Brain Functions in Daily Life

Since almost every aspect of our existence depends on the healthy functioning of our brains, maintaining brain health is of great importance. The significance of our brain functions is multifaceted; encompassing cognitive, motor, sensory, emotional, and physiological areas necessary for healthy functioning and success in achieving our goals.?

The brain regulates fundamental autonomic functions such as breathing, digestion, and heart rate, ensuring the body operates efficiently. Furthermore, it controls motor functions, namely our movements, balance, posture, and coordination. Whether we are driving, walking, or playing an instrument, our brain is constantly coordinating these motor functions to properly perform daily tasks. Sensory inputs from the environment such as sight, hearing, smell, and touch are also received and processed by the brain, and these all happen without our conscious awareness. These inputs and processes help us perceive and interact with the world around us, informing our decisions and behaviors.?

In our social lives, we communicate with others thanks to our brains. The brain both processes and produces language, enabling us to communicate verbally and nonverbally with others. Brain areas work cohesively to govern language functions such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing (Hertrich et al., 2020). Our learning and memory functions allow us to acquire new knowledge and skills, shape our understanding of the world, and guide our actions. We can plan our behaviors, organize our thinking, and solve problems through executive functions. Thanks to skills such as creativity, innovation, and imagination, we can generate new ideas and adapt to changing circumstances (Zhang et al., 2020).?

All of these cognitive functions, which form the foundation of our human capabilities, are constantly at work in our daily lives, guiding our actions, without our conscious awareness. As we continue living our lives, we pay bills, we clean and cook, we drive, we make new friends, and catch up with older ones. We do all of these so automatically that we don't even realize the billions of neurons in our brains that are tirelessly working for us to function properly. However, if trauma or disease occurs in the brain and damages one or more of these functions, we may become unable to function properly. Therefore, brain health and its awareness are crucial, and developing preventive and curative tools for brain health is one of the most important areas in our current society. At Neo Auvra, we are proud to be developing tools that improve brain health and ultimately contribute to the health of people and societies.

References:?

• Hertrich, I., Dietrich, S., & Ackermann, H. (2020). The margins of the language network in the brain. Frontiers in Communication, 5, 519955.
• Zhang, W., Sjoerds, Z., & Hommel, B. (2020). Metacontrol of human creativity: The neurocognitive mechanisms of convergent and divergent thinking. NeuroImage, 210, 116572.