About Medha Foundation

Our day-to-day assessment of who is normal and who is not, is based on mere behaviour. While behaviour is an excellent place to start as on assessment tool, it does not give us even a cursory picture of the human brain and its functioning.

The human brain is a complex mechanism which can work in myriad ways depending upon its predominant mental state at a given point of time. Behaviour is a complex interplay of representations of the sensory inputs from our sense organs interpreted by the human brain.

There are three levels of behaviour. They are-

1) Motor behaviour (which is all we perceive)

2) Mental behaviour

3) Psychophysiology (which connects the two & can be measured).

Brain activity is the foundation of the motor behaviour and an expression of the mental behaviour. Applied Neuroscience has been studying the human brain for at least 60 years. Today, we have a fair understanding of the functioning of different areas of the human brain and how they work together, when it is doing a specific task.

A subjective questionnaire can be either diagnostic or can be used to normalize brain function .Most questionnaires are diagnostic. What is the use of only knowing that something is wrong. Can it suggest ways and means by which the brain can be normalized!

Most questionnaires will have questions about what is normally observed by a parent or a caretaker. For example

Sample Path-breaking Questionnaire

1) Does the child avoid reading

2) Does the child struggle with math and language

3) Does the child have confusion with words and spellings

The subjective questionnaire given here by Medha, helps in finding out what are the probable areas that are malfunctioning and what can be plausibly be done to "Normalize" brain function. In order to normalize the brain function and to help those with any abnormality to regain normal functioning of the brain, Medha and its consultants have come up with a simple, yet effective questionnaire, to assess internal brain function and plausible connectivity issues by mapping behaviour to activation in different Brodmann areas.

Prevention, they say, is better than cure. Parents, caregivers, students, educational institutions and corporate houses could be well served if they can ask their people to fill such questionnaires once in six months to ensure that their brain functions remain within normal limits. By answering such questionnaires at least once in six months, one can catch the brain before it becomes dysfunctional.

More importantly, subjective questionnaires are like placing a hand to the neck and checking if the child or adult has high temperature. It will serve as a tool to take the child or adult to a doctor. So also a subjective questionnaire that helps in normalizing brain function; it will tell you when you need to consult a specialist.