Brain Cells

photo from pow wows.com

“Intertribal!! Intertribal!!! Come on... evvverybody dance!!!” Imagine you are at a pow wow. The drumbeat rises through the very floor, and your heartbeat conforms to the rhythm. The drummers sing in beautiful harmony like they will never stop. The fancy dancers and jingle dress dancers mesmerize the crowd with flashing colors and intricate  footwork. The traditional dancers, cool and collected, move with grace and pride. And, of course, no pow wow would be complete without all the miniature dancers in training or “tiny tots,” who have a complete dancing style of their own and  are led around the circle by older dancers.

However, there is more to the pow wow than just the drummers and dancers. There are the security people running around trying to keep rambunctious kids off of the speaker system. The announcer, who has the microphone that may or may not work as he tells native jokes inbetween the giveaways and the competitions. In addition, there are the people selling Indian tacos, beadwork, and of course the Fry Bread  Power T-shirts. Thus, a pow wow does not consist soley of drummers and dancers. A successful pow wow is made up of all these components working together.

In the same way a pow wow can not not work without the support of the people behind the scenes, your brain cannot function without the support of the helper braincells. In your head, the main brain cells are called neurons (see figure 1). These cells are the ones that do all the information processing. At birth you will have all the neurons you will ever have. If they are damaged they do not grow, divide, or renew themselves (grow back). Because of this fact, neurons do not develop cancer. However, there are other brain cells that exist in your brain which support the neurons and help them survive. These other brain cells are capable of developing tumors and /or cancer.

There is one major group of brain cells called Glial cells. Glial cells are further broken down into four sub-categories which include Astrocytes, Oligodendrocytes, Ependymal, and Shwann cells (See Fig. 2). These cells protect and help maintain neurons. Because Glial cells grow, divide and renew themselves constantly, these are the cells that are at risk for growing tumors and developing cancer.

There is also another type of brain tissue that can grow tumors or cancer. This tissue is called the meninges. The meninges are a shield of protection made up of three layers which act like a blanket between the skull and the brain. The three layers are named the dura mater, arachnoid mater, and the pia mater—together they are called the meninges. The meninges act as a layer of foam between the skull and the brain protecting the brain from injury. For instance when you hear that your cousin got a concussion trying to fight for a rebound during the district finals, most likely his head was hit so hard that the meninges or protection layer was bruised. However, let it be emphasized that there is no proof that you can develop brain tumors or brain cancer from just hitting your head.

The three layers of the meninges protecting the brain consist of the dura mater, the arachnoid mater, and the pia mater.

Figure2
 The Meninges

The next time you are at a pow wow I’m sure the first thing that you are going to be thinking of is this information about your brain cells. So before you walk around looking at those fine dancers with all your friends, and before you snag one of them, remember that you have helper brain cells that allow your neurons to recognize that gorgeous dancer. These are the same brain cells that help you talk, so don't stutter when you go over to try and get your grove on.

Links
Brain Main
Risk Factors/Symptoms
Diagnosis
Brain Tumors/Treatments
Statistics
Emotional Aspects