Cervicoencephalic symptoms

At the top of the neck, where the head sits, muscles have particularly many pressure sensors. Both these sensors and the pain sensors at the transition between head and neck, have direct anatomical contact with various brain centers.

The brain needs this direct information from the neck to understand the position of the head and to control all the senses of the head.

If disease or injury in this area causes automatic muscle contractions, we may have disturbing changes in vision, hearing, balance, taste or smell.

In order to compensate for this, the brain will usually try to suppress the signals from the neck. This causes the “auto-pilot” to be turned off. We then have to control everything “manually”, that is, with concentration and attention.

This may go beyond the brain’s capacity to focus attention on several things simultaneously. If that happens, we can no longer manage to do several things at the same time.

For instance, we will not hear if someone is talking to us while we are busy watching something.

Such a high degree of concentration over time cause enormous fatigue and then we often need small breaks in order to be able to continue with what we are doing. These symptoms are called cervicoencephalic symptoms.

This is a cybernetic model of explaining the cervicoencephalic symptoms, which particularly many patients with neck injury struggle with.