Precision Brain Center — Health and Medical in Raleigh, NC | Accepting New Patients

The brain is not a static system. It changes over time and is subject to manipulation depending on the inputs it receives. Every act of the human brain involves a recalibration component. In order to recalibrate an instrument one must have a reliable standard of reference. The acceleration of gravity is that standard of reference for the brain as it uses information provided by the visual, auditory, motor, and secondary systems to perform the complex operations required in reading, writing, playing music, athletics, etc. In short, a person’s ability to learn is dependent upon their ability to process vestibular information effectively.

This is why activities that promote balance efficiency and spatial awareness have such a profound effect on “higher” brain functions like reading, memory, comprehension, mathematics and evaluation. We all have native inefficiencies in our vestibular system. Toxins in our environment, emotional traumas, sedentary lifestyle, injuries, bumping your head, slip and fall, or simply a diet lacking nutrients can contribute to those inefficiencies. Brain Inefficiencies manifest over our lifetime and prevent proper integrated neural processing which is the system that allows us to make sense of our world. A dysfunctional vestibular system impedes on the human ability to efficiently stand upright, perform athletic activities, and carry out an intellectual life.

In summary, the vestibular system establishes the basic relationship of a person to gravity and the physical world. It is the unifying sensory system. Organization, integration, and transmission of visual, tactile and auditory messages depend on the proper functioning of this system. When the vestibular system does not function in a consistent and accurate way, the interpretation of other sensory messages will be inconsistent and inaccurate and will weaken higher order cognitive processes. Motion (which stimulates and calibrates the vestibular system) excites the lower brainstem area where auditory and visual messages integrate with proprioception from muscles and joints. By performing activities that increase the accuracy of the vestibular-ocular or eye movement multisensory integrational framework, you increase the efficiency of the entire brain by reorienting it to its commonly understood reference point, as defined by the vestibular system, namely gravity. By training the brain to perform eye movements and vestibular functions accurately, you actually change the brain’s chemistry.  After all, the brain is the only organ in the human body that learns from past experience and adjusts itself. Functional Neurology and brain rehabilitation harnesses every part of neuroplasticity and the brain’s marvelous ability to form new neuronal networks.