Question: how does the brain work and can we fix it when it goes wrong

Cheryl Andisi answered on 17 Jan 2017:

@abtb355
The brain is such an interesting organ that controls most of our bodies’ activities. During the development of the embryo, the brain and or its related tissues start forming from about 3 weeks. I am sure you have heard that pregnant women are advised to take folic acid in the first trimester of pregnancy as this is a key nutrient required for brain development
The brain is mainly made up of nerves and is organized in different regions.The cortex is divided into areas which serve distinct functions including motor, sensory and cognitive processing. In all kinds of functions, the nerve cells are linked with nerve cells in all out body parts that collect the information and send it to the brain for perception- be it light (where there are nerve cells in your eyes-remember optical nerve?), smell, touch etc. These nerves change the information into an electrical current that is sent to the brain for interpretation eg- light is too bright! constrict the muscles around the pupil to reduce its size or that’s too hot! Withdraw your hand. The main aim of receiving and sending back these messages is to ensure that the body maintains a relative stable internal environment-homeostasis.

There are many ways that the brain can “go wrong”. These may range from physical problems eg cancers which might or might not be treatable, to psychological/mental issues, which i suspect your question is about here. Some of these might be caused by poor balance of the hormones and chemicals the brain needs to function properly.
Increasingly, scientists and the society is generally appreciating that mental health issues are a big problem and can be difficult to address especially because of the stigma surrounding. There are people trained to treat people with such conditions. So yes, it can be dealt with