 Transcript
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story2
The brain is not one undifferentiated mass; it is a set of cooperating regions. The cerebrumThe largest part of the brain, responsible for thought, memory, and voluntary movements., divided into frontalForehead bone; forms the front part of the skull and roof of the orbits. Smooth and curved., parietal, temporal, and occipitalPosterior and base of the skull; curves under to form the back of the head. lobes, handles conscious thought, sensation, and voluntary movementA fundamental property of life involving motion of the body or its parts.. The cerebellumThe brain region responsible for balance, coordination, and fine motor control., tucked behind the brainstemThe lower part of the brain that connects to the spinal cord and controls vital functions., refines coordination and balance. The brainstem (midbrainThe upper portion of the brainstem involved in visual and auditory processing., ponsA part of the brainstem that connects the cerebrum to the cerebellum and helps regulate breathing., medulla) runs the automatic essentials — breathing, heart rate, reflexesAutomatic responses to stimuli.. And the diencephalonA brain region that includes the thalamus, hypothalamus, and epithalamus., buried deepAway from the surface of the body., contains the thalamusThe brain’s relay center, sending sensory information to the cerebral cortex. (the sensory relay) and the hypothalamusA small but vital brain region controlling hormones, temperature, and autonomic functions. — the body’s master regulator of temperature, hunger, thirst, and hormones.
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Slide 5 Transcript
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story3
That hypothalamus is the literal thermostat: it holds the body’s temperature set-point, and when IL-1β reaches it, it raises that set-point and produces fever. Stina’s earliest symptom and her latest scan converge on the same organ — the IL-1β that hijacked her hypothalamus in childhood is the same signal still circulating now.
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Slide 7 Transcript
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FINDING!
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Slide 7 Transcript
NEXT PART
A command center this precious needs protection — and it gets two layers of it. Next: the fluid that cushions the brain, and the membranes that wrap it.
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List of terms
- pressure
- white matter
- cerebrum
- frontal
- occipital
- movement
- cerebellum
- brainstem
- midbrain
- pons
- reflexes
- diencephalon
- deep
- thalamus
- hypothalamus