09.2 Disturbances in Cortical Function and Dementia

Question 1

What is dementia?

Answer 1

Progressive decline in cognitive function (loss of intellect, reason and personality without consciousness impairment) affecting the whole cortex.

Question 2

What are the most common causes of dementia?

Answer 2

Alzheimer’s disease
Dementia with Lewy bodies
Vascular dementia

Question 3

How does Alzheimer’s present?

Answer 3

Memory loss
Apraxia
Agnosia
Behavioural Changes
Depression

Question 4

What is the mechanism of Alzheimer’s?

Answer 4

Exaggerated ageing from tangles where tau proteins twist and senile plaques form due to amyloid deposition

Question 5

What specific features are like to be in a history of someone with vascular dementia?

Answer 5

Previous TIA/Stroke

Question 6

How do you treat dementia?

Answer 6

Manage with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and NMDA receptor antagonists

Question 7

What is prosopagnosia?

Answer 7

Inability to recognise faces (we don’t need to know it I don’t think but it’s quite interesting/cool)